Eau Claire

Reclaimed sawmill ground between the Bow River and the office towers.

Timber operators picked this stretch of the Bow in 1886 for its access to fallen wood, moved the Eau Claire Lumber Company here from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and the community kept the company's name. The 1903 lumber office still stands on Barclay Parade, and the 27-metre brick smokestack from the transit garage that replaced the mill is municipally designated. Everything residential came later. Of 3,341 assessed parcels, 1,092 date from the 1990s and 491 from the 2020s, so the district is still being built. Prince's Island Park sits off the north edge with twenty hectares in the middle of the river, and the Peace Bridge lands at the west end.

We wrote the full story on The Desk. Living in Eau Claire.