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Most Calgarians are aware of the downtown Eau Claire neighborhood, positioned on the banks of the Bow River. A mixture of flats, eating places, resorts, outlets and a big city market name the world residence. The Eau Claire title can be a well-known one as a result of the unique “Eau Claire and Bow River Lumber Ltd.” firm workplace was residence to a well-liked café within the space for a few years. (That constructing was moved to a brief location in 2021, the place it was preserved and guarded whereas the world was redesigned.)
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Nonetheless, the Eau Claire title got here to Calgary courtesy of a trio of American skilled woodcutters. Within the Eighteen Eighties, an Ottawa lawyer named Kutusoff MacFee believed there was cash to be made by beginning a logging firm in Calgary, utilizing bushes from the close by timber-rich mountains. MacFee employed three logging consultants from Wisconsin to test the feasibility of such a enterprise. They gave the concept a thumbs-up and the brand new logging firm was named (partially) after the boys’s hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Native historian Jack Peach (1913-1993) wrote in regards to the founding of the Eau Claire and Bow River Lumber Firm within the following column that initially appeared within the Herald in 1981.
![A photo of the Eau Claire Lumber Mill, taken from Center Street (north of downtown) looking west. Calgary Herald archives.](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/calgaryherald/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/377489-m__cal-misc-57-w.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288)
![Before it was known as the 1886 Buffalo Cafe, this 1971 photo shows the Center Cafe, in the former Eau Claire Lumber office. Calgary Herald archives.](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/calgaryherald/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/465594-m__hist_homes_53-w.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288)