Laggan Station

The pristine wilderness of the Canadian Rockies attracted many tourists, and the Canadian Pacific Railway built this station in about 1890 on its main line at Laggan, now Lake Louise. This station and the one at Banff, which was also built to accommodate the tourist trade, were designed to have both an air of coziness and a proximity to nature, complementing their mountain settings.

William Van Horne, general manager of the CPR, decided that this expensive stretch of track should pay for itself, and created a number of restaurants along the line. The mountain scenery near the restaurants made the tourists wish to stay longer, so the CPR converted the restaurants to small inns, and eventually to the magnificent hotels for which the CPR is known. The CPR donated this station to Heritage Park in 1976.