Prospector’s Tent Cabin

Gold has been coveted by humans since the beginning of recorded time. Gold fever lured tens of thousands of men including Calgary pioneers Sam Livingston, John Glenn, and James Votier to seek their fortunes in the far reaches of western North America.

Prospectors worked long hard days on their claims, often soaked to the skin from panning for gold in frigid mountain streams or exhausted from shoveling tonnes of sand and gravel into sluice boxes. They lived in tents or built cabins near their claims to maximize working hours and to guard against claim-jumpers. Apart from simple furnishings made from saplings, everything else – tent, stove, tools, food, bedroll and sundries – had to be packed in by mule or on a man’s back.

This replica tent cabin was opened by Heritage Park in 2021 to illustrate the sort of rustic lodgings used by miners during the gold rush.