Exshaw

History

Sir Sanford Fleming named Exshaw after his son-in-law, E. William Exshaw (15 February 1866, Bordeaux – 16 March 1927; of Anglo-Irish descent; and sailing Olympic gold medalist at the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics), who with Fleming helped establish the Western Canada Cement and Coal Company. William Exshaw visited in 1908 when a banquet was held in his honour by the staff of WCC&C. Robert D. Hassan, an American mechanical engineer, was hired in 1906 to build a mill in Exshaw, Alberta for the Western Canada Cement and Coal Company. He was assisted in building the plant by Alexander Graham Christie. In 1911, the plant was acquired by the Canada Cement Company. Although the original cement plant was further west, the community has had a large plant for many years. In the 1970s, a portion of Exshaw was demolished – 47 homes, a church, and a school – to make way for expansion of the cement plant.

Geography

East of Exshaw are smaller company town communities of Kananaskis (lime plant), which is not the recreational area of the same name, and Seebe (power dam), which is now closed but proposed for future residential redevelopment. A small ranch area, now mainly dude ranches, is also near the hamlet. Of note is the Brewster's Kananaskis Ranch & Golf Course, which sits on the original homestead property of Bud Brewster and has remained in the family's possession since the 1880s. A number of smaller parks with camping facilities have also developed in the east Bow Valley. Directly across the Bow River south from Exshaw is the Hamlet of Lac des Arcs although no bridge connects the two hamlets. A dam on the Bow River is east of Seebe. The smaller Exshaw Mountain, , is north of the hamlet, and is locally known as Cougar Mountain. Across from the community south beyond Lac des Arcs is Heart Mountain is easier to scale. This mountain is sometimes used as a wedding venue because of the heart shape. Exshaw Creek, locally known and identified on the Highway 1A bridge as Canyon Creek, runs through the hamlet. In 1958, Alan McGugan et al., identified a new species of the pelecypod Megalodon in a river cliff of Exshaw Creek and gave the new specific name M. banffensis, for the proximity of the Banff area. The eastern portion of the hamlet is on the flood plain for Jura Creek. In 1937, P.S. Warren described outcrops on the banks of Jura Creek, naming these the Exshaw Formation. The Jura Creek valley is known to provide a good introduction to some Front Range geology, with the exposed formations including the Palliser (Devonian), Exshaw and Banff (Mississippian). The naming of Jura Creek was from misidentified Jurassic fossils, which are actually Paleozoic, not Jurassic. Grotto…

Most-observed species

• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  5,584
• Black-billed Magpie

  Pica hudsonia (Sabine, 1823) · Aves
  4,214
• Mountain Chickadee

  Poecile gambeli (Ridgway, 1886) · Aves
  4,118
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  4,041
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,420
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,939
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,858
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  2,519

Most recent

• M 3.7 — 2025-01-26
  58 km NNW of Banff, Canada
• M 2.7 — 2023-06-07
  16 km NNW of Elkford, Canada
• M 4.1 — 2021-02-14
  5 km N of Banff, Canada
• M 3.3 — 2017-05-23
  23 km NNW of Elkford, Canada
• M 3.1 — 2014-10-16
  1 km SW of Banff, Canada
• M 2.9 — 2011-04-10
  16 km SE of Invermere, Canada