Veterans Walkway will officially open on Oct. 17, an interactive five-kilometre pathway that brings history to users’ palms.
The walkway will run just off the downtown core along Memorial Drive from 14 Street SW to George C. King Bridge, and feature 31 bronze-coloured medallions built into the pavement that connect to a free app, which pings stories for users to scroll as they stroll.
“It’s a beautiful piece of technology that brings together all the stories,” said Carolyn Patton, chair of the Veterans Walkway Committee.
“With each of the medallions, there’s military and veteran stories connected to each medallion, so as you walk along the path, you’ll discover stories from one medallion to another.”
She said the interactive technology is Canada’s first of its kind and that the project began in fall 2024. She said the opening coincides with the Royal Canadian Legion’s 100th anniversary.
The legion is one of many sponsors, which also includes the City of Calgary, Calgary Foundation, the Lois E. Mitchell History and Heroes Foundation, Tourism Calgary, and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway.
Patton said creating the walkway was the epitome of a team effort, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the funding that they received or the collaboration of historians, veterans, and families who helped bring over 140 stories to life.
“The story gathering process was very ambitious,” she said.
“Being able to tell the stories of those that served, and that process took us about a year, and uncovering not just stories of those that served, but those that were on the home front.”
From tree dedications to digital storytelling
Memorial Drive has taken many shapes since its establishment in the early 1920s, when trees were planted and dedicated in memory of Calgarians who died during the First World War.
The roadway has since been widened and extended into a major cross-city route, and many of its original trees and plaques have been lost. In 1990, the strip was rededicated to remember more soldiers, including those who fought in the Second World War, the Korean War, and other peacekeeping missions.
This history made Memorial Drive the right place for the project, which Patton said is a gift to residents and was built as a modern way to make known to locals how Calgarians served their country.
Choosing which stories to include in the interactive pathway was no easy task, she said, but it meant narrowing down the ones that showed the many forms service takes — from those fighting on the front lines to those they left at home.
“Most of the stories are about veterans and service and sacrifice, but not just about war,” said Patton.
“We also have stories from the home front.”
From the women who served their community while their loved ones were away, to the Indigenous soldiers who were sent overseas, and those who built ammunition at yards in Ogden, she said that there are a variety of stories, but that one has stuck with her the most.
Patton told the story of a Calgary woman named Iola Little, who signed up for the Air Force during the Cold War in 1952 and, in 1955, worked as a corporal in France, where she identified a U-2 aircraft.
“Because she was only a corporal and a woman, her leadership didn’t believe her, and it took some effort to be able to tell them that no, this was a real thing,” she said.
“She said that ‘there were no parades or medals when we came home, but knowing that we were on watch through the night and that there was a peaceful morning the next day’ — that was her reward.”
Little will be present at the walkway’s opening ceremony later this month, along with remarks from organizers and city officials, plus the Calgary Police Service honour guard and The King’s Own Calgary Regiment Band.
Patton said the area is intended to remind and educate residents about the past so they can do something to benefit the future.
“I hope that they walk away from this experience with a new understanding of who Calgarians are and what they have done in the past,” she said.
“Especially for youth, to be able to learn about those that came before them and the service that they committed to their city and their country, which might inspire them to do something that they find meaningful in their community.”
