Prior to European contact, there was already a route through the area that local Indigenous peoples used to travel between the Shortgrass Prairies in the south to the Aspen Parkland in the north.
[1] After the fur trade post Fort Edmonton was established near the site of today's City of Edmonton, local Native trails became part of the massive fur-trading transportation network that European companies used to export furs from the interior to the coasts and on to Europe.
[2] John McDougall blazed a more modern trail running south of Edmonton as far as Morley in 1873.
Development of the trail allowed mail service between Calgary and Edmonton in July 1883.
Calgary Trail now refers to the southbound portion of Highway 2 within the boundaries of the city of Edmonton.