Built in 1893, the Canmore NWMP Barracks is now a museum.

Canmore was a mining town with a “work hard, play hard” mentality. In 1888, the president of the Canadian Anthracite Coal Company petitioned the Comptroller of the NWMP in Ottawa for more police to control the importation of liquor from the United States, which was causing problems with the miners and railway workers. One constable was stationed in the town in rented quarters, but by 1892 it became obvious that more permanent quarters were needed and the existing Canmore North West Mounted Police Barracks were constructed in 1893. Occupied by a one- or two-man detachment between 1893 and 1929, their duties included patrols, checking the trains for illegal liquor and maintaining law and order during the strikes that occurred in Canmore, particularly in 1911.

It was in operation until 1929, when it was decommissioned; the property reverted back to the Department of the Interior and became a private residence until the late 1980s. It was purchased by the Town of Canmore in 1989 and declared a Provincial Historic Site in 1990. The Canmore NWMP Barracks is one of the oldest surviving North West Mounted Police buildings in Alberta, one of only three remaining from before the creation of Alberta in 1905.