On a cold February day in 1968, a fleet of heavy equipment began stripping the prairie grass from a tract of land in southeast Calgary for a new community.

But any spectators to the activity might have been surprised when the machines started excavating deep into the ground.

It was the unlikely beginnings of Lake Bonavista, a new neighbourhood built by legendary builder and developer E.V. Keith that would become the first manmade lake community in Canada. Calgary now has almost a dozen lake communities, but back in the late 1960s it was a radical idea.

"Crazy," is how Les Cosman recalled the reaction from most people to Keith's plans, formed after he took an airplane flight over some early lake communities in Los Angeles.

Don Boykiw has come full circle.

The president of the Willow Ridge Community Association grew up in the southeast Calgary neighbourhood of Willow Park before moving away to carve his own path. As fate would have it, he returned to the community 13 years ago.

Snapshots of Calgary's lake communities

Life at the water's edge may not be the defining Calgary experience. But for thousands of Calgary homeowners, life by the lakeside was a key reason they chose to buy in one of the city's many man-made lake communities. Here's a look at each of the Calgary neighbourhoods with a blue jewel of H2O at its heart, making them among the most desirable communities in
the city.