First Peoples, First Presence
The Canadian Rockies inspired scores of Hollywood movies but
Tinsel town found nothing that compares to the real history of our mountain
parks.
Imagine ancient buffalo hunters combing these valleys, fur
traders battling for control of the west, daring acts and tragedy ascending
unclimbed peaks, turn-of-the century romance between a Philadelphia socialite
and a mountain guide or even the antics of an eccentric outfitter who released
a lynx into a local tavern! The men and women behind these stories live on in
the history of these parks. And it’s all yours to discover For early Native
people, these mountains were both sacred places and a source of game, fish, and
other supplies. Archaeological evidence from Banff’s Vermilion Lakes suggests
Aboriginal people arrived here about 11 thousand years ago.
Though the Stoneys, Cree, Ktunaxa, and Plains Blackfoot
passed through these valleys, few settled for long. Some journeyed to mineral
springs such as Kootenay National Park’s Paint Pots to gather ochre. An
iron-based mineral, ochre was baked, crushed, mixed with grease, and used as a
paint for tipis, pictographs, and personal adornment.
Blasting a railway through these rock walls was no easy
feat. Yoho National Park’s Spiral Tunnels bear witness to this engineering
marvel. The Walk in the Past Trail features an engine wrecked in the building
of these tunnels. The self guiding Abandoned Rails Trail in Glacier National
Park includes remnants of early snow sheds built for rail line avalanche
safety.
But in 1885, Canada achieved the impossible, completing its
coast-to-coast railway. The arrival of the train brought tourists, resorts, and
a lifeline to the newly-established Rocky Mountains Park (now Banff National
Park), this young country’s first national park. The creation of Glacier, Yoho,
and Jasper National Parks soon followed, as more and more visitors discovered
the beauty of this mountain landscape.
For a brief period, lumber and mining industries flourished
here. Banff’s Bankhead and Jasper’s Pocahontas coal mines boomed in the early I
900s. Today, you can wander among the ruins on self guiding trails. By 1930, a
new National Parks Act set resource protection as the parks’ priority, ending
such industrial activities.
Pushing the Boundaries
Mention the fur trade, and the names of David Thompson and
Simon Fraser are inescapable. These men mapped and explored over a million
square miles of western Canada at the turning of the 19th Century. While
charting new trading areas to the Pacific, Thompson explored the Howse and
Athabasca Passes, both now recognized as national historic sites. He frequented
posts in the area of Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site and
established Kootenay House. Simon Fraser established many trading posts,
including Fort St. James National Historic Site, in British Columbia, before
heading down the river which now bears his name.
Other Canadian legends like Sir George Simpson and Captain
John Palliser visited too, eyeing the West for its resource and settlement
potential.
A Lasting Legacy
The parks brought people all kinds! By 1920 tourists came by
automobile, along Canada’s first central trans-mountain motor route, to the
newly-established Kootenay National Park.
Some flocked to world famous attractions like Banff’s Cave
and Basin Springs, now a national historic site. The more adventurous climbed
with Swiss guides up uncharted peaks in the Columbia Mountains, often using
historic Glacier House as a base. Between 1886 and 1903, almost 40 of Glacier
National Park’s mountains were climbed for the first time. Today you can tour
the site of Glacier House near the lllecillewaet Campground.
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