Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park

FRONT FLAP:“Towns in parks are a tricky proposition and I had no blueprint for the negotiations that had to occur. But as this welcome edition of essays shows again and again, it is a complex relationship that exists between the interests of people, whether fur traders, railway builders, or tourism operators, and the national interest in protecting wilderness unique to the world. Maintaining a suitable balance requires imagination and commitment, and I heartily welcome a book that brings some of that complexity to light. I trust that when future Canadians come to mark the centenaries of the parks I established, they will continue to show interest in learning about those of us who were involved, and why we strove to safeguard and enhance Canada’s distinguished record of wilderness protection in the form of national parks.”— The Rt. Hon. Jean Chr tien, ForewordBACK FLAP:I.S. MacLaren teaches at the University of Alberta in the Department of History and Classics and the Department of English and Film Studies. Mapper of Mountains: M.P. Bridgland in the Canadian Rockies, 1902–1930 (2005) is his biography of the Dominion Land Surveyor whose phototopographic work in Jasper in 1915 created the first reliable maps of the area and made possible, eight decades later, the Rocky Mountain Repeat Photography Project.Cover images:Front Cover:Morrison Parsons Bridgland (1878–1948). View of the Ramparts, Tonquin Valley, Jasper Park, stn. 15, no. 121, direction southeast, 1915.Back Cover:Paul Kane (1810–1871), Athabasca River and Roche Miette, from Mouth of Fiddle River, watercolour over graphite on paper, 12.7 x 17.8 cm, November 1846; also known as Athabasca River and Rocky Mountains.Front Flap/Left Flap:Henry Newton “Harry” Rowed (1907–1987), “Mt Edith Cavell [no.] 284” postcard, c.1935. [Courtesy, Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, University of Alberta; Scott Rowed; and Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives.]Rear Flap/Right Flap:Gilbert Morris Taylor (1894–1967). “No. 101, Room Service Jasper Park Lodge,” postcard, c.1940.BACK COVER:Adults need playgrounds. In 1907, the Canadian government designated a vast section of the Rocky Mountains as Jasper Forest Park. Tourists now play where Native people once lived, fur traders toiled, and M tis families homesteaded. In Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park, nine writers unearth the largely unrecorded past of the upper Athabasca watershed, bringing to light two centuries’ worth of human history in the area. History enthusiasts and those with an interest in Canada’s national parks will find a sense of connection in this long-overdue study of Jasper. “The acreage of Rocky Mountains Park in 1915 was 1,800 square miles, or 1,152,000 acres, and the value of the foreign tourist traffic it attracted was roughly speaking $16,000,000. This works out to a per acreage value of $13.88.& The value of our wheat exported that year was equivalent to $4.91 per acre. That is, our export of scenery per acre in Rocky Mountains Park was equal to almost three times the acreage value of our exportable wheat surplus.”—Dominion Parks Branch Commission James Bernard Harkin, aggressively promotes tourism to the mountain parks in 1919.Mountain Cairns, A series on the history and culture of the Canadian Rocky MountainsMacLaren, I. S. is the author of 'Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park', published 2007 under ISBN 9780888644831 and ISBN 0888644833.