Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park

Studies in Two Centuries of Human History in the Upper Athabasca River Watershed

I.S. MacLaren, Michael Payne, Peter J. Murphy, PearlAnn Reichwein, Lisa McDermott, C. J. Taylor, Gabrielle Zezulka-Mailloux, Zac Robinson, Eric Higgs

• Publisher: University of Alberta Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780888644831
• eBook ISBN:
  9780888645708
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Adults need playgrounds. In 1907, the Canadian government designated a vast section of the Rocky Mountains as Jasper Forest Park. Tourists now play where Indigenous Peoples once lived, fur traders toiled, and Métis families homesteaded. In Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park, I.S. MacLaren and eight other writers unearth the largely unrecorded past of the upper Athabasca River watershed, and bring to light two centuries' worth of human history, tracing the evolution of trading routes into the Rockies' largest park. Serious 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. Foreword by The Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword | Chrétien
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Map and Legend for Map—Jasper: A Partial Toponymy
• Introduction
• 1 The Fur Trade on the Upper Athabasca River,1810–1910 | Payne
• 2 Henry James Warre’s and Paul Kane’s Sketches in the Athabasca Watershed, 1846 | MacLaren
• 3 "Following the Base of the Foothills” | Murphy
• 4 Homesteading in the Athabasca Valley to 1910 | Murphy
• 5 Opening the Secret Garden | Reichwein & McDermott
• 6 The Changing Habitat of Jasper Tourism | Taylor
• 7 Laying the Tracks for Tourism | Zezulka-Mailloux
• 8 The Golden Years of Mountaineering in Canada | Robinson
• 9 Twinning Reality, or How Taking History Seriously Changes How We Understand Ecological Restoration in Jasper National Park | Higgs
• Contributors
• Bibliography
• Index