Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park

Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park: Studies in Two Centuries of Human History in the Upper Athabasca River Watershed

I.S. MacLaren, Editor

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 Métis 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.

“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.”
— The Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien, Foreword

About the Editor
I.S. MacLaren teaches at the University of Alberta in the
Department of History and Classics and the Department of English and Film Studies. His research interests include history of the book, narratives and sketches by explorers and travelers of western and northern Canada, early Canadian poetry, and the history of the Rocky Mountain national parks.

I.S. MacLaren, Editor
400 pages • Colour throughout, maps,
introduction, notes, bibliography, index
Mountain Cairns: A series on the history and
culture of the Canadian Rockies
7.5’’ x 10’’ • $45.00 paper
ISBN-13: 978-0-88864-483-1
History/Tourism/National Parks

Additional interactive maps may be found online for Culturing Wilderness, Chapter 3, at http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/CulturingWilderness/index.html.