Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cornelius Van Horne, vice-president of the Canadian Pacifi c Railway,
pretty well sums up the situation. The economy of the Canadian
Rockies and Alberta's and British Columbia's national parks relies al-
most solely on tourism. The preservation of these areas is assured
by their status as national parks, which also guarantees the complete
absence of any type of industrial development, be it mining or forestry
related. In fact, coal, copper, lead and silver mines as well as ochre
deposits were abandoned and villages were moved in order to return
the mountains to their original state and to stop human industry from
destroying this natural beauty.
BANFF NATIONAL
PARK AND
BOW VALLEY
PARKWAY
The cave, which still can be visited, was
fi rst discovered in November of 1883
by three Canadian Pacifi c workers after
they abandoned a railway construction
site to head off in search of gold. When
brothers William and Tom McCardell
and Frank McCabe reached Sulphur
Mountain, however, they discovered
sulphur hot springs instead. They took
a concession in order to turn a profi t
with the springs, but were unable to
counter the various land rights disputes
that followed. The series of events drew
the attention of the federal government,
which sent out an agent to control the
concession.
Banff National Park
The Cave and Basin National Historic
Site
bears witness to the inextric-
able link that exists between the history
of the Canadian Pacifi c Railway and that
of the Rocky Mountains' national parks.
The renown of these hot springs had
already spread from railway workers to
the vice-president of Canadian Pacifi c,
who came here in 1885 and declared
that the springs were certainly worth a
million dollars. Realizing the enormous
economic potential of the hot springs,
the federal government quickly pur-
chased the rights to the concession from
3
Bighorn sheep.
© iStockphoto.com / Joseph Gareri
Search WWH ::
Custom Search