WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK - Canadian Rockies: Including Banff and Jasper National Parks - page 417

the trail reaches its highest elevation of 2,310 meters (7,580 feet) at Carthew Summit.
The views from here are spectacular, even more so if you scramble up to one of Mount
Carthew's lower peaks. To the north is a hint of prairie, to the southeast the magnificent
bowl-shaped cirque around Cameron Lake. To the south, the Carthew Lakes lie directly
below, while glaciated peaks in Montana line the horizon. From this summit, the trail des-
cends steeply to the Carthew Lakes, reenters the subalpine forest, and emerges at Alderson
Lake, which is nestled under the headwalls of Mount Alderson. The trail then descends
through the Carthew Creek Valley and finishes at Cameron Falls in the town site.
KOOTENAI BROWN
John George Brown was born in England in the 1840s and reputedly educated at Ox-
ford University. He joined the army and went to India, later continuing to San Fran-
cisco. Then, like thousands of others, he headed for the Cariboo goldfields of British
Columbia, quickly spending any of the gold he found. After a while he moved on,
heading east into Waterton Valley, where his party was attacked by a band of Black-
foot. He was shot in the back with an arrow and pulled it out himself. For a time he
worked with the U.S. Army as a Pony Express rider. One day he was captured by
Chief Sitting Bull, stripped, and tied to a stake until his fate could be decided, but he
managed to escape during the night with his scalp intact. Brown acquired his nick-
name through his close association with the Kootenay (today's preferred spelling)
people, hunting buffalo and wolves with them until the animals had all but disap-
peared.
Brown married in 1869 and built a cabin by Upper Waterton Lake, becoming the
valley's first permanent resident. Even though he had been toughened by the times,
he was a conservationist at heart. When a reserve was set aside in 1895, Brown was
employed as its first warden. In 1911, the area was declared a national park, and
Brown, age 71, was appointed its superintendent. He continued to push for an ex-
pansion of park boundaries until his final retirement at age 75. He died a few years
later. His final resting place is along the lakeshore-fitting for one of Canada's most
celebrated mountain men. Look for the signed trail along the park access road; it's a
five-minute walk from the road.