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Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada, is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains, spanning 11,000 km2 (4,200 sq mi). It was established as Jasper Forest Park in 1907, renamed as a national park in 1930, and declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984. Its location is north of Banff National Park and west of Edmonton. The park contains the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, springs, lakes, waterfalls and mountains.
The territory encompassed by what is now Jasper National Park has been inhabited since time immemorial by Nakoda, Cree, Secwépemc, and Dane-zaa peoples. Plainview projectile points have been found at the head of Jasper Lake, dating back to between 8000 and 7000 BCE. In the centuries between then and the establishment of the park, First Nations land use has fluctuated according to climatic variations over the long term, and according to cyclical patterns of ungulate population numbers, particularly elk, moose, mule deer, and occasionally caribou. Starting in the 1790s, Haudenosaunee and Nipissing hunters and trappers moved in large numbers to the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, around the headwaters of the Athabasca and Smoky Rivers in particular, most of them employed by the North West Company. By the early 19th century, there were hundreds of Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe people living in the region.
Searching for a new route to the Columbia River, David Thompson's brigade reached the upper Athabasca in December 1810, led by a Haudenosaunee guide named Thomas. After some weeks hunting and making preparations for the trip over Athabasca Pass, the group left William Henry with their supply cache, building a hut and shed. Henry's House is presumed to have been just north of present-day Old Fort Point across the Athabasca River from the town of Jasper. Thompson's brigade crossed Athabasca Pass in January 1811 and returned in May 1812 after which the old fort was abandoned.
In 1813, François Decoigne built a new supply depot for the North West Company on Brûlé Lake. Jasper National Park's name originates from Jasper Haws, a Maryland-born fur trader who in 1817 took command of the post, which subsequently became known as Jasper's House. The route over Athabasca Pass was too labourious for freighting large volumes of fur. Called the York Factory Express, it linked Hudson Bay with the Pacific and was primarily used to move correspondence and people over the continental divide.
In the early 1820s, the British government forcibly merged the Hudson's Bay Company with the North West Company and the new governor George Simpson visited the area to inspect posts and decide on operational changes. Simpson instructed Chief Trader J. F. Larocque to build a post on Cranberry or Moose Lake, in Yellowhead Pass in 1824. Larocque instead built 8 huts at the present-day location of the town of Jasper. The next year, Simpson visited Larocque's House and promptly ordered it closed.
Especially from 1826 through 1829, Yellowhead Pass was also used to get critical goods—leather in particular—to the New Caledonia posts. Jasper House's role was to facilitate trips over these passes, by providing horses (or snowshoes) and other supplies to westbound brigades. Around 1829, during the management of Michel Klyne, Jasper House was relocated further up the Athabasca River, just north of Jasper Lake. Until the mid 1840s, the post also periodically traded for furs with Haudenosaunee and Métis groups who stayed nearby regularly, and Secwépemc from west of Yellowhead Pass. These residents of the upper Athabasca, Snake Indian, and Smoky Rivers supplied significant numbers of beaver, marten, and lynx furs. The Company would later estimate that in 1836, there was a local Indigenous population of approximately 200.
At the end of this period of activity, in 1846, Jasper House hosted several notable travelers. In April, the priest Pierre-Jean De Smet arrived, accompanied by Louis Kwarakwante's extended family, numbering 36. Kwarakwante, also called Calahoo and Sun Traveller, had resided with his family in the area since 1801, and had married and traded with neighbouring Haudenosaunee, Cree, and Dane-zaa. De Smet remained performing rites and hunting with Kwarakwante's and the postmaster Colin Fraser's family before continuing up the Athabasca on April 25 and crossing the pass by showshoe on May 6. Roche De Smet, the mountain immediately west of Jasper House, was named in his honour.
Shortly before reaching the pass, De Smet met Lieutenants Henry James Warre and Mervin Vavasour who had been spying for the British in the Oregon Country and were returning east with a Hudson's Bay Company brigade and 15 Indigenous porters. Now over the pass, Warre and company traded their snowshoes for horses and continued down to Jasper House. Warre sketched the Whirlpool River Valley and Jasper House; the latter showing the post's log buildings and many tipis of Indigenous families.
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Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada, is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains, spanning 11,000 km2 (4,200 sq mi). It was established as Jasper Forest Park in 1907, renamed as a national park in 1930, and declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984. Its location is north of Banff National Park and west of Edmonton. The park contains the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, springs, lakes, waterfalls and mountains.
The territory encompassed by what is now Jasper National Park has been inhabited since time immemorial by Nakoda, Cree, Secwépemc, and Dane-zaa peoples. Plainview projectile points have been found at the head of Jasper Lake, dating back to between 8000 and 7000 BCE. In the centuries between then and the establishment of the park, First Nations land use has fluctuated according to climatic variations over the long term, and according to cyclical patterns of ungulate population numbers, particularly elk, moose, mule deer, and occasionally caribou. Starting in the 1790s, Haudenosaunee and Nipissing hunters and trappers moved in large numbers to the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, around the headwaters of the Athabasca and Smoky Rivers in particular, most of them employed by the North West Company. By the early 19th century, there were hundreds of Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe people living in the region.
Searching for a new route to the Columbia River, David Thompson's brigade reached the upper Athabasca in December 1810, led by a Haudenosaunee guide named Thomas. After some weeks hunting and making preparations for the trip over Athabasca Pass, the group left William Henry with their supply cache, building a hut and shed. Henry's House is presumed to have been just north of present-day Old Fort Point across the Athabasca River from the town of Jasper. Thompson's brigade crossed Athabasca Pass in January 1811 and returned in May 1812 after which the old fort was abandoned.
In 1813, François Decoigne built a new supply depot for the North West Company on Brûlé Lake. Jasper National Park's name originates from Jasper Haws, a Maryland-born fur trader who in 1817 took command of the post, which subsequently became known as Jasper's House. The route over Athabasca Pass was too labourious for freighting large volumes of fur. Called the York Factory Express, it linked Hudson Bay with the Pacific and was primarily used to move correspondence and people over the continental divide.
In the early 1820s, the British government forcibly merged the Hudson's Bay Company with the North West Company and the new governor George Simpson visited the area to inspect posts and decide on operational changes. Simpson instructed Chief Trader J. F. Larocque to build a post on Cranberry or Moose Lake, in Yellowhead Pass in 1824. Larocque instead built 8 huts at the present-day location of the town of Jasper. The next year, Simpson visited Larocque's House and promptly ordered it closed.
Especially from 1826 through 1829, Yellowhead Pass was also used to get critical goods—leather in particular—to the New Caledonia posts. Jasper House's role was to facilitate trips over these passes, by providing horses (or snowshoes) and other supplies to westbound brigades. Around 1829, during the management of Michel Klyne, Jasper House was relocated further up the Athabasca River, just north of Jasper Lake. Until the mid 1840s, the post also periodically traded for furs with Haudenosaunee and Métis groups who stayed nearby regularly, and Secwépemc from west of Yellowhead Pass. These residents of the upper Athabasca, Snake Indian, and Smoky Rivers supplied significant numbers of beaver, marten, and lynx furs. The Company would later estimate that in 1836, there was a local Indigenous population of approximately 200.
At the end of this period of activity, in 1846, Jasper House hosted several notable travelers. In April, the priest Pierre-Jean De Smet arrived, accompanied by Louis Kwarakwante's extended family, numbering 36. Kwarakwante, also called Calahoo and Sun Traveller, had resided with his family in the area since 1801, and had married and traded with neighbouring Haudenosaunee, Cree, and Dane-zaa. De Smet remained performing rites and hunting with Kwarakwante's and the postmaster Colin Fraser's family before continuing up the Athabasca on April 25 and crossing the pass by showshoe on May 6. Roche De Smet, the mountain immediately west of Jasper House, was named in his honour.
Shortly before reaching the pass, De Smet met Lieutenants Henry James Warre and Mervin Vavasour who had been spying for the British in the Oregon Country and were returning east with a Hudson's Bay Company brigade and 15 Indigenous porters. Now over the pass, Warre and company traded their snowshoes for horses and continued down to Jasper House. Warre sketched the Whirlpool River Valley and Jasper House; the latter showing the post's log buildings and many tipis of Indigenous families.
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