Henry James Warre's and Paul Kane's Sketches in the Athabasca ...

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figure 2.6I.S. MacLaren. Site of JasperHouse II and View of SynclineRidge, Makwa Ridge, andRocky River Valley,August 1996.this case, we have Warre’s sketch (Fig. 2.3), with a paucity of trees onSyncline Ridge in the immediate background, as evidence that Kane’srecord accords with another’s. Thus, although a comparison of twophotographs of the same landscape taken 160 years apart is not possible, 15the pictorial evidence, if assessed with circumspection, is sufficientlyreliable to permit an informed observation about the changes fromsavannah to forest undergone by the Athabasca River valley around thesecond location of Jasper House since the era of the fur trade. Surely,some wood would have been harvested for a variety of needs at a furtrade post, but such routine harvests over the 15 years between 1829(when Jasper House was moved from the far [northern] end of thenBrûlé Lake to this location, across the Athabasca and downstream fromthe mouth of Rocky River) and 1846 can hardly account for the relativeabsence of trees on the slopes of Syncline Ridge. 16 One is far moreinclined to attribute the difference to the effects of policies of firesuppression and prevention during the first 90 years (1907–1997) of thevalley’s existence as part of a park.Similar evidence appears in Jasper’s Lake, the first (because easternmost)sketch of the valley that seems to have survived (Fig. 2.7). 17 Kanedrew it while at the mouth of Solomon Creek, just downstream on theAthabasca where it narrows back into a river from the widening calledBrûlé Lake (now Brule Lake, formerly called Jasper Lake, and not to beI . S . M a c L a r e n 47
figure 2.7Paul Kane, Jasper’s Lake.East-side (R. Mountains),watercolour over graphiteon paper, 12.7 x 17.8 cm,November 1846; also knownas Jasper’s Lake withMiette’s Rock.[Courtesy Royal Ontario Museum,946.15.130.]confused with the widening upriver that goes by the name of Jasper Laketoday). Probably, the Hudson’s Bay Company brigade had stopped thereto enjoy a “pipe,” to obtain a better quality of water than the silty Athabascaafforded, or to wait out a windstorm—notorious in that part of thevalley and in full blow in late October 1846—before setting out on theshallow, exposed lake. This lovely, finished watercolour sketch depictsthe eastern slopes of the Boule Range, one of the Front Ranges (which,for reasons discussed by Peter Murphy in his essay in this volume, havenot formed part of Jasper National Park since 1929), and a low level ofwater in the lake in late fall. The distinctive vertical cliff of Roche Miettestands out at the vanishing point, and the stone beach at the mouth ofSolomon Creek occupies the lower right.A contemporary photograph shot at the mouth of Solomon Creek(Fig. 2.8) clarifies a quite remarkable change in vegetation cover on thelower eastern slopes of the Boule Range. The signature green that mostvisitors expect of a national park’s landscape now dominates the habitatas evidently it did not at the time of Kane’s visit. Fires did burn in theAthabasca valley in 1795, 1808, 1830, and 1840, and doubtless evidenceof them was still visible in 1846. 18 Kane, who chose to colour in green48 Henry James Warre’s and Paul Kane’s Sketches in the Athabasca Watershed, 1846
Page 1 and 2: 1 The University of Alberta PressEd
Page 3 and 4: Published byThe University of Alber
Page 5 and 6: 7 Laying the Tracks for Tourism 233
Page 7 and 8: figure 2.1Henry James Warre, RockyM
Page 9: figure 2.3Henry James Warre,Jasper
Page 15 and 16: figure 2.9Paul Kane, AthabascaRiver
Page 17 and 18: Solomon Creek (downriver) and Fiddl
Page 19 and 20: the order in which he made the sket
Page 21 and 22: figure 2.15I.S. MacLaren. Athabasca
Page 23 and 24: of Kane’s sketch. The advantage o
Page 25 and 26: figure 2.20Paul Kane, Snow Scene in
Page 27 and 28: figure 2.22I.S. MacLaren. Committee
Page 29 and 30: Appendix 1Kane’s Field Notes, 30
Page 31 and 32: Author’s NoteI thank Bob Hallam a
Page 33 and 34: subject to Jasper House. (The entry
Page 35 and 36: 28. George Simpson, Fur Trade and E
Page 37 and 38: Royal Ontario Museum: 92 ETH, 42-50
Page 39 and 40: Canadian Congress on Leisure Resear
Page 41 and 42: ———. Report of the Panel on t
Page 43 and 44: 2: 82-140. London: Samuel Curtis, 1
Page 45 and 46: Hart, E.J. Diamond Hitch: The Early
Page 47 and 48: ———. A History of Canada’s
Page 49 and 50: Nelson, J.G., and R.C. Scace, eds.
Page 51 and 52: Speares, Betty. “Mary, Mary, Quit

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