Foreword  ix

Acknowledgements   xv

   Overview Map  xx

Invocation The Magnificent Seven xxi

Part One The West We Had: Foundations of
Place

1. A Walk into the Past: Setting a Context of Place
 3

2. The Creation: Monumentality and Place  17

3. The Creation: People and Place Before European Contact
 27

4. Exchanging What We Had for What We Want: The Fur Trade Era in the
Canadian West  33

5. The Coming of Death: Diminishment and Loss among the First
Peoples of the West  41

Part Two The West We Have: Making the
Mountains Our Home

6. Giving Meaning to Mountains and Making Them Ours: Mountaineering
and the Aesthetics of Place  47

7. Brushes with Eternity: Landscape Art and Photography in the
Canadian Rockies  69

8. Crystal and Cold Blue Chasms: The Literature of the Canadian
Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site  77

9. Stemming the Tide of Loss: The Give and Take of Modern Management
In and Around the Mountain Parks  91

10. Countering Dispossession: Saving Our Unique Mountain
Culture  105

The East Slope: Flowing Toward the Atlantic

11. The Birthplace of Canada’s National Park Ideal: Banff
National Park  115

The North Slope: Flowing Toward the Arctic

12. The Birthplace of Western and Northern Rivers: The Columbia
Icefield and Jasper National Park  145

The West Slope: Flowing Toward the Pacific

13. The Roof of the Canadian Rockies: Mount Robson Provincial
Park  187

14. Small, Remote, but Utterly Wild: Hamber Provincial
Park  201

15. The Geography of Wonder: Yoho National Park 
215

16. The Road to Radium: Kootenay National Park 
243

17. Matterhorn of the Rockies: Mount Assiniboine Provincial
Park  257

Part Three The West We Want: Creating a
Culture Worthy of Place

18. Respecting and Honouring the Great Bear: The Grizzly as a Symbol
of the West We Want  273

19. Seeing What Is Hidden in Plain Sight: Triumphing Over
Diminishment and Loss  299

20. Expanding the World Heritage Site Designation: Managing for
Future Integrity Instead of Loss  313

21. Creating a Culture Commensurate with Place 
321

Notes  339

Index  347