“They used to say to me, ‘Mac, why don’t you come to work for the Parks? You are out here all the time in the bush anyway!’”

After years of outfitting and guiding, Mac Elder did join the warden service, when he felt that he was mature enough to live on his own in the isolated districts of Jasper National Park. 

The former chief warden was one of 17 retired wardens and their spouses interviewed for the Park Warden Alumni Society of Alberta’s oral history project, funded through a grant from the Alberta government’s community spirit program.

The interviews document a range of experiences and memories from backcountry district life to centralization, promotions within the service and parks department, to stories of isolation and ones of the great pride in the camaraderie and true sense of family within the warden service. 

In the words of retired warden Frank Coggins, who was born and raised in Jasper, joining the warden service initially meant year-round employment.

“You weren’t laid off in the wintertime. It was good money. When I was driving truck in Jasper it was $175 a month. Well that’s not very much money. That was 1951. I knew you couldn’t survive on that because I grew up during the depression ... the warden service, it was a steady job.”

However, working as a warden soon became a way of life. For Frank “the life” was the best part of his warden job, especially in the days when wardens were responsible for their own districts. 

Prior to 1969, Jasper National Park was divided into 14 districts. Wardens who were initially generalists were responsible for everything in their district from trail and cabin maintenance, to monitoring wildlife and visitor use, to enforcing the laws of the national park.

Along with their district responsibilities, wardens would work together when required. According to Mac Elder: “Some of the crisis stuff we did, like look for lost people, fight fire, deal with problem wildlife, deal with a drowning ... or a mountain accident. You could go and pull in four or five wardens to do the job. They could all help, they could all do it. Now everyone wasn’t skilled 100 per cent in every faculty, but as a group they could do it because someone knew a little bit of everything.”

By the early 1970s, the mountain parks moved from the district system to one of centralization. The human face of the warden service also changed with the hiring of aboriginal and female wardens. Wardens also began to take on more specialized roles, focusing on resource management, public safety, fire control and law enforcement.

Despite the changes over the years, Gerry Campbell – who spent 25 years with the warden service, a number of which were in Jasper as the assistant chief warden – remembered “the comradeship, what do they call it ... the esprit de corps with all the guys” as the best part of being a warden.

Former Jasper chief warden Max Winkler summed up the sentiment of many of those interviewed for the project. “We managed to get along and adapt to the challenges. Julie (his wife), I think, often had to follow me, but she willingly followed me into some of these new adventures and I think what we did was make the best of what we encountered in every situation.

“I think, too, we loved it (the warden life) because of the idealism that we had about what parks stands for and what they are preserving,” Winkler added.

In the words of a 1980s visitor guide to Jasper National Park: “National park wardens are an elite group in Parks Canada. They are the stuff of legends. Theirs is a tough job – executing Parks Canada’s first mandate, maintaining what is, preserving what was, conserving the heritage for every Canadian for tomorrow and the days after.”

The importance of documenting the stories and memories of wardens is especially relevant today as the national parks service has fundamentally changed in the past decade. Following seven years of legal battles regarding wardens’ law enforcement duties, the service has been reduced from 450 wardens to 100 law-enforcing officers. After 99 years of service, these 100 individuals are responsible for protecting Canada’s 42 national parks and park reserves.

In January 2012, the oral history project of the Park Warden Alumni Society of Alberta will continue.  The ongoing goal is to document the history and culture of the mountain park warden service as lived and remembered by those involved in it.

For more information on the project please contact Christine Everts at christineeverts@hotmail.com