Remember reading about the fathers of Confederation and how you’d rather watch paint dry? This may have turned you off Canadian history for good, but Jasper: A History of the Place and its People, by C.J. Taylor, may re-ignite your passion for our heritage.

Covering a wide range of issues, the book is a “history of Jasper, not an administrative history of a government organization,” wrote Taylor. The 239-page book not only contains text, but maps, postcards and numerous historical pictures. 

The book was launched to a packed house in the Bridgland Room of the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives on the evening of June 23. Museum manager, Karen Byers, welcomed Taylor, calling it a “bittersweet introduction” given the fact that Taylor has recently retired as a Parks Canada historian and has contributed a lot to Jasper’s museum.

Working as a parks historian for 35 years, Taylor discussed his book, took questions and signed autographs for the mostly over 50 crowd. “I love the place, I love the people and I hope to come back,” said Taylor. 

Taylor also discussed the complexity of the interconnectedness between Jasper the place and the people who have called Jasper home since the early days. There are many “windows to the past without looking too hard,” said Taylor. 

One such window that Taylor discussed was the revamping of the highway between Jasper and Banff starting in 1948. Part of a 10 year plan, the late 1940s signaled a time when parks focused heavily on engineering and employing professional engineers, said Taylor. 

Designed in the 1920s, the Jasper-Banff highway, or Icefields Parkway, was set up for Model T Fords, explained Taylor, and it had to be redone to accommodate  new, faster vehicles. 

Some in the crowd took offence to Taylor’s assertion that the Icefields Parkway was called the Banff-Jasper highway, not the other way around. 

Asked whether the car or railroad had a greater impact on the park, Taylor said “the railroad really leads to the creation of the park... In terms of numbers though, the other thing the automobile brings is the freedom of travel within the park, which I think really changed the way people experienced the park.” 

Taylor was not daunted by the prospect of writing such a comprehensive history of Jasper, “because I was kind of ignorant when I started it,” he joked. All the royalties from Jasper: A History of the Place and its People go to the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives.