“Any time we look at [the maps] we always think about how we can share them with other people,” said museum manager Karen Byers. Since some of the maps are old and fragile, they were scanned and printed in laser copy.
Funding and input from Parks Canada also helped make the trails exhibit a reality.
“The thing that we like about so many of these [maps] is that there are blank spaces on the maps,” said Byers. “[Explorers] didn’t know, and they were climbing peaks for the first time.”
Fur trader and explorer David Thompson created the first map of the area while he worked for the Northwest Trading Company in the early 1880s. He was looking for a route across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, which would lead to the Pacific Ocean.
What’s astounding is that Thompson didn’t create the map until he returned home to Ontario, years later. He drew the map according to the calculations he recorded in his diary. “The original entire map takes up a whole wall.”
On this map, Thompson also included numerous details about what the land was like, including the types of trees. With a magnifying glass, these notes are visible on the map displayed at the museum.
Thompson’s map is fairly precise by today’s standards. A couple of years ago a GPS specialist compared it to modern maps and “the accuracy is just really amazing,” said Byers.
An interactive table is set up where people can pull out maps “and look at them and enjoy.” Also, there is a large map affixed to one wall in the gallery where people can mark their favourite places and trails to explore in Jasper.
Other maps in the exhibit include ones created during “the golden age of trails and backcountry wardens,” where “there were cabins and trails linking everywhere and you had a district warden who would have known all the area around his cabin and travelled all of it by horse.”
Comparing those maps to present day ones, it’s neat to see how many trails there used to be that are now either decommissioned, not kept up, or closed.
The exhibit also has information about the Jasper Trail Alliance and its contributions to Jasper’s current trail network. And there are official and updated trail maps for the taking, in case anyone is inspired to explore.
“Trails are just as important as the places they get you to,” said Byers. The exhibit runs until Sept. 22.
