Joanne McQuarrie, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
Art Jackson has loved being outdoors since he was a young lad, following animal tracks when he was just five. His connection to nature is a continuation of his ancestry, the element that steered him toward careers and integral to what he has experienced with his First Nations friends.
Jackson was born in Calgary on Nov. 2, 1952 to Fern and Lyle Jackson as the middle child between two sisters.
With a dad who was a heavy duty mechanic, Jackson said he and his family lived all over the province as essentially “nomads.”
The family settled in Edmonton during the year Jackson started school. In the summers, he was farmed out to relatives’ places where he worked on farms and ranches. When he was around 10 years of age, Jackson started spending summers at the Springbank Riding Academy, owned by his aunt and uncle, in the Calgary area. In that setting, Jackson quickly learned to saddle up the horses and ride them. In a couple of years, he was taking people, many of them from the nearby city, out on trail rides.
“The academy bordered the Tsuut’ina (which means ‘many people’ or ‘every one’) Reserve,” Jackson said. “Sometimes we were riding across the reserve to get to where my relatives’ house was.”
When he was about 13, Jackson started spending time with his aunt Marion and uncle Tom Jackson, who lived in the Rocky Mountain House area. Tom competed in pony chuckwagon events, “so we’d travel all over Alberta to small town rodeos,” Jackson said, recalling the cowboy garb he wore: a cowboy hat, jeans, boots.
Being an independent lot, the Jackson folks made their own bull ropes using binder twine. Tom also introduced his nephew to steer riding.
“We got pile-drived into the ground a few times,” Jackson said.
The summer’s competition included the Calgary Stampede, which Jackson called “the pinnacle of rodeos.”
“My uncle trusted me enough to hold his horses at the barrels at the start of the race.”
That was when Jackson got into mens wild cow riding.
“That was insane,” he said. “It was like riding Brahma bulls.”
The next year, Jackson was aiming to compete in an even more dangerous event.
“I got into mens bareback riding, or I would have, but my dad cancelled that plan, saying I was probably going to get killed,” he said.
His parents pointed him in the direction of retail work instead. Jackson got hired at a Safeway store in Edmonton where he worked as a produce clerk over the summer. It was a far cry from riding bucking broncs, but he earned a steady stream of money throughout that summer at the store and all the way into his university years, after he graduated from high school in 1970.
Jackson wasted no time in his quest to learn and enrolled at the University of Alberta (U of A) that fall, majoring in zoology. By the spring of 1973, Jackson held a bachelor of science degree and worked at various jobs for the rest of the year.
Jackson’s nomadic blood got boiling the following spring and he went to Europe on a three-month exploration. After he returned to Canada, he put his nose into the books again at the U of A and came out with a post-degree in teaching in the spring of 1975.
Jackson got married that year and he and his wife, Brenda moved to Fort Saskatchewan, where he had been hired to teach junior high science and Brenda worked as a speech pathologist, both in the same public school system.
“I taught environmental outdoor education,” Jackson said, joking that instead of working with wildlife he worked with “wild junior high kids.”
The program included outdoor fall, winter and spring camps that were part of the program that Jackson and a fellow teacher delivered. After eight years, the nomadic Jackson left teaching “because I didn’t want to stay in a classroom anymore.” He moved on to the Strathcona Wilderness Centre which revolved around outdoor programs, year-round.
“We taught environmental science and hard skills - skiing, canoeing as well as interpretive programs - in all grade levels.”
Jackson remembers a spring day when he was with a group of elementary school children in a bog.
“These kids laid back in the moss, smelling the Labrador tea in the spruce trees, looking up at the blue sky,” he said. “The birds were singing. Everybody was quiet.”
But when the youngsters got up to leave, one of them was crying. Jackson said he asked the young girl what the matter was.
“She was so emotional about what we had just done,” he said. “At that moment, it made me realize how important those connections are and how important it is to do that.”
By this time, Jackson was a certified instructor and worked on weekends at the Blue Lake Centre north of Hinton where he taught outdoors skills including skiing and canoeing, throughout the ‘80s.
In the winter of 1989, Jackson started working at the Bennett Centre in the Edmonton River Valley, focusing on teaching a mixture of outdoor skills and interpretive programs.
But when the spring of 1990 rolled around, Jackson’s nomadic blood started boiling again. He left for southeast Asia where he spent 10 months exploring countries and the next eight in the South Pacific.
He returned to Canada in the fall of 1991. An experienced racer, Jackson was at the Birkebeiner, a nordic ski event, competing in the 50-kilometre event.
“A friend of mine came up to me and said, ‘Do you want to run a canoe company in Jasper?’ It was real simple. I said, ‘Sure.’ I had worked at Bennett Centre all winter. The summer was wide open.”
And so, Jackson signed up to work seasonally with Rocky Mountain Voyageurs. He instructed guides on safe maneuvering in moving water. The trips were tons of fun.
“We’d load up three, four 26-foot canoes, take a dozen guests at a time (with everyone) dressed in the voyager costume, including Metis sashes,” he said. “We carried bear, wolf and coyote furs. When we got to the destination we’d play fiddle music, (do) a circle dance, and wrap it up with pictures.”
In the mid ‘90s, Jackson decided to stay year-round in Jasper. He taught cross country skiing, and did wildlife tours in his four-passenger Mazda 262. The next transportation unit for the tours was a full size six-passenger van.
“Then it evolved into a busy 24 passenger bus,” Jackson said. “I called it my custom mountain bus. I launched Alpine Art full time in 2001, (which) encompassed the tours.”
Jackson continued to learn about the First Nations culture. Starting in about 2008, he was invited to ceremonies and helped build teepees and sweat lodges.
“That connection kept growing,” he said. “With the native people, it’s more of a sharing. They’re very happy to share cultural activities, as long as you come with an open heart. No judging. Be open to whatever happens. I developed friendships with a lot of people in the Indigenous community.
Jackson continues to work with Jim Ochiese, a widely known and respected medicine man he met in 2008.
“That was one of the neat awakenings for me,” Jackson said. “Because of my family history, it's really neat that I’ve come full circle to my roots from the 1700s to now.”
Jackson said his dad didn’t wear shoes until he was 14.
“He wore moccasins before that, made for him by members of the Tsuut’ina reserve,” he said.
Jackson has also had the honour of working with many elders.
“They’re hoping for a future of justice based on love, trust and understanding, which forms the foundation of unity,” he said.
Alpine Art continues, although at an adjusted pace. Pre-COVID, Jackson’s clientele was mostly international people.
“It’s great fun taking people out,” he said. “I show people things with different eyes. I firmly believe I’m helping (them) re-connect with the natural world.”
Jackson’s dedication was recognized in May 2018, when he was awarded with recognition as Master Interpreter with the Interpretive Guides Association (IGA) at a ceremony in Banff, along with Kirsten Schmitten and Heidi Fengler. It’s the highest level of accreditation with the IGA.
“It was an honour to be recognized by your peers,” Jackson said.
He loves living in this mountain town.
“It’s an amazing life in Jasper. People are very special, very caring, very warm. Once they’ve been living in Jasper for awhile, they either stay or visit regularly.
