How Kananaskis came to be the destination it is today
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People may have lived here as far back as 4500 BC. The Blackfoot and Stoney First Nations made the area home in the early 1800s. Europeans found it about a century and a half ago, with the Kananaskis name bestowed upon it, possibly to honour a First Nations warrior.
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With Europeans, came development. As the railway expanded west, the Canadian Pacific Railway announced it would stop in Kananaski to head west at 4:03 each day. Commerce in the area expanded, too. When Bow River Mills opened, there was a sense of excitement about the new enterprise. These ads for the business appeared in the Calgary Herald in 1888.
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Kananaskis importantly, however, became known for its natural beauty as this 1892 story about photographs of the area indicated. Other newspaper stories from the late 1800s and early 1900s indicate it was common for school groups, church groups and other organizations to visit Kananaskis for picnics and hikes.
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By the mid-1900s a number of provincial parks had been started in Kananaskis, but Premier Peter Lougheed — and local environmental groups — saw the need for better protection of the area. In 1975, Alberta's provincial government proposed the idea of officially turning the Kananaskis area into a provincial park.
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The announcement led to much discussion about the idea as this full page background piece shows.
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Kananaskis Provincial Park was officially dedicated in September 1978, with development costs then expected to be $40 million. It was lauded for combining both recreational and wilderness areas, while predicted to become a model for future projects on the eastern slopes of the Rockies.
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TURN PAGE from Sept. 23, 1978 front page:
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Over the years, Kananaskis Country developed into more than 4,200 square kilometres of land that consists of many five provincial parks, four wildland provincial parks and many provincial recreation areas. It's a visitor mecca for those who enjoy nature, hiking, canoeing, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.
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