The Kootenay Plains is a powerful place.
With its broad valley stretching away from the Rocky Mountains, home to the North Saskatchewan River, the dry plains have called out to people for thousands of years.
And Calgary-born author Bruce Hunter, a professor of English and Liberal Studies at Seneca College in Toronto, is one of these people.
Throughout much of Hunter’s life, Kootenay Plains has haunted him.
He has visited the plains many times in person and perhaps even more in his dreams.
“I know it is a magical place and I have been haunted by it. It was in my dreams for many years. I knew about Bighorn Dam and I knew about the controversy about it and I had dreams that I was wandering around Kootenay Plains and the water was coming up around my ankles,” Hunter told the Outlook recently.
Kootenay Plains and the development of the Bighorn Dam play pivotal roles in Hunter’s story and the effect both had on the people who lived at this magical place.
“This is a book about the mountains and this is a book about a holy place and it is also about this huge sociological and environmental impact of Bighorn Dam.
“Like the narrator in the book, I did live on Kootenay Plains, but nowhere near as long. As I say to people, the bones are mine but the flesh and the clothing and the adventures are fiction,” Hunter said, adding he stayed with his great aunt and uncle, who worked for the forest service.
Hunter drew heavily from his dreams, his own life experience and a substantial amount of research as he crafted the superbly written In the Bear’s House, a story that follows the lives of a deaf boy nicknamed Trout and his mother Clare. He wove fact and fiction together, telling a story that speaks of despair, loss, loneliness, but more importantly, discovery and redemption.
It is a coming-of-age story that blends the real and the imagined to such a high degree that separating fact from fiction is a challenge, as what appears to be real is in fact imagined, and vice versa. This effective blurring of the lines is a testament to the level of honesty and research Hunter, who, like his protagonist Trout, is deaf, employed as he wrote this 455-page novel.
And it is a combination that obviously works as Hunter received the Canadian Rockies award – beating out 101 entries from 10 countries – during the 2009 Banff Mountain Book Festival, Thursday (Nov. 5).
Representing the award committee, Will Gadd wrote on the Banff Mountain Festivals website, In the Bear’s House “captures the transformative power of the Rocky Mountains… We initially had a hard time selecting this book for the Canadian Rockies Award as not all of it occurs in the Canadian Rockies.But the major transformations do, and the writing is as solid as the limestone in the Rockies isn’t."
But the transformations Hunter quietly reveals throughout the book did not come easy. In the Bear’s House only came together after a false start, writing from the third person about Trout. But after his research,Hunter began to understand he needed to learn a number of powerful elements that would help drive the story.
“One is the anger of the kids, not so much that they can’t hear, but they’re not heard and that’s why I became a writer. But for a good part of it, I realized that unless I told the story, at least part of it, from the mother’s point of view, I wasn’t going to get the whole story,” he said.
Writing teachers will often tell their students to write about what they know, but in this case, Hunter willfully ignored that tried but true approach by including Clare in the first person, alongside a host of First Nations third-person characters.
Both techniques can be risky for a white male, but Hunter handles each with the same honesty and sensitivity he uses throughout the book. As a result, Hunter does what he set out to do, honour each of the different groups that play a role in the book, be it women, or the Wesley band of the Stoney-Nakoda First Nation, the Scots and deaf children.
In the Bear’s House is published by B.C.- based Oolichan Books. It sells for $22.95.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Book chronicles changing views of the Bow River valley
When British spy Henry James Warre sat down in a meadow in 1845 and created the first painting of the Bow Valley, he would have had no idea he had just initiated what is now a long-standing tradition.
Today, according to environmental historians and authors Christopher Armstrong and H.V. Nelles in their newly released The Painted Valley: Artists Along Alberta’s Bow River, 1845-2000, the Bow River valley is one of the most heavily painted regions in Canada.
Just as the Bow River region has been a focal point of national importance for transportation, this region has a similar status in the history of Canadian and Western Canadian art.
With the hopes of answering a simple question: how had people pictured the Bow River over time, the authors set out to gauge how the perception of the Bow River valley has changed in the more than 150 years artists have been drawn to paint the river, its valley and its mountainous backdrop.
“The history of a river is written not just along its banks; it can be read too in the culture and memory of the people who share the valley,” they wrote. “Our interest as environmental historians is in this aspect of art, rather than the aesthetic and theoretical concerns of contemporary art historians.
“Artistic representations provide one vantage point to observe shifting broader cultural perceptions of nature.”
As the authors sifted through the holdings of all of the major Alberta archives as they searched for their answers, five distinct topics emerged that ranged in time from Warre’s 1845 paintings through the periods of Impressionism and Modernism.
Along with 200 black-and-white and colour reproductions, these chapters form the backbone of the 160-page book, which adeptly explores the thought process of each group of artists who painted the river and its surroundings.
Explorers, fur traders and geographers, for example, tended to see the land as a
European possession and the subjects within the paintings reflected that belief. Red-coated Mounties, log-palisade forts and early settlements were prominent elements in the landscapes, while native people – mirroring how Europeans saw them – often appeared as small and insignificant.
Artwork, as the authors said, was enlisted in the service of the Empire. Railway artists, meanwhile, tended to make the Bow River region look like their European homes. As a result, the river and especially the mountains appear to be a calm, pastoral setting. Surprisingly, these artists, riding the rails in relative luxury on free passes, tended toleave the railway and its steam and smoke-belching locomotives out of their paintings, opting instead to pretend the industrial age had not reached the Bow Valley.
The Impressionists of the early 1900s, including famed wildlife painter Carl Rungius, began to give the Painted Valley – especially its mountains – its own distinct appearance as they began to move away from established conventions and explored their own vision.
Following in the path of the Impressionists, a new generation, artists who called the Bow valley home, began to edge away from the British watercolour traditions, paving the way for the next group who would hone a distinct sense of art in the Bow River region.
While the history of the Bow Valley region obviously plays an important role, as those were the circumstances, ideas and philosophies of the time, the authors only used that as the peg to hang the rest of the book on.
Those looking for more history of the region might be disappointed as the book is sparse in those overall historical details, but for those seeking to understand how the region has been painted and perceived over the years, it is quite rich and does a wonderful job of filling that niche.
But both artist and historian will find the authors’ insights valuable, such as why the mountains in Warre’s Bow Valley watercolours look so exaggerated or why so few painters chose to portray the river as it passes through Calgary. It also provides insights into the painters themselves, such as Rungius,who enjoyed shooting the animals he painted.
Beyond the art and history schools, The Painted Valley will have some appeal to local readers looking to see how the Bow Valley has changed over the years. In so many ways, this is a book about Canmore and Banff, more so than any other part of the river, as the majority of artists gravitated to the mountains, rather than the burgeoning city of Calgary or the prairies that line the river for the bulk of its course.
Like other University of Calgary Press titles, this book will appeal to book lovers who enjoy a tactile experience when reading: it has a nice feel and a nice look. The Painted Valley retails
for $54.95.
Today, according to environmental historians and authors Christopher Armstrong and H.V. Nelles in their newly released The Painted Valley: Artists Along Alberta’s Bow River, 1845-2000, the Bow River valley is one of the most heavily painted regions in Canada.
Just as the Bow River region has been a focal point of national importance for transportation, this region has a similar status in the history of Canadian and Western Canadian art.
With the hopes of answering a simple question: how had people pictured the Bow River over time, the authors set out to gauge how the perception of the Bow River valley has changed in the more than 150 years artists have been drawn to paint the river, its valley and its mountainous backdrop.
“The history of a river is written not just along its banks; it can be read too in the culture and memory of the people who share the valley,” they wrote. “Our interest as environmental historians is in this aspect of art, rather than the aesthetic and theoretical concerns of contemporary art historians.
“Artistic representations provide one vantage point to observe shifting broader cultural perceptions of nature.”
As the authors sifted through the holdings of all of the major Alberta archives as they searched for their answers, five distinct topics emerged that ranged in time from Warre’s 1845 paintings through the periods of Impressionism and Modernism.
Along with 200 black-and-white and colour reproductions, these chapters form the backbone of the 160-page book, which adeptly explores the thought process of each group of artists who painted the river and its surroundings.
Explorers, fur traders and geographers, for example, tended to see the land as a
European possession and the subjects within the paintings reflected that belief. Red-coated Mounties, log-palisade forts and early settlements were prominent elements in the landscapes, while native people – mirroring how Europeans saw them – often appeared as small and insignificant.
Artwork, as the authors said, was enlisted in the service of the Empire. Railway artists, meanwhile, tended to make the Bow River region look like their European homes. As a result, the river and especially the mountains appear to be a calm, pastoral setting. Surprisingly, these artists, riding the rails in relative luxury on free passes, tended toleave the railway and its steam and smoke-belching locomotives out of their paintings, opting instead to pretend the industrial age had not reached the Bow Valley.
The Impressionists of the early 1900s, including famed wildlife painter Carl Rungius, began to give the Painted Valley – especially its mountains – its own distinct appearance as they began to move away from established conventions and explored their own vision.
Following in the path of the Impressionists, a new generation, artists who called the Bow valley home, began to edge away from the British watercolour traditions, paving the way for the next group who would hone a distinct sense of art in the Bow River region.
While the history of the Bow Valley region obviously plays an important role, as those were the circumstances, ideas and philosophies of the time, the authors only used that as the peg to hang the rest of the book on.
Those looking for more history of the region might be disappointed as the book is sparse in those overall historical details, but for those seeking to understand how the region has been painted and perceived over the years, it is quite rich and does a wonderful job of filling that niche.
But both artist and historian will find the authors’ insights valuable, such as why the mountains in Warre’s Bow Valley watercolours look so exaggerated or why so few painters chose to portray the river as it passes through Calgary. It also provides insights into the painters themselves, such as Rungius,who enjoyed shooting the animals he painted.
Beyond the art and history schools, The Painted Valley will have some appeal to local readers looking to see how the Bow Valley has changed over the years. In so many ways, this is a book about Canmore and Banff, more so than any other part of the river, as the majority of artists gravitated to the mountains, rather than the burgeoning city of Calgary or the prairies that line the river for the bulk of its course.
Like other University of Calgary Press titles, this book will appeal to book lovers who enjoy a tactile experience when reading: it has a nice feel and a nice look. The Painted Valley retails
for $54.95.
New book features Alberta ladybugs
Hercules, blotch-backed, twice-stabbed, oncesquashed and flying saucer.
The names are as evocative as they are unusual and an interesting if not surprising factoid in the world of the insects we know as ‘ladybugs.’
But then, who knew ladybugs, long considered friend of gardeners everywhere, had such interesting names, or that Alberta was home to enough species of these distinctive beetles to fill a book.
Ladybugs of Alberta: Finding the Spots and Connecting the Dots is that book, published by The University of Alberta Press. Written by John Acorn, an Edmonton-based writer, photographer, naturalist and broadcaster, it features 75 of the common and not-so-common ladybugs found throughout Alberta, including the Rocky Mountains.
After reading Acorn’s newest book, number three in his Alberta insect series, it is impossible to walk away thinking that the red ladybugs with the distinctive black dots are the end-all be-all of ladybugs.
While they may be the more common ladybugs found in this region, saying ‘seen one,seen ‘em all’, is so far from the truth it’s like saying all alpine wildflowers are the
same.
In fact, the range and size of ladybugs is staggering. Some ladybugs are tiny, like the micro ladybug at 1.0 millimetre, and about the thickness of dime, while others are massive (at least by ladybug standards), like the wonderfully-named mealybug destroyer at 4.5 mm.
They also come in a broad range of colours and patterns, beyond the red-and-black. Some are entirely black or, like the twice-stabbed ladybug, black with a red dot on each wing cover.
Even though ladybugs are one of the most appreciated denizens of the bug world – along with butterflies and dragonflies – Acorn had the difficult job of presenting these aphid eating creatures in a manner that would not only grab a reader’s attention, but also keep it.
A difficult task given that his topic is not one to garner much passion among mainstream audiences.
But for those with even a slight interest in nature and its smaller denizens, Acorn does a commendable job of keeping his topic readable and funny. It’s an approach he used in his recent Deep Alberta: Fossil Facts and Dinosaur Digs.
That’s the charm of Ladybugs of Alberta: Finding the Spots and Connecting the Dots,the first regional field guide of its kind in North America. Acorn uses the book to share his passion, and in the process his knowledge, of what he believes to be some pretty cool critters.
The names are as evocative as they are unusual and an interesting if not surprising factoid in the world of the insects we know as ‘ladybugs.’
But then, who knew ladybugs, long considered friend of gardeners everywhere, had such interesting names, or that Alberta was home to enough species of these distinctive beetles to fill a book.
Ladybugs of Alberta: Finding the Spots and Connecting the Dots is that book, published by The University of Alberta Press. Written by John Acorn, an Edmonton-based writer, photographer, naturalist and broadcaster, it features 75 of the common and not-so-common ladybugs found throughout Alberta, including the Rocky Mountains.
After reading Acorn’s newest book, number three in his Alberta insect series, it is impossible to walk away thinking that the red ladybugs with the distinctive black dots are the end-all be-all of ladybugs.
While they may be the more common ladybugs found in this region, saying ‘seen one,seen ‘em all’, is so far from the truth it’s like saying all alpine wildflowers are the
same.
In fact, the range and size of ladybugs is staggering. Some ladybugs are tiny, like the micro ladybug at 1.0 millimetre, and about the thickness of dime, while others are massive (at least by ladybug standards), like the wonderfully-named mealybug destroyer at 4.5 mm.
They also come in a broad range of colours and patterns, beyond the red-and-black. Some are entirely black or, like the twice-stabbed ladybug, black with a red dot on each wing cover.
Even though ladybugs are one of the most appreciated denizens of the bug world – along with butterflies and dragonflies – Acorn had the difficult job of presenting these aphid eating creatures in a manner that would not only grab a reader’s attention, but also keep it.
A difficult task given that his topic is not one to garner much passion among mainstream audiences.
But for those with even a slight interest in nature and its smaller denizens, Acorn does a commendable job of keeping his topic readable and funny. It’s an approach he used in his recent Deep Alberta: Fossil Facts and Dinosaur Digs.
That’s the charm of Ladybugs of Alberta: Finding the Spots and Connecting the Dots,the first regional field guide of its kind in North America. Acorn uses the book to share his passion, and in the process his knowledge, of what he believes to be some pretty cool critters.
In the Bear’s House wins Canadian Rockies award
The Kootenay Plains is a powerful place.
With its broad valley stretching away from the Rocky Mountains, home to the North Saskatchewan River, the dry plains have called out to people for thousands of years.
And Calgary-born author Bruce Hunter, a professor of English and Liberal Studies at Seneca College in Toronto, is one of these people.
Throughout much of Hunter’s life, Kootenay Plains has haunted him. He has visited the plains many times in person and perhaps even more in his dreams.
“I know it is a magical place and I have been haunted by it. It was in my dreams for many years. I knew about Bighorn Dam and I knew about the controversy about it and I had dreams that I was wandering around Kootenay Plains and the water was coming up around my ankles,” Hunter told the Outlook recently.
Kootenay Plains and the development of the Bighorn Dam play pivotal roles in Hunter’s story and the effect both had on the people who lived at this magical place.
“This is a book about the mountains and this is a book about a holy place and it is also about this huge sociological and environmental impact of Bighorn Dam.
“Like the narrator in the book, I did live on Kootenay Plains, but nowhere near as long. As I say to people, the bones are mine but the flesh and the clothing and the adventures are fiction,” Hunter said, adding he stayed with his great aunt and uncle, who worked for the forest service.
Hunter drew heavily from his dreams, his own life experience and a substantial amount of research as he crafted the superbly written In the Bear’s House, a story that follows the lives of a deaf boy nicknamed Trout and his mother Clare. He wove fact and fiction together, telling a story that speaks of despair, loss, love, loneliness, but more importantly, discovery and redemption.
It is a coming-of-age story that blends the real and the imagined to such a high degree that separating fact from fiction is a challenge, as what appears to be real is in fact imagined, and vice versa.
This effective blurring of the lines is a testament to the level of honesty and research Hunter, who, like his protagonist Trout, is deaf, employed as he wrote this 455-page novel.
And it is a combination that obviously works as Hunter received the Canadian Rockies award – beating out 101 entries from 10 countries – during the Banff Mountain Book Festival, Thursday (Nov. 5).
Representing the award committee, Will Gadd wrote on the Banff Mountain Festivals website, In the Bear’s House “captures the transformative power of the Rocky Mountains… We initially had a hard time selecting this book for the Canadian Rockies Award as not all of it occurs in the Canadian Rockies. But the major transformations do, and the writing is as solid as the limestone in the Rockies isn’t.”
But the transformations Hunter quietly reveals throughout the book did not come easy.
In the Bear’s House only came together after a false start, writing from the third person about Trout.
But after his research, Hunter began to understand he needed to learn a number of powerful elements that would help drive the story.
“One is the anger of the kids, not so much that they can’t hear, but they’re not heard and that’s why I became a writer. But for a good part of it, I realized that unless I told the story, at least part of it, from the mother’s point of view, I wasn’t going to get the whole story,” he said.
Writing teachers will often tell their students to write about what they know, but in this case,Hunter willfully ignored that tried but true approach by including Clare in the first person, alongside a host of First Nations third-person characters.
Both techniques can be risky for a white male, but Hunter handles each with the same honesty and sensitivity he uses throughout the book. As a result, Hunter does what he set out to do, honour each of the different groups that play a role in the book, be it women, or the Wesley band of the Stoney-Nakoda First Nation, the Scots and deaf children.
In the Bear’s House is published by B.C.-based Oolichan Books. It sells for $22.95.
With its broad valley stretching away from the Rocky Mountains, home to the North Saskatchewan River, the dry plains have called out to people for thousands of years.
And Calgary-born author Bruce Hunter, a professor of English and Liberal Studies at Seneca College in Toronto, is one of these people.
Throughout much of Hunter’s life, Kootenay Plains has haunted him. He has visited the plains many times in person and perhaps even more in his dreams.
“I know it is a magical place and I have been haunted by it. It was in my dreams for many years. I knew about Bighorn Dam and I knew about the controversy about it and I had dreams that I was wandering around Kootenay Plains and the water was coming up around my ankles,” Hunter told the Outlook recently.
Kootenay Plains and the development of the Bighorn Dam play pivotal roles in Hunter’s story and the effect both had on the people who lived at this magical place.
“This is a book about the mountains and this is a book about a holy place and it is also about this huge sociological and environmental impact of Bighorn Dam.
“Like the narrator in the book, I did live on Kootenay Plains, but nowhere near as long. As I say to people, the bones are mine but the flesh and the clothing and the adventures are fiction,” Hunter said, adding he stayed with his great aunt and uncle, who worked for the forest service.
Hunter drew heavily from his dreams, his own life experience and a substantial amount of research as he crafted the superbly written In the Bear’s House, a story that follows the lives of a deaf boy nicknamed Trout and his mother Clare. He wove fact and fiction together, telling a story that speaks of despair, loss, love, loneliness, but more importantly, discovery and redemption.
It is a coming-of-age story that blends the real and the imagined to such a high degree that separating fact from fiction is a challenge, as what appears to be real is in fact imagined, and vice versa.
This effective blurring of the lines is a testament to the level of honesty and research Hunter, who, like his protagonist Trout, is deaf, employed as he wrote this 455-page novel.
And it is a combination that obviously works as Hunter received the Canadian Rockies award – beating out 101 entries from 10 countries – during the Banff Mountain Book Festival, Thursday (Nov. 5).
Representing the award committee, Will Gadd wrote on the Banff Mountain Festivals website, In the Bear’s House “captures the transformative power of the Rocky Mountains… We initially had a hard time selecting this book for the Canadian Rockies Award as not all of it occurs in the Canadian Rockies. But the major transformations do, and the writing is as solid as the limestone in the Rockies isn’t.”
But the transformations Hunter quietly reveals throughout the book did not come easy.
In the Bear’s House only came together after a false start, writing from the third person about Trout.
But after his research, Hunter began to understand he needed to learn a number of powerful elements that would help drive the story.
“One is the anger of the kids, not so much that they can’t hear, but they’re not heard and that’s why I became a writer. But for a good part of it, I realized that unless I told the story, at least part of it, from the mother’s point of view, I wasn’t going to get the whole story,” he said.
Writing teachers will often tell their students to write about what they know, but in this case,Hunter willfully ignored that tried but true approach by including Clare in the first person, alongside a host of First Nations third-person characters.
Both techniques can be risky for a white male, but Hunter handles each with the same honesty and sensitivity he uses throughout the book. As a result, Hunter does what he set out to do, honour each of the different groups that play a role in the book, be it women, or the Wesley band of the Stoney-Nakoda First Nation, the Scots and deaf children.
In the Bear’s House is published by B.C.-based Oolichan Books. It sells for $22.95.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Mountain classics resurrected
History, if unrecorded can be easily lost, and while books provide a permanence, if enough years pass without a reprint the few remaining copies end up on shelves of collectors or shoved in a box in a basement or attic.
To help preserve the history of the mountainous regions of the West, Rocky Mountain Books has released its Mountain Classics Collection, starting with Arthur Philemon Coleman’s 1911 travelogue The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails.
The multi-talented Coleman, a geologist, artist, writer, world traveller and mountaineer, spent eight summers travelling the wilds of the Rocky Mountains and the Selkirks by foot, horseback, canoe and raft, just as western Canada was entering a new era with the arrival of the railroad.
During those expeditions he spent three seasons searching for the legendary Mounts Hooker and Brown, which flank Athabasca Pass near Jasper and, at the time, were believed to be 5,000 metres (16,000 ft.). Coleman proved the two peaks were actually much smaller than that at 2,800 metres. He also made two attempts to climb Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at nearly 4,000 m. (13,000 ft.).
Coleman first came west in the spring of 1884, passing through Calgary, Morley, Banff and Canmore and arriving at Laggan (now Lake Louise) while it was still the end of the rail.
While Coleman made no mention of Banff or Canmore, his descriptions of Morley, Calgary and Laggan, much like the entire book, provide valuable references to early life in this region.
“Last year the old Calgary was east of the Elbow, but the almighty railway had puts its station in a more spacious part of the valley, a mile or two west; and the submissive city packed itself on sleighs or carts, crossed the Elbow and replanted itself near the station as a row of straggling log houses and tents.
Some of the mansions had the curved roofs of CPR boxcars, and the thousand inhabitants sheltered themselves from the weather in all possible ways, many under roofs of prairie sod,” Coleman wrote.
Not at all the Calgary of today; wherein lies the value of this book and indeed the entire Mountain Classics Collection, according to Don Gorman, managing editor at Rocky Mountain Books and the catalyst behind the Mountain Classics Collection.
“You can still get original editions of these, but they’re expensive and they start at $200 to $300 for an ugly copy and they can go as high as $1,000. These are really important western Canadian histories that a lot of western Canadians don’t have access to,” Gorman said Monday (Nov. 20).
Unlike many of the regional history books to hit the shelves lately, which are lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs, the Mountain Classics Collection will have no illustrations. The idea, Gorman said, is to keep the
books affordable to get them into as many hands as possible.
The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails, published in September by Rocky Mountains Books, is available for $19.95.
“I think we tend to think that the mountains are just there and we take them for granted, and we do the same thing with our history and our books. This is just poking people with a stick and letting them know that there is some good writing out there that has been forgotten.”
Gorman said he chose Coleman for the first book in the collection, which will be followed in March by Mary Schäffer’s 1911 Old IndianTrails of the Canadian Rockies, as Coleman’s numerous and detailed observations provides some perspective into the birth of western Canada and the rise of mountain culture.
“It was just really interesting to consider what was going on in western Canada 1910-1913, because it was so raw and so basic, and then you think about what was going on at that time and Picasso was painting — the ultra-expression of modernism, and we’re still here swatting flies and using horses to get through the woods,” Gorman said.
Along with the perspective Coleman provides, another strength of the book is his evocative writing, according to Chic Scott, a Banff writer and historian best known for his own book Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering.
“He gives us a window into a vanished time in the west, when one could set out for months into an unexplored land and find new lakes, cross unknown passes and climb to untrodden summits. Although these romantic days are now gone, we can, through this book, still enjoy the campfire along the trail and the starry skies of that magical world,” Scott wrote.
To help preserve the history of the mountainous regions of the West, Rocky Mountain Books has released its Mountain Classics Collection, starting with Arthur Philemon Coleman’s 1911 travelogue The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails.
The multi-talented Coleman, a geologist, artist, writer, world traveller and mountaineer, spent eight summers travelling the wilds of the Rocky Mountains and the Selkirks by foot, horseback, canoe and raft, just as western Canada was entering a new era with the arrival of the railroad.
During those expeditions he spent three seasons searching for the legendary Mounts Hooker and Brown, which flank Athabasca Pass near Jasper and, at the time, were believed to be 5,000 metres (16,000 ft.). Coleman proved the two peaks were actually much smaller than that at 2,800 metres. He also made two attempts to climb Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at nearly 4,000 m. (13,000 ft.).
Coleman first came west in the spring of 1884, passing through Calgary, Morley, Banff and Canmore and arriving at Laggan (now Lake Louise) while it was still the end of the rail.
While Coleman made no mention of Banff or Canmore, his descriptions of Morley, Calgary and Laggan, much like the entire book, provide valuable references to early life in this region.
“Last year the old Calgary was east of the Elbow, but the almighty railway had puts its station in a more spacious part of the valley, a mile or two west; and the submissive city packed itself on sleighs or carts, crossed the Elbow and replanted itself near the station as a row of straggling log houses and tents.
Some of the mansions had the curved roofs of CPR boxcars, and the thousand inhabitants sheltered themselves from the weather in all possible ways, many under roofs of prairie sod,” Coleman wrote.
Not at all the Calgary of today; wherein lies the value of this book and indeed the entire Mountain Classics Collection, according to Don Gorman, managing editor at Rocky Mountain Books and the catalyst behind the Mountain Classics Collection.
“You can still get original editions of these, but they’re expensive and they start at $200 to $300 for an ugly copy and they can go as high as $1,000. These are really important western Canadian histories that a lot of western Canadians don’t have access to,” Gorman said Monday (Nov. 20).
Unlike many of the regional history books to hit the shelves lately, which are lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs, the Mountain Classics Collection will have no illustrations. The idea, Gorman said, is to keep the
books affordable to get them into as many hands as possible.
The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails, published in September by Rocky Mountains Books, is available for $19.95.
“I think we tend to think that the mountains are just there and we take them for granted, and we do the same thing with our history and our books. This is just poking people with a stick and letting them know that there is some good writing out there that has been forgotten.”
Gorman said he chose Coleman for the first book in the collection, which will be followed in March by Mary Schäffer’s 1911 Old IndianTrails of the Canadian Rockies, as Coleman’s numerous and detailed observations provides some perspective into the birth of western Canada and the rise of mountain culture.
“It was just really interesting to consider what was going on in western Canada 1910-1913, because it was so raw and so basic, and then you think about what was going on at that time and Picasso was painting — the ultra-expression of modernism, and we’re still here swatting flies and using horses to get through the woods,” Gorman said.
Along with the perspective Coleman provides, another strength of the book is his evocative writing, according to Chic Scott, a Banff writer and historian best known for his own book Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering.
“He gives us a window into a vanished time in the west, when one could set out for months into an unexplored land and find new lakes, cross unknown passes and climb to untrodden summits. Although these romantic days are now gone, we can, through this book, still enjoy the campfire along the trail and the starry skies of that magical world,” Scott wrote.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Intriguing book explores spirit of place
Landscape, buildings, specific natural features - all can elicit powerful feelings, a sense of something larger than ourselves, something meaningful, something sacred.
Most people - especially in the Bow Valley - can quickly point to a place they consider important and meaningful for a variety of reasons, but how do we define if it is sacred? And what does 'sacred' even mean for that matter?
According to B.C.-journalist Star Weiss in her recently released book Havens in a Hectic World: Finding Sacred Places, none of those questions are easy to answer with a precise definition.
Instead of turning to the relatively common idea of sense of place - the natural and cultural history of a landscape - to look for answers, Weiss turns to what the Romans called genius loci or spirit of place to help her make decisions.
While 'sense of place' may attract our interest, it is the spirit that makes a place sacred.
"The choice of sacred place is a kind of shorthand for recognizing what brings meaning into our lives, or helps us get through a crisis, the dark night of the soul, or gives us a sense of being connected to something greater.
"...I'm learning that sacred places are like good friends, each unique, each meeting our needs a bit differently, each filling a distinct role in our lives... is this perhaps what we're seeking in sacred spaces? A place of grace, where we can find the authentic "I" in each of us?" Weiss wrote.
Historically, she added, the word sacred was tied to religious experiences and to buildings and sites, but today, that definition has broadened to include essentially anything or anywhere that creates a deep-seated, emotional connection.
Throughout this book, Weiss has done an admirable job of seeking out what we considered sacred and what that means in our modern times by providing concrete examples.
While all of the examples she uses are found along the West Coast of B.C., that does not necessarily diminish the intriguing value of this book, as many of her examples have obvious and immediate parallels in Alberta or Eastern Canada.
In her chapters, Weiss included mountains in general, waterfalls and bodies of water, even the forest, gardens, religious buildings and sites where we remember events and people, even our own homes - anywhere people gather to honour or celebrate a higher purpose or feel safe, secure and connected to place.
Rather than just describe why a place may be sacred from her perspective, she instead turns to others and asks them where and what they deem as sacred and the answers are as interesting as they are surprising.
And that opens the door for 'a-ha' moments allowing readers to quickly connect to places they love, but may not have thought of as sacred.
For me, a quick list of sacred places includes Grassi Lakes and Upper Waterfowl Lake in Banff National Park, a couple of the historical buildings and the mine sites in my hometown of Canmore and the spots along the Bow River where I played as a child that today still evoke powerful memories.
My list also includes the desert of the American Southwest, where I feel utterly comfortable. I must have been a desert dweller in a past life.
But what is more difficult to answer is why these places speak to me.
The true value of any book can be measured by how much it entertains, educates and inspires. And given that, Havens in a Sacred World certainly provides food for thought. Even though I read this book over the holidays, I'm still mulling over the places that I find sacred and why.
Weiss has laid out the entire book in way that she really is asking: "where is your sacred place"?
Havens in Hectic World: Finds Sacred Places is published by TouchWood Editions. It retails for $29.95.
Most people - especially in the Bow Valley - can quickly point to a place they consider important and meaningful for a variety of reasons, but how do we define if it is sacred? And what does 'sacred' even mean for that matter?
According to B.C.-journalist Star Weiss in her recently released book Havens in a Hectic World: Finding Sacred Places, none of those questions are easy to answer with a precise definition.
Instead of turning to the relatively common idea of sense of place - the natural and cultural history of a landscape - to look for answers, Weiss turns to what the Romans called genius loci or spirit of place to help her make decisions.
While 'sense of place' may attract our interest, it is the spirit that makes a place sacred.
"The choice of sacred place is a kind of shorthand for recognizing what brings meaning into our lives, or helps us get through a crisis, the dark night of the soul, or gives us a sense of being connected to something greater.
"...I'm learning that sacred places are like good friends, each unique, each meeting our needs a bit differently, each filling a distinct role in our lives... is this perhaps what we're seeking in sacred spaces? A place of grace, where we can find the authentic "I" in each of us?" Weiss wrote.
Historically, she added, the word sacred was tied to religious experiences and to buildings and sites, but today, that definition has broadened to include essentially anything or anywhere that creates a deep-seated, emotional connection.
Throughout this book, Weiss has done an admirable job of seeking out what we considered sacred and what that means in our modern times by providing concrete examples.
While all of the examples she uses are found along the West Coast of B.C., that does not necessarily diminish the intriguing value of this book, as many of her examples have obvious and immediate parallels in Alberta or Eastern Canada.
In her chapters, Weiss included mountains in general, waterfalls and bodies of water, even the forest, gardens, religious buildings and sites where we remember events and people, even our own homes - anywhere people gather to honour or celebrate a higher purpose or feel safe, secure and connected to place.
Rather than just describe why a place may be sacred from her perspective, she instead turns to others and asks them where and what they deem as sacred and the answers are as interesting as they are surprising.
And that opens the door for 'a-ha' moments allowing readers to quickly connect to places they love, but may not have thought of as sacred.
For me, a quick list of sacred places includes Grassi Lakes and Upper Waterfowl Lake in Banff National Park, a couple of the historical buildings and the mine sites in my hometown of Canmore and the spots along the Bow River where I played as a child that today still evoke powerful memories.
My list also includes the desert of the American Southwest, where I feel utterly comfortable. I must have been a desert dweller in a past life.
But what is more difficult to answer is why these places speak to me.
The true value of any book can be measured by how much it entertains, educates and inspires. And given that, Havens in a Sacred World certainly provides food for thought. Even though I read this book over the holidays, I'm still mulling over the places that I find sacred and why.
Weiss has laid out the entire book in way that she really is asking: "where is your sacred place"?
Havens in Hectic World: Finds Sacred Places is published by TouchWood Editions. It retails for $29.95.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Adventurous Dreams an inspiration to dreamers
Rob Alexander – BOW VALLEY
Childhood is a time for dreams.
It’s a time to reach out and, for whatever reason, pluck something from the ether that propels us to want to do something extraordinary.
Even though the dreams we have as children can be tenuous – cut free by circumstances, timing, resources, or even an understanding of our own limitations – they can also be achieved, even the most audacious ones.
But how do you stay the course and live the dream?
According to Jason Schoonover in his new book Adventurous Dreams, Adventurous Lives, which documents the lives and dreams of 120 remarkable adventurer-explorers, the key is to never lose the enthusiasm for what inspires you.
“This book is about people... who dreamed far beyond the familiar – who dreamed of castles in the air and then built them,” Schoonover writes in the preamble.
He chose to document the dreams of adventurers, including former Canmore residents and writing and filmmaking duo Pat and Baiba Morrow, along with people like Buzz Aldrin, Meave Leakey and Jean-Michel Cousteau, as these people “live the most exciting, fascinating, remarkable lives on the planet... For those interested in following dreams, hopefully there’s a lesson therein.”
That lesson can be gained quickly in Schoonover’s 312-page book as there’s a lot of meat in the individual entries, even though each is only two to three pages long, along with a photograph, short biography and a significant quote summing up that person’s philosophy or definition of exploration.
Schoonover asked his subjects to share their A ha! Moment – that moment when they realized what they were meant to do and the obstacles they had to overcome.
As a result, the meat of this book is the inspiration found on practically every page and the realization that the 120 subjects, many of who are often seen as celebrities or even demi-gods, are really just ordinary people with one extraordinary ability: to never let go of what fired their passions at a young age. Their passion is strong enough to feed them throughout their lives.
These are the people who never gave up their childhood dreams and gave in to the fact that sometimes reality can be a downer.
“For most though, it’s the business of getting on with life itself that kills dreams. Nothing buries one under a granite headstone like the weight of having to pay rent and put food on the table,” Schnoover writes.
If you have a dream and you’re struggling to maintain it, the $29.95 spent on Adventurous Dreams, Adventurous Lives, published by Rocky Mountain Books, is money well spent. In fact, it could be the best money-for-value investment you’ve ever made. Dreams can be tough to hang onto, and sometimes a well-placed reminder that
it is not only possible to achieve a dream, but ordinary people can do something extraordinary.
After all, even Buzz Aldrin, who, along with Neil Armstrong, walked on the moon, started off with an epiphany while taking an early flight as wide-eyed youngster.
“I had no idea when I had my first youthful dream of flight that it would take me all the way to the moon – but that’s the power unleashed in following one’s dreams,” Aldrin states in a quote on the cover of the book.
Childhood is a time for dreams.
It’s a time to reach out and, for whatever reason, pluck something from the ether that propels us to want to do something extraordinary.
Even though the dreams we have as children can be tenuous – cut free by circumstances, timing, resources, or even an understanding of our own limitations – they can also be achieved, even the most audacious ones.
But how do you stay the course and live the dream?
According to Jason Schoonover in his new book Adventurous Dreams, Adventurous Lives, which documents the lives and dreams of 120 remarkable adventurer-explorers, the key is to never lose the enthusiasm for what inspires you.
“This book is about people... who dreamed far beyond the familiar – who dreamed of castles in the air and then built them,” Schoonover writes in the preamble.
He chose to document the dreams of adventurers, including former Canmore residents and writing and filmmaking duo Pat and Baiba Morrow, along with people like Buzz Aldrin, Meave Leakey and Jean-Michel Cousteau, as these people “live the most exciting, fascinating, remarkable lives on the planet... For those interested in following dreams, hopefully there’s a lesson therein.”
That lesson can be gained quickly in Schoonover’s 312-page book as there’s a lot of meat in the individual entries, even though each is only two to three pages long, along with a photograph, short biography and a significant quote summing up that person’s philosophy or definition of exploration.
Schoonover asked his subjects to share their A ha! Moment – that moment when they realized what they were meant to do and the obstacles they had to overcome.
As a result, the meat of this book is the inspiration found on practically every page and the realization that the 120 subjects, many of who are often seen as celebrities or even demi-gods, are really just ordinary people with one extraordinary ability: to never let go of what fired their passions at a young age. Their passion is strong enough to feed them throughout their lives.
These are the people who never gave up their childhood dreams and gave in to the fact that sometimes reality can be a downer.
“For most though, it’s the business of getting on with life itself that kills dreams. Nothing buries one under a granite headstone like the weight of having to pay rent and put food on the table,” Schnoover writes.
If you have a dream and you’re struggling to maintain it, the $29.95 spent on Adventurous Dreams, Adventurous Lives, published by Rocky Mountain Books, is money well spent. In fact, it could be the best money-for-value investment you’ve ever made. Dreams can be tough to hang onto, and sometimes a well-placed reminder that
it is not only possible to achieve a dream, but ordinary people can do something extraordinary.
After all, even Buzz Aldrin, who, along with Neil Armstrong, walked on the moon, started off with an epiphany while taking an early flight as wide-eyed youngster.
“I had no idea when I had my first youthful dream of flight that it would take me all the way to the moon – but that’s the power unleashed in following one’s dreams,” Aldrin states in a quote on the cover of the book.
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