More than 1.2 million people visit the Icefields Parkway each year, tempted in by the near-legendary views of this stretch of the Rockies.
However, visitors are no new thing. The Icefields Parkway was a travel, hunting and trade route for Indigenous people long before European colonists occupied what is now called Canada. Over its 200km, the road travels through the traditional territory of many Indigenous groups, including the Ktunaxa, Secwépemc and Aseniwuche Winewak Nations, who have lived here for thousands of years – and many of whom were evicted when Jasper and Banff national parks were created.
Mountaineers, botanists, surveyors and tourists descended on the Rockies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, drawn by the new national parks, hotels and marked trail systems.
What was once known as the Glacier Trail was renamed the Wonder Trail – and then, finally, branded as the Icefields Parkway when it was paved as a two-lane highway in the 1960s, as car ownership rocketed. Throughout its constructions and reconstructions, much of the Icefields Parkway was built using forced labour. ‘Relief’ labour camps were built for unemployed men shipped out from the cities during the Great Depression, and interned people considered ‘enemy aliens’ during World War I
finished the road to Lake Louise. You can visit the memorial statue on the site of the old Castle Mountain Internment Camp near Banff en route.
