Banff

Wow! Banff is both a beautiful and historic site. As has been the case for most of this tour so far, mountain and lake vistas abound at every turn.

So now I'll try to summarize the history of the Banff area as best as I understand it, before sharing some of the photos we took of the area.

Beginning in 1881, the Canadian Pacific railway line was being constructed to connect eastern and western Canada as part of an agreement to have British Columbia join confederation. While construction proceeded through the Banff area in 1883, three CP Rail workers re-discovered a hot spring Cave and Basin. I say rediscovered because there were apparently two previous recorded references to the cave in 1859 and 1874.

The rail workers built a cabin in hopes of commercializing their discovery, but conflicting claims to the area resulted in the John A. MacDonald government stepping in and declaring a 10 square mile area around the Cave and Basin , the "Banff Hot Springs Reserve". This declaration was also the genesis of the "Canadian National Parks" system.

While all this was happening, William Van Horne the then General Manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway saw the monetary potential of the scenery surrounding the rail line through the Rockies. He is quoted as saying "since we can't export the scenery, we'll have to import the tourists". His vision resulted in the construction of a series of CP luxury hotels along the line, one of which is the Banff Springs Hotel.

The hotel is now operated by Fairmont and owned by the real estate arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, (OMERS).


The shot below depicts the CP rail workers lowering themselves into the hot spring cave using a felled tree through a natural skylight, which was the only access to the cave at the time. In 1886, an artificial tunnel was cut into the cave to allow easy access.

The original "skylight" access to the cave.

The hot spring pool within the cave. The smell of sulphur was quite unpleasant.

The "Basin".  Another hot spring fed pool found outside, maybe 200 or so yards from the cave.

The view from the observation area at the hot spring basin.

This facility housed a hot spring swimming pool which operated until 1994

A Magpie stopped in for a visit.

After visiting the Cave and Basin site, we head to the hotel for lunch.

The Banff Springs Hotel

View from one of the dining patios at the hotel.
We ate at the Rundle Lounge, one of 12 dining areas within the hotel.

One of the hotel ballrooms. This place is huge and I can imagine it would be easy to become lost while wandering it's many hallways, archways, parlours and ballrooms. 

A tribute to William Van Horne

You can certainly see why this site was chosen for the hotel. "Importing Tourists" here is an easy sell.

This ends our visit to Alberta. Next stop...  Vernon BC and the Okanagan Valley.