Jasper’s Harry Home has been an icon of railroading in Jasper. Now the octogenarian wants to revive his 75-year old 6060 Steam Engine as a heritage tourism attraction. May 1, 2019 // The Jasper Local archives Harry Home wants to rekindle a fire that’s been extinguished for far too long. The 85-year-...

First World War veteran Frank Burstrom Sr. was a Park Warden in the early years of Jasper National Park and undisputedly one of the most gifted Nordic skiers who ever called Jasper home. His herculean endurance and effortless glide carried his well-worn skis into deep powder fields, over glittery pa...

Remembering the man and the mountaineer, Ken Wallator Wallator in Maligne Canyon, 1984. // Gadd family archive The stories about former Jasperite Ken Wallator are jaw dropping. Perhaps the most incredible one took place on the limestone cliffs on Cirrus Mountain. Wallator was establishing a new rout...

From the June 15, 2016 Jasper Local Larry Nelles calls instructions during a 2016 course in Jasper. // Bob Covey “Go around there again, put a little lope motion in your body. You might have to over-and-under like that, but see if she can drop her head and pick up that canter.” Larry Nelles is calli...

Cyril Geoffrey Wates (1883-1946) was a composer, choirmaster, science fiction writer and photographer. Cyril Geoffrey wates in 1922 // Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archives He was also an inventor, an astronomer and an engineer. Not long after he constructed what was, at the time, the largest telesc...

A bison bone found high in the alpine near Maligne Lake is opening doors of discovery for paleo-environmental researchers in Jasper National Park. In 2016, Parks Canada historians surveying an ice patch near the headwaters of Trapper Creek were surprised to find what looked to be a bison humerus mel...

Ever wonder how The Jasper Local gets created? After the stories are collected and written, after the photos are snapped and selected, and after the advertisements are booked and approved—and then once our art director puts everything together in an eye-catching layout—it’s time to send the files to...

It was 1993. May. The almost two-month long siege at Waco Texas had just ended in terrible massacre; the siege of Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs was into its second year. The following month would see TVs final episode of Cheers and rave reviews for blockbuster movie Jurassic Park. There was no fanfa...

A compass which belonged to Jasper Park’s first superintendent has finally led its beneficiary to the place where it was originally used. When Vancouver’s Tim Timberg inherited an antique compass from his grandmother, he had scant idea the connection the artefact held to Jasper National Park. Howeve...

The Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archives is hoping a new exhibit will become the bedrock of the institution. The museum is planning to create a geological education area, a permanent showpiece which will pay tribute to a Canadian geologist who conducted much of his field work in Jasper National Par...

Agency says opening for hiking season would be inconsistent with caribou recovery plans The Maligne Lake Ski Club’s application for summer use of the historic Shangril-La cabin has been denied in the name of caribou conservation. The decision, which was reached in June but only recently communicated...

//Alain Denis I first ran into Fred Beckey at the Banff Book and Film Festival in 1994, where he tried stealing my girlfriend (something he was known for). By David Harrap I met him again 13 years later. It was late afternoon and he was coming out of a Jasper bakery. A scruffy stooped figured, raw b...

Every summer, Jasper likes to pat itself on the back while snapping photos of the annual powwow and Indigenous dancers on Aboriginal Day. However, based on the viral vitriol which besmirched the comments section on social media this month, it would appear that this sense of openness and acceptance i...

Indigenous Canadians whose ancestors were evicted from their homelands more than 100 years ago took part in a traditional hunt in Jasper National Park October 6-9. The occasion marked an historic return to the land for members of the Simpcw First Nation, whose main village is based in Chu Chua, just...

Peter Amann doesn’t have a bucket list. The 62-year-old mountain guide doesn’t have a catalog of peaks he needs to climb to feel like he’s been successful in the mountains. He doesn’t concern himself with all the 11,000 foot summits, for example, and he doesn’t care much about what others regard as ...

He may by hard of sight, but after 88 years in Jasper, Jack Pugh has seen it all. Jack Pugh’s father, George, was 18-years-old and newly arrived from England when he disembarked from the train in Stony Plain, Alberta. It was March 1906, 20 degrees below zero, and Stony Plain was the end of the rails...