By Ines Keane
The story begins with a cave. Parks Canada says three railway workers, Frank McCabe and the brothers Tom and William McCardell, came upon the thermal springs in 1883. Everything else in this page, the park, the town and the hotel, follows from that find.
Who found it, and when
Three sources agree on the year. Banff & Lake Louise Tourism says three railway workers found the thermal springs in 1883. Parks Canada, the federal agency that runs the site, names them as Frank McCabe and the brothers Tom and William McCardell. The Canadian Encyclopedia says Canadian Pacific Railway employees found hot springs on Sulphur Mountain. The two accounts are not in conflict. One names the people, the other names the mountain.
From a find to a reserve
The encyclopedia gives the sequence. In 1885 an Order in Council established a 26 square kilometre Hot Springs Reserve. In 1886 the town of Banff was established as a transportation and service centre. In 1887 the reserve was renamed Rocky Mountains Park and enlarged to 674 square kilometres. The Canadian Pacific Railway-owned Banff Springs Hotel was completed in 1888. The National Parks Act of 1930 made Parks Canada responsible for what had by then been renamed Banff National Park, and the present size, 6,641 square kilometres, was set in 1949.
The encyclopedia is blunt about motive. It says the park’s existence is tied to the railway, which wanted more traffic and more profit. The park was originally set aside to preserve sulphur hot springs for public use.
The word “founded” does the work in that first row. Parks Canada’s page does not mention a reserve. The encyclopedia does, and gives later dates for the names we would now recognize. We do not resolve this. The 1885 reserve and the national park of today are connected, and the pages simply describe the connection with different words.
What a visit offers
Parks Canada describes interactive exhibits, short films, seasonal activities and views of the Rocky Mountains. Banff & Lake Louise Tourism says visitors can see hot water seeping from the rocks, smell the minerals and walk the trails. Both pages call the site the birthplace of Canada’s national parks.
A winter visit
The tourism page says the site runs on a different schedule in winter but does not give it, and Parks Canada’s page gives a seasonal schedule. We give no hours. Check before you go.
The encyclopedia adds why winter matters to the town. It says the winterization of the Banff Springs Hotel in 1968 helped make the park a year-round destination. It names alpine and cross-country skiing and 1,100 kilometres of hiking trails radiating from the town. It gives the park’s wildlife as 53 mammal species, among them grizzly and black bears, cougar, lynx, wolverine, elk, moose and bighorn sheep, and at least 280 bird species. Our reading: a December trip is a different place from a July one, and the pages we read about the cave itself give far more detail for the warm season than for winter.
Where it is
The encyclopedia puts the eastern gate about 100 kilometres west of Calgary and says the park stretches 240 kilometres along the eastern slope of the Continental Divide, with Jasper National Park at its northern boundary. It calls Banff the largest municipality in a Canadian national park.
What kind of sources these are
A federal agency page, a regional tourism board, the national encyclopedia and Wikipedia. We read no archive, no site plan and no scientific paper on the springs.
What we left out
Hours, fees, tour operators, hotel and restaurant names beyond the one hotel the encyclopedia dates, anything about the long human use of the site before 1883, and any claim that Sephari stocks, sells or ships anything from the town.
Quick answers
Who discovered the Banff hot springs? According to Parks Canada, three railway workers, Frank McCabe and brothers Tom and William McCardell, came upon the thermal springs in 1883.
When did Banff become a national park? The Canadian Encyclopedia says a Hot Springs Reserve was established in 1885, renamed Rocky Mountains Park in 1887, and called Banff National Park by 1930.
Is Banff a year-round destination? The encyclopedia says winterizing the Banff Springs Hotel in 1968 helped make it one, and names skiing and 1,100 kilometres of trails.
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Roam first. Shop later.