Cave and Basin National Historic Site | |
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Location | Banff, Alberta, Canada |
Elevation | 1,405 m (4,610 ft) |
Founded | 1885 |
Founder | William McCardell and Frank McCabe |
Built | 1916 (pool structure) |
Governing body | Parks Canada and Municipality of Banff |
Website | parks |
The Cave and Basin National Historic Site of Canada is located in the town of Banff, Alberta, within the Canadian Rocky Mountains, at the site of natural thermal mineral springs around which Canada's first national park, Banff National Park, was established.
The Cave and Basin is the lowest component of nine sulphurous hot springs clustered in three groups on the northeast flank of Sulphur Mountain. All are located along the Sulphur Mountain Thrust Fault below Devonian limestones. The water is heated geothermally from an estimated depth of three kilometres. The Cave and Basin is the only cavern large enough to comfortably accommodate groups of people.
Human habitation in this area can be traced back to 10,700 years BC with the retreat of the last great glaciation, and it is unlikely that the hot springs escaped being noticed. The first recorded reference to hot springs here is by James Hector of the Palliser Expedition in 1859, followed by Joe Healey in 1874 who found the Cave and Basin site in 1875. But it was Canadian Pacific Railway workers William McCardell and Frank McCabe who brought national attention to the Cave and Basin. In 1883 they descended through the skylight entrance into the cave using a felled tree, and the following year constructed a small cabin nearby with the intention of commercializing the Cave and Basin site. Conflicting claims by other parties prompted intervention by the Canadian government headed by John A. Macdonald, and in 1885 an order-in-council reserved 10 square miles (26 km2) around the Cave and Basin, the Banff Hot Springs Reserve. This was the genesis of Canada's national parks system. In 1886 the Canadian government held an inquiry into the various private claims to settle on compensation.
In 1886 an artificial tunnel was driven into the Cave and Basin to aid visitation. In 1912 bottled water from the Cave and Basin site was sold for its alleged curative powers. In 1914 a naturally heated swimming pool was opened to the public and continued to operate until 1994.
The Cave and Basin was formally declared a National Historic Site in 1981. Canada's national parks system celebrated its centennial in 1985, on the anniversary of the order-in-council that established the original reserve around the Cave and Basin. On 20 August of that year, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and consort of the Queen of Canada, unveiled the National Historic Site plaque. [1]
The built facilities include an artificial tunnel to natural grotto, a replica of the original 1887 bathhouse, the restored 1916 swimming pool and structure, interpretive displays, hiking and snowshoe trails. The 1887 bathhouse, the first structure on the site, proved inadequate by 1902, and a new pool was built in 1904. The stone bathhouse was completed in 1914, designed by architect Walter S. Painter. The pools were closed in 1975, restored in 1985, then closed again in 1992. An interpretive center now uses the structures. The Banff Upper Hot Springs is a separate facility some 5 km (3 mi) southeast of the Cave and Basin.
Many of the early structures were built by detainees held at a World War I Ukrainian Canadian internment camp located nearby. The camp held citizens of countries with which Canada was at war at the time, and had a significant Ukrainian contingent. [2] A permanent exhibit about Canada's first national internment operations was opened at the Cave and Basin site, postponed three months by extensive flooding across southern Alberta, on 13 September 2013, with an address by Jason Kenney, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism. [3]
Almost all of the delicate cave formations had been stripped out of the Cave and Basin immediately following its 'discovery'. According to articles in the Calgary Herald at the time, the construction of the artificial tunnel was contentious even in 1887. In 1924 western mosquitofish were introduced into the hot springs in an attempt to control mosquitos. Tropical fish illegally introduced into the lower springs by local aquarium enthusiasts may have contributed to the extinction of the Banff longnose dace. Cave and Basin hot springs are also notable as the habitat for the Banff Springs snail, listed as an endangered species in 2000 by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.
Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada, is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains, spanning 11,000 km2 (4,200 sq mi). It was established as Jasper Forest Park in 1907, renamed as a national park in 1930, and declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984. Its location is north of Banff National Park and west of Edmonton. The park contains the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, springs, lakes, waterfalls and mountains.
Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rocky Mountains, 110–180 kilometres (68–112 mi) west of Calgary, Banff encompasses 6,641 square kilometres (2,564 sq mi) of mountainous terrain, with many glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. The Icefields Parkway extends from Lake Louise, connecting to Jasper National Park in the north. Provincial forests and Yoho National Park are neighbours to the west, while Kootenay National Park is located to the south and Kananaskis Country to the southeast. The main commercial centre of the park is the town of Banff, in the Bow River valley.
The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site consists of seven contiguous parks including four national parks and three British Columbia provincial parks.
Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately 126 km (78 mi) west of Calgary and 58 km (36 mi) east of Lake Louise. At 1,400 to 1,630 m above sea level, Banff is the community with the second highest elevation in Alberta, after Lake Louise.
Kootenay National Park is a national park of Canada in southeastern British Columbia. The park consists of 1,406 km2 (543 sq mi) of the Canadian Rockies, including parts of the Kootenay and Park mountain ranges, the Kootenay River and the entirety of the Vermilion River. While the Vermilion River is completely contained within the park, the Kootenay River has its headwaters just outside the park boundary, flowing through the park into the Rocky Mountain Trench and eventually joining the Columbia River. The park ranges in elevation from 918 m (3,012 ft) at the southwestern park entrance to 3,424 m (11,234 ft) at Deltaform Mountain.
Mount Rundle is a mountain in Canada's Banff National Park overlooking the towns of Banff and Canmore, Alberta. The Cree name was Waskahigan Watchi or house mountain. In 1858 John Palliser renamed the mountain after Reverend Robert Rundle, a Methodist invited by the Hudson's Bay Company to do missionary work in western Canada in the 1840s. He introduced syllabics there—a written language developed for the Cree, as part of his missionary work. He only visited the Stoney-Nakoda of the area around what is now called Mount Rundle in 1844 and 1847.
The Fairmont Banff Springs, formerly and commonly known as the Banff Springs Hotel, is a historic hotel located in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The entire town including the hotel, is situated in Banff National Park, a national park managed by Parks Canada. The hotel overlooks a valley towards Mount Rundle, both of which are situated within the Rocky Mountain mountain range. The hotel is located at an altitude of 1,414 metres (4,639 ft).
Sulphur Mountain is a mountain in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains overlooking the town of Banff, Alberta, Canada.
Castle Mountain is a mountain located within Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, approximately halfway between Banff and Lake Louise. It is the easternmost mountain of the Main Ranges in the Bow Valley and sits astride the Castle Mountain Fault which has thrust older sedimentary and metamorphic rocks forming the upper part of the mountain over the younger rocks forming its base. The mountain's castellated, or castle-like, appearance is a result of erosive processes acting at different rates on the peak's alternating layers of softer shale and harder limestone, dolomite and quartzite.
The Banff longnose dace was a diminutive version of the eastern longnose dace, its range restricted to a small marsh fed by two hot springs on Sulphur Mountain in Banff National Park in Banff, Alberta.
Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located around Mount Assiniboine.
Alberta has been a tourist destination since the early days of the 20th Century, with attractions including national parks, National Historic Sites of Canada, urban arts and cultural facilities, outdoor locales for skiing, hiking and camping, shopping locales such as West Edmonton Mall, outdoor festivals, professional athletic events, international sporting competitions such as the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Winter Games, as well as more eclectic attractions.
The Vermilion Lakes are a series of lakes located immediately west of Banff, Alberta, in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Banff Upper Hot Springs are commercially developed hot springs located in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, near the Banff townsite. Discovered in 1883, the hot pool is outdoors and while in the pool, visitors can look across the valley to Mount Rundle. It is located at 1,585 metres (5,200 ft) of elevation, which makes it the highest hot spring in Canada.
Tunnel Mountain, is a mountain located in the Bow River Valley of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada at the junction of the Spray River with the Bow and overlooking the Hot Springs on Sulphur Mountain. The mountain is nearly completely encircled by the town of Banff and the Banff Springs Hotel grounds. For many Indigenous people, the Buffalo is not sleeping anymore since Banff National Park reintroduced wild bison in 2017.
The Banff Springs snail is a species of small air-breathing freshwater snail in the family Physidae.
The Castle Mountain Internment Camp, located in Banff National Park, Alberta, was the largest internment facility in the Canadian Rockies, housing several hundred prisoners at any one time. Established on July 13, 1915, a total of 660 enemy aliens were interned at the facility during its entire operation.
Norman Bethune Sanson (1862–1949) was the curator of the Banff Park Museum in Banff, Alberta from 1896 to 1932. Sanson traveled extensively through Banff, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks to collect specimens for the museum, and continued to volunteer for the museum for fifteen years after his retirement.
Walter S. Painter (1877-1957) was an American architect who is chiefly noted for his work with the Canadian Pacific Railway as its chief architect. Painter's most significant works include the redesigned Banff Springs Hotel, the Cave and Basin Hot Springs bathhouse in Banff, Alberta and a series of railroad stations and hotels for the Canadian Pacific. In later life Painter worked with school designs in Chile, and promoted a system of prefabricated concrete houses.