Bow to Peyto and Beyond: A 1903 / 2022 Photo Comparison
by Mary Sanseverino and Lael Parrott
In the summer of 1903, Dominion Land Surveyor Arthur Wheeler, along with his brother Hector and assistant Morrison Bridgland, were working on Observation Peak in what today is Banff National Park.
Observation Peak camera station, Banff NP, Alberta, Canada.
Lael Parrott setting up to help determine the actual 1903 camera station location. Repeat photos are taken after the historic camera station is pinpointed. Photo: Mary Sanseverino.
They established a camera survey station on the false summit south of the main peak. This vantage point afforded them outstanding views of the area, from Mount Hector to beyond Peyto Lake. They set up their transit and camera and proceeded to take readings and photographs – all part of the process allowing them to make topographic maps of the region for the Dominion government.
Photo 1. Below Observation Peak looking southward over Bow Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Photography: A.O. Wheeler and team, 1903. Image courtesy of Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada. Ecopy #e011083102 – 103.
Repeat of Photo 1. Looking southward over Bow Lake in Banff National Park. Photography: M.E. Sanseverino & L. Parrott, for the Mountain Legacy Project, Aug 22, 2022.
On August 22, 2022, Mary Sanseverino and Lael Parrott – both from the Alpine Club of Canada – retraced Wheeler’s footsteps. Working on behalf of the Mountain Legacy Project (University of Victoria, mountainlegacy.ca), Parrott and Sanseverino located the exact position of Wheeler’s camera station and repeated the images taken 119 years earlier. The historic/modern photo sets tell a tale perhaps more compelling than any written word could capture.
Photo 2. Below Observation Peak looking south west over Peyto Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta,Canada. Photography: A.O. Wheeler and team, 1903. Image courtesy of Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada. Ecopy #e011083104 – 105.
Repeat of Photo 2. Looking south west over Peyto Lake in Banff National Park. Photography: M.E. Sanseverino & L. Parrott, for the Mountain Legacy Project, Aug 22, 2022.
Mary Sanseverino is a Teaching Professor Emerita, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering, University of Victoria. She is also an alumna of UVic’s Mountain Legacy Project. She currently serves on the Nomination Committee for the Alpine Club of Canada and is the ACC’s Corresponding Delegate to the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation’s Mountain Protection Commission.
Lael Parrott is the past Alpine Club of Canada Vice-President for Access & Environment. She is Professor of Sustainability and Associate Dean for Faculty & Research in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan.