Evening star., 1938-06-19
Banf Region
Long Known
For Beauty
Western Spirit
Lives in Rockies
OF Canada.

AMT, JUNG A0.-1ue coming
K summer In the Canadian
Rockies marks their Sand
tourist year. and also the
Sand year since the Dominion,s pioneer
transcontinenal railway, the Canadian
Pacific, brought the flrst trainload Of
Passengers to the threshold Of Banff
Park. It was the c. p. r. which
opened the vistas Of Banf and Lake
Louise to the amazed eyes Of genera
tions OF travellers from every part Of
the world-and notably from the
United States. With the completion
Of the railway, the Banfi-LAke Louise
area was reserved by the Government
- . park. making Banff Park Canada's
first national playground. Its many
summer activities have long made
BanR the capital not only Of the
Canadian Rockies but Of the western
quarter Of Canada.
The Canadian West, like the Amer
ican West, has . vigor and friendliness
"A Joint heritage Of pioneer stock.
Vigor spurs the western Canadians to
plan summer attractions, and neigh
borliness makes them invite Americans
up from across the border.
EARLY visitors to the Canadian
West will see . spectacle devoted
to the cowboy life shared by both coun-
tries. At Calgary. in the foothills Of
the Rockies, from July Q through the
18th, Is staged the annual exhibition
and stampede. . panorama in rodeo
form Of the robust sports Of pioneer
days. These range-frolics and cow
boy high-ji attract entries from
Canada, the States, Australia and the
Argentine, Is well as the time-honored
carnival and sideshow features. En-
camped on the stampede grounds are
the Stoney Indians from the Morley
Reserve, who come down in their fam
lily wagons or In shiny motor cars to
play their alternating roles Is spec
tators or participants.
There comes . brief time when the
papoose and his elder achieve almost
. semblance Of excitement-and that
Is at the Ban1f Indian Days, which
this year takes place from July ~
to "a inclusive. In this sense the
Calgary stampede's rodeo- circus may
be said to be kind Of warming-up
for the smaller but more intense In
dian Days Festival. Setting up their
hundred-odd tepees, the Stoneys
convert the Bow River Valley into
something Of its character before the
white mans coming. In the daytime
the Indians work earnestly At their
horse races, bronco busting, archery
contests, squaw races, equestrian tugs
of-war and wrestling on horseback.
In the evening . number of picked
choirs assemble on the elk pasture,
near the Ban1 Springs Hotel, and
perform the solo and choral music and
dances Of their ancestors.
Put the most enduring attraction
about the Canadian Rockies is
the mountains themselves - always
present and always ready for redis-
covery. Scores Of trails at BanfI,
Lake Louise and Yoho Valley offer
the visitor the same views of forest
and mountain and glacier as greeted
the first red men Of the region. BanfY
and Yoho Parks were set aside for
just this purpose.
Year by year the government, stim-
ulated by enthusiast organizations
like the Trail Riders and the Sky Line
Trail Hikers Of the Canadian Rockies,
Is cutting fresh trails or restoring the
older Indian trails into remote parts
Of this region-a region whose extent
Is so times the area Of Switzerland.