Crowsnest Pass Highway 3 Province of British Columbia 1969 sign describes how, "Rivers born in Canada's Rockies carved passes eastward to Hudson Bay or westward to the Pacific. This one was long used by Indians, but not shown on maps until the Palliser Expedition of 1860, and then only from hearsay. Michael Phillips blazed a trail in 1873. He was the first white man to cross the Canadian Rockies from west to east through an unexplored pass."