page_title: Tunnel Mountain
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Tunnel Mountain / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: Tunnel Mountain from the north with Sulphur Mountain in the background. Trees are Picea engelmannii and Populus tremuloides.
context_page_description: 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 over looking 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.
context_section_description: The Blackfoot name for the mountain is Iinii Istako and the Stoney Nakoda  language name is  Eyarhey Tatanga Woweyahgey Wakân. The Stoney people called it "Sleeping Buffalo" for a long time, as it resembles a sleeping buffalo when viewed from the north and east. In 1858, James Hector named the small peak "The Hill", likely in reference to its status as the smallest peak adjacent to the Banff townsite. In the 1880s Canadian Pacific Railway surveyors had first considered blasting a tunnel through the mountain for the tracks through the Bow Valley. Even though they discovered another route for the train and the tunnel idea was abandoned, the name Tunnel Mountain stuck. In September 2016, fifteen First Nations signed a resolution calling for the beginning of an official process with the Natural Resources Canada's Geographical Names Board of Canada to rename Tunnel Mountain, Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain. At their November 2017 "Indigenous Leaders' Dialogue" in Banff, representatives granted the name, Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain ceremonially as they await the decision of the NRC.
  The fire lookout on top of the mountain began to be known as "King's Lookout," following a Royal Tour in 1939 when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth climbed to the lookout.
caption: Tunnel Mountain from the north resembles a sleeping buffalo.
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