These federally recognized historic sites are located next to each other in a subalpine meadow above Lake O’Hara. The Wiwaxy Lodge was constructed in 1912 and the Elizabeth Parker Hut was constructed in 1919. Both of these cabins were built by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and were later taken over by Parks Canada and operated as a hiker’s hut by the Alpine Club of Canada.
Region:
Southwest Alberta
Field Documentation:
September 23, 2024
Field Documentation Type:
Terrestrial LiDAR
Culture:
Euro-Canadian
Historic Period:
1912CE
Latitude:
51.355472
Longitude:
-116.34438
Datum Type:
WGS84
Threat Level
The Canada Pacific Railway and Construction of Mountain Cabins
Elizabeth Parker Hut (left) and Wiwaxy Lodge (right) in 1987. Photo from Public Works Canada, A. Powter, Canada’s Historic Places.
The Elizabeth Parker Hut and Wiwaxy Lodge are both associated with the history of mountaineering in the Canadian West. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was active in supporting tourism in the Rockies and promoting mountaineering activities [1, 2]. They hired Swiss guides to support the growing industry and were responsible for constructing some of the earliest lodges including the Mount Stephen House in Field BC and the Glacier House at Rogers Pass both built in 1897 [1, 3].
In 1912 the CPR constructed Wiwaxy Lodge to support increased visitation to the mountain peaks surrounding Lake O’Hara, and in 1919 they added the Elizabeth Parker Hut to the same alpine meadow a short hike above the lake [1,4]. Soon after, the CPR added a number of small cabins to the meadow for visitors. During the winter of 1925-1926, the Lake O’Hara Lodge was constructed on the lakeshore about 500m away and all of the meadow cabins aside from Wiwaxy and the Elizabeth Parker Hut were moved closer to the shores of Lake O’Hara and the new lodge. In 1931, the railway donated the Elizabeth Parker Hut to the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) for use by club members as the ACC held many camps in the meadow [1,5].
Elizabeth Parker and the Alpine Club of Canada
Elizabeth Parker, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Canadian Alpine Journal 1938.
The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) is an amateur athletic association that was founded in 1906. As mountaineering was an established, popular sport across North America the American Alpine Club suggested starting a Canadian chapter [4,5]. Elizabeth Parker, a journalist working for the Manitoba Free Press, wrote a scathing review of the idea in 1902. Parker was critical of the thought that an American Alpine Club would lay claim to the peaks of the Canadian Rockies. She and the Manitoba Free Press continued to publicize support of Canadian Mountaineering and with the help of the CPR, she organized the founding meeting of the ACC. Parker became the club’s first secretary alongside founding member Arthur O. Wheeler who was the first president [4].
Although she was not a mountaineer herself, Elizabeth Parker participated in many ACC trips and activities. She was at home with the mountains and advocated for not only their appreciation but protection as well [4]. Parker helped lay out the foundations of the ACC philosophy, in 1907 writing that she saw the club as “a national trust for the defense of our mountain solitudes against the intrusion of steam and electricity and all the vandalisms of this luxurious utilitarian age; for the keeping free from the grind of commerce, the wooded passes and valleys and alplands of the wilderness. It is the people’s right to have primitive access to the remote places of safest retreat from the fever and the fret of the market place and the beaten tracks of life” [4].
Elizabeth Parker Hut and Wiwaxy Lodge
The front of Wiwaxy Lodge during digital documentation with a BLK 360. Photo from Capture2Preserve Project.
Both Parker Ridge in Banff and the Lake O’Hara Elizabeth Parker Hut were named to honour Parker’s contributions to Canadian alpinism [4]. Wiwaxy Lodge is named after the Wiwaxy Peaks just south of Lake O’Hara, named by Samuel E.S. Allen with a Stoney Nakoda word for “windy.” After their construction by the CPR, these lodgings were taken over by Parks Canada and operated as hiker huts by the ACC [1,2,5]. In February of 1988 both of these cabins were designated as Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings. They were designated each for their associations with early mountaineering history in Canada, the rustic log construction of each complimenting their picturesque setting in the alpine mountain meadow surrounded by evergreens, and for their unchanged historical relationships to their natural site and to each other [1,2].
Each of these cabins were built in an aesthetic common to the Canadian Mountain Parks. They were hand constructed using traditional log building techniques and local materials. Although they need maintenance and upkeep, each of these buildings bring a timelessness to the meadow for visitors to enjoy. The Wiwaxy Lodge is especially notable as one of the oldest known examples of a cabin like this in any Canada National Park [1,2].
[3] Golden BC Museum. The History of Glacier House. Electronic document, https://goldenbcmuseums.com/the-history-of-glacier-house/, accessed September 5, 2024.
[4] The Nellie McClung Foundation 2024. Elizabeth Parker (1856-1944). Electronic document,https://www.nelliemcclungfoundation.com/150-trailblazers/elizabeth-parker, accessed November 20, 2024.
This gallery contains modern and historic images related to the Elizabthe Parker Hut and Wiwaxy Lodge. Photos are given individual photo credit. Please submit a comment if you have a memory or photo related to this heritage site that you’d like to share!
The Elizabeth Parker Hut and Wiwaxy Lodge were documented simultaneously with two different terrestrial laser scanners, a Z+F 5010X IMAGER and a Leica BLK 360. The EP Hut is a larger building and so it was was documented with the Z+F, using four (4) scans to document the interior and fourteen (14)scans to document the exterior in two different projects. The scans in each of these projects were then registered together using Z+F LaserControl. The interior and exterior projects were registered together and cleaned in Autodesk ReCap.
The Wiwaxy Lodge was captured with a Leica BLK 360 scanner. The interior was documented in four (4)scans and the exterior with fifteen (15)of scans. These scans were registered together using program name. Registration of the Wiwaxy Lodge had to be further refined using Autodesk ReCap as the repetitive geometry of the log structure caused errors in the initial registration. This is an interesting lesson for scanning log buildings in open areas with a mid-ranger scanner like the BLK.
To make the combined point cloud on this page, the Elizabeth Parker and Wiwaxy projects were registered together in Autodesk ReCap. Due to the proximity of the cabins, there was enough overlap in the scans to align the projects. The Z+F provides clearer visual colour data, so some of the BLK scan data covering the Elizabeth Parker Hut was removed from this point cloud.
Scan Locations
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