Mary T.S. Schaffer

This is the best exploration trail journal I have ever read. This original version is superior to the later versions in my opinion, including the journal of Bill Peyto, also fo the Canadian Rockies, and better than the Lewis and Clark expedition journal.

Mrs. Shaffer includes the various personalities of the pack horses and of the Indians camped in varoious valleys. Her supportive and friendly relationship to the Indian families led her to obtaining a hand-drawn map by one of the Indians that in turn led her to discover a large lake. The successful but difficult search for that lake occupies the last third of the book

Unlike many other early explorers of the area, Mrs. Shaffer documented the flora, trails, and passes. Her text and drawings of the wildflowers was the first scientific text of those for the region. Her later employment by and training by the Canadian Pacific Railroad to survey the previously unknown lake documented its large size and location.

Her efforts to document the region caused her to bring a camera on most trips. So there are some photos scattered throughout the trail log of trails, mountain passes, Indian friends the pack horses they depended on, and guides she employed.

The trips described from her trail log in this voume span the years 1907 and 1908. She tok earlier trips for the flora, and later trips for surveying the lake but they are found in other works.… (más)