Waterton Lakes National Park is a national park located in the southwest corner of Alberta, Canada. It borders Glacier National Park in Montana, United States. Waterton was the fourth Canadian national park, formed in 1895 and named after Waterton Lake, in turn after the Victorian naturalist and conservationist Charles Waterton. Its range is between the Rocky Mountains and prairies. This park contains of rugged mountains and wilderness. Operated by Parks Canada, Waterton is open all year, but the main tourist season is during July and August. The only commercial facilities available within the park are located at the Waterton Park townsite. This park ranges in elevation from at the townsite to at Mount Blakiston. It offers many scenic trails, including Crypt Lake trail. In 2012/2013, Waterton Lakes National Park had 402,542 visitors. The park was the subject of a short film in 2011's National Parks Project, directed by Peter Lynch and scored by Cadence Weapon, Laura Barrett and Mark Hamilton.
History
, a Dominion Land Surveyor was the first to suggest a park be established in the vicinity of Waterton Lakes in his 1886 annual report, although no action was taken by the government. In 1893, Frederick William Godsal, a rancher north of the lakes wrote Pearce referencing his 1886 report and suggested the area be turned into a park reserve, Pearce forwarded the proposal, noting the land had no value for agricultural and minimal grazing potential. Minister of the InteriorThomas Mayne Daly came across the proposal and directed a park reserve be created in the area. Finally on May 30, 1895, Order-in-Council 1895-1621 established a unnamed forest park under the Dominion Lands Act. While oil had been found in the area since the late 1880s, the government began approving reservation and sales of land for prospecting in 1898. By 1905 more than half of the sections of land compromising the park had been sold or reserved for oil exploration. On September 21, 1905 Frederick William Godsal wrote the Secretary of the Interior requesting he consider expanding the park reserve for scenic and recreational purposes. The Dominion Forest Reserves Act which came into force in 1906 established the Kootenay Lakes Forest Reserve under the authority of the Superintendent of Forestry. In 1911 Minister of the Interior Frank Oliver introduced the Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act which designated all existing mountain parks, Elk Island and Buffalo Parks into forest reserves, with the authority to designate all or part of the reserve a "Dominion Park". On June 8, 1911, Order-in-Council P.C. 1338 designated of the area of Waterton Lakes Forest Reserve as Dominion Park, much smaller than expected by resident staff, and only a small portion of the original 1895 reserve of. In 1914, Frank Oliver's successor as Minister of the Interior, William James Roche, significantly expanded the area of Waterton Lakes Park to. In 1932, Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park was formed from Waterton and Glacier. It was dedicated to world peace by Sir Charles Arthur Mander on behalf of Rotary International. Although this park has a lot of diversity for its size, the main highlight is the lakes which are deeper than any other lake elsewhere in Canada. They are overlooked by the historic Prince of Wales HotelNational Historic Site. In September 2017, a large forest fire forced the evacuation of the townsite and park. The fire burned through 200 km2 of the park, destroying the visitor centre, stables and other buildings. Some 80% of hiking trails were affected and several remained closed for the 2018 season.
Waterton Park Gate has a humid continental climate, bordering relatively closely on a subarctic climate. Summertime is mild with cool nights, while winter is chilly with highs around freezing. Snowfall is heavy, averaging 85 inches.
Biosphere Reserve
In 1979, Waterton and bordering Glacier National park in the US were designated as World Biosphere reserves, preserving mountains, prairie, lakes and freshwater wetlands ecosystems. Habitats represented in the parks' range include: prairie grasslands, aspen grove forests, alpine tundra/high meadows, lower subalpine forests, deciduous and coniferous forests.
The park is part of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, designated as World Heritage Site in 1995 for their distinctive climate, physiographic setting, mountain-prairie interface, and tri-ocean hydrographical divide. They are areas of significant scenic values with abundant and diverse flora and fauna.
