Culture
Our music and stories are rich with culture; a truly and uniquely Canadian culture. There are few places in the world where wilderness exists in such abundance, where you can jump on a horse or slip on hiking boots and disappear for weeks on end, where you can drink the water right out of the creeks, where you inhale the crystal clear air. This landscape - revered worldwide - is the Canadian Rockies. National park wardens have been patrolling and protecting these spaces since 1909 and stories of this lifestyle abound. Here are some of our favourites.
Guardians of the Wild
Based on the songs of The Wardens
Illustrated by: Lia Golemba
The Wardens music has been adapted into a a beautifully illustrated children's book by Red Barn Books. Take kids on patrol in Canada’s rugged Rocky Mountains. Made by Alberta artists and printed in Canada. Available in English and French.
Men For the Mountains
By: Sid Marty
As a park warden in the national parks of Canada's Rocky Mountains, Sid Marty came to know that beautiful and treacherous landscape as few people do. He was a mountain climber, rescue team member, firefighter, wildlife custodian, and adviser to tourists, adventurers, and people passing through. Marty writes vividly about a land and a way of life that are increasingly endangered. The visceral energy of his prose compels attention. This is a compulsive, alarming, and often hilarious read.
Related books:
The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek
Switchbacks: True Stories from the Canadian Rockies
Silent Partners: Wives of National Park Wardens
By: Ann Dixon
Wilderness is a man's world...or is it? The history books are filled with romantic images of park wardens on horseback living in a cabin in the woods. Unpaid and unheralded, the wives of the wardens (women were not even allowed to apply to become national park wardens until the 1970's) were fully as capable and every bit as instrumental in protecting Canada's showcases of the nation. Hear the stories from the women themselves in this important historical account lovingly compiled by the late Ann Dixon.
Ya Ha Tinda: A Home Place
By: Kathy Calvert
Immortalized in The Wardens' Ya Ha Tinda Bound, this special place recently celebrated 100 years of being.
The story of the Ya Ha Tinda and its evolution into the only continuously operating federal government horse ranch in Canada is much more than the story of the people who worked and lived there. This unique book covers the 100 years since the inception of the ranch: its challenges to survive intact to the 2017 centennial celebration and the stories of the men and women who worked and survived on the spread as they fought the elements and the politics to keep it as a “home place” for both the warden service and Parks Canada.
Related books:
Guardians of the Peaks: Mountain Rescue in the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains
Born to the Wild
By Rob Kaye
"Rob's love of the wilderness and everything that lives in it, comes shining through the pages. A beautiful balance between the 'nitty-gritty' of being a park warden and all the diplomacy that can entail, plus sharing how a soul is touched by the places he helped to take care of."