Show Notes
In August 2017, a lightning strike near Waterton Lakes National Park sparked a devastating wildfire that burned nearly 40% of the park. But in the wake of destruction came a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We’ll hear from archaeologists and Blackfoot elders about the collaborative archaeology project that’s deepening our understanding of the lives of Indigenous peoples who have lived and travelled in the Rocky Mountains and foothills for millennia.
Learn more:
Waterton Lakes National Park
Plan Your Visit
Google Arts and Culture Exhibition: Waterton Lakes
Prince of Wales Hotel National Historic Site designation
First Oil Well in Western Canada National Historic Site designation
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park - UNESCO World Heritage Site
Other Media:
Post Wildfire Renewal Video and Photo Gallery
Dr. Mike Bruised Head’s PhD thesis on the impact of erasing Blackfoot place names in Paahtomahksikimi
Questions about the ReCollections podcast or any of the episodes? Please contact us at [email protected]
Do you have a suggestion for a new National Historic Person, Site or Event? We’d love to hear it! Visit https://parks.canada.ca/commemorate for details on how to submit a nomination.
More from ReCollections
For seven decades, the Bar U operated as a corporate ranch, with thousands of cattle fattening up on protein-rich fescue grass in Alberta’s Rocky Mountain foothills. But that grass has a history of its own, co-evolving on this landscape with a different grazer - the bison - over thousands of years. Through the history of three animals who’ve left their hoofmarks upon the prairie grasslands - bison, cattle and horses - we look at Canada’s “beef bonanza” that employed a colourful cast of cowboys, cooks and capitalists, turning grass into money at Bar U Ranch National Historic Site.
In 1930s Europe, thousands of Jewish men and teenagers escaped the Nazi regime as refugees, only to be labelled as “enemy aliens” and sent to internment camps across eastern Canada. One of those camps was at Fort Lennox, an old military stronghold on Quebec’s Ile aux Noix. We’ll hear from one internee, the late Rabbi Erwin Schild, whose story helps illustrate the experience of hundreds of German and Austrian Jews who were imprisoned at Fort Lennox National Historic Site.
The southern coast of Labrador in the 1500s was the scene of Canada’s first oil boom. Each summer, Basque crews from Spain and France traversed the Atlantic to hunt whales and render their blubber into a precious commodity: oil that lit the lamps of Europe. It was dangerous, messy… and profitable. The story was all but lost until the 1970s, when researchers and archaeologists flocked to the tiny community of Red Bay, digging in the gardens and diving in the harbour, to uncover the secrets of Red Bay National Historic Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
ReCollections, the award-winning history and archaeology podcast from Parks Canada, is back for Season Two. Four new stories from national parks and national historic sites across Canada:
Join us for a journey of national historic significance.