Waterton Lakes National Park, tucked into the southwest corner of Alberta where the open prairie suddenly rises into the Rocky Mountains, carries a government designation protecting roughly 500 square kilometres in which three landscapes overlap: grassland, montane forest, and windswept alpine slopes. Upper Waterton Lake, the deepest lake in the Canadian Rockies, is a favourite spot for boat cruises. The Waterton townsite, the only village inside the park, draws summer visitors with its small shops, a heritage hotel, a community theatre, and a Parks Canada information centre. Adding to the appeal are the many private cabins that dot the townsite and the valleys nearby.
Long before it was a park, the Waterton valley was a meeting place for the Blackfoot and Kootenay peoples, and in the eighteenth century fur traders began exchanging goods with them along the lakes. A government surveyor travelling with an early expedition recorded the region's abundant wildlife and dramatic scenery. As interest in the land grew, the cutting of timber along the shorelines was halted, and the valley was set aside for protection. Waterton officially became a national park in 1895, one of the earliest in the country. Many of its roads and trails were completed in the 1930s by crews hired through Canada's depression-relief programs.
