Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1990
Abstract
Essays on the Historical Geography of the Canadian West is a fine example of a department's contribution to regional studies. The eight essays from six contributors in an attractive, readable, and well-bound monograph are a useful addition to western Canadian studies. The essays (Darby, "From River Boat to Raillines: Circulation Patterns in the Canadian West during the Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century"; Holmes, "The Canmore Corridor, 1880-1914: A Case Study of the Selection and Development of a Pass Site"; Hadley, "Photography, Tourism and the CPR: Western Canada, 1884- 1914"; Evans, "The Origin of Ranching in Western Canada: American Diffusion or Victorian Transplant?"; Notzke, "The Past in the Present: Spatial and Landuse Change on Two Indian Reserves"; Rosenvall, "The Transfer of Mormon Culture to Alberta"; and Evans, "The Hutterites in Alberta: Past and Present Settlement Patterns") provide a nice diversity-transport, economy and culture-but the attention of the editors and the use of cartography and historic photographs provide cohesion. The title is misleading because these essays focus on the outcome of the "last quarter of the nineteenth century [which] saw the emergence of a third nucleus of prairie settlement along the foothills of southern Alberta" (p. 3), rather than on western Canada in general.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly SUMMER 1990 .Copyright 1990 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska—Lincoln.