Byron Harmon, 1905-1934, Selected Views of the Canadian Rockies
Byron Harmon, 1929, Banff Winter Carnival on Banff Avenue || was dreamed up by the Board of Trade of which Byron was a founding member. It aimed to entertain the locals as well as attracting tourists to create a bit of revenue in the lean years following the First World War. There were races, an ice palace, a toboggan slide ending on Banff Avenue, and a parade.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, Banff Businessmen Fishing in the Kananaskis Valley || Kananaskis Lakes , between Banff and Calgary, were a great place to fish: wild, unregulated and outside of the National Parks, until construction of hydro-electric dams beginning in the 1940’s.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon,, 1910, Tom Longstaff and Guide Billy Batz?, Purcell Mountains
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1910, Bugaboo Glacier in the Purcell Mountains, BC || Byron Harmon is credited with ‘discovering’ Bugaboo Glacier in 1910. Undoubtedly it was known to Indigenous tribes and local prospectors but he was the first person to photograph it. It was briefly called Harmon’s Great Glacier, before the romantic name, Bugaboo, captured everyone’s imagination. This area is now one of the most treasured climbing areas in the world.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1909, Climbing Mt. Marpole, Yoho National Park || Swiss guide, Edward Feuz Jr, leads this climb. This photograph was part of Canada Post’s Canadian Photographer series, issued April 13, 2016.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1923, Canoeing on Cross River, Kootenay National Park || Until Windermere Highway, (now Highway 93) opened, in 1923, Kootenay National Park was deep wilderness. Byron, who had championed this highway, celebrated the occasion of its opening with a canoe trip down Kootenay River, of which Cross River is a tributary, in order to photograph staged dramatic scenes with canoes.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1923, Cross River Falls, Kootenay National Park || The canoe for this excursion was carried to the Kootenay River on top of the truck seen in Sinclair Canyon, in another image of this collection. This trip was filmed and photographed, including a scene of a capsized canoe.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Diver at Chateau Lake Louise, ca 1920's || The diver in this photograph appears to be a woman, but it was suggested to me by my friend and fellow Banffite, Herbie MacAulay, that it was likely his father, Jack MacAulay, who was a champion diver in his youth.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1910, Gentlemen's Quarters at Consolation Valley Alpine Club of Canada Camp || Alpine Club of Canada Camps were located in remote areas where both men and women slept in canvas wall tents; a large cook tent and wooden picnic tables were communal. All of this had to be transported by horse to the site of the camp and taken down afterwards.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1927, Helen Breese Walcott at Mt. Assiniboine with the Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies || Helen Breeze Walcott was the daughter of Charles Doolittle Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and a palaeontologist. He had a great interest in the Canadian Rockies and attended ACC Camps with his children. He was a founding member of Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1909, Ice Cave in Bow Glacier || Ice caves are mysterious caverns which form in glaciers as a result of melting water on the glacier’s surface which erodes tunnels and chasms in the ice.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1932, Ike Mills and Mt. Redoubt, Canadian Rockies || Ike Mills was a remittance man from England who settled in Banff and established a business which rented out horses in summer and dogsled excursions in winter. He volunteered his veterinary skills in Calgary on occasion.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Lake of the Hanging Glaciers, Conrad Kain on icewall, 1920 || Lake of the Hanging Glaciers is located in the Purcell Mountains in the headwaters of Columbia River. The famous ice wall in this photograph has since melted back to the shore of the lake. The lake, which used to be filled with icebergs calved from the overhanging glaciers, now has a few lazy chunks floating on the surface, mute testament to climate warming.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1920, Lewis Freeman's Party at Horsethief (now Starbird) Glacier, Purcell Mountains || Byron Harmon and Lewis Freeman, an American adventure travel writer and photographer, met at Lake of the Hanging Glaciers in 1920. Freeman was embarking on a commission by Chester-Outing-Pictures to film his descent, with a camera-man, of Columbia River by boat.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1908 or 1918, Swiss Guides on Asulkan Pass in the Selkirk Range || Swiss Guides, were brought to Canada each summer, by the CPR, to guide guests of CPR hotels. The Alpine Club of Canada summer camp was situated nearby in 1908 and Swiss guides were loaned to the club to guide their climbs in the Rogers Pass area.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
The Alpine Club of Canada at Yoho Glacier, 1909 || As early as 1900 studies were underway to record the rapid melting of Yoho Glacier and other prominent glaciers in the Canadian Rockies. Excursions of the ACC were used to carry out some of this work. In 1908 an ACC group crossed the Continental Divide from Yoho Glacier on the west side to Bow Lake on the east side of Waputik Icefield which lays along the Divide.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Trucks Carrying a Canoe Through Sinclair Byron Harmon, 1923, Truck Carrying a Canoe Through Sinclair Canyon after the Opening of Windermere Highway || Through his photography, Byron Harmon actively promoted the creation of Windermere Highway which connects the junction at Castle Mountain west of Banff with the Windermere and Columbia Valleys in south-western British Columbia. Byron had a small farm in the Windermere Valley, and a campground on Lake Windermere.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
The First Alpine Club of Canada Camp, Mrs. Byron Harmon, 1906, The First Alpine Club of Canada Camp, Mrs. Imogene Wheeler, Centre || The Alpine Club of Canada was the first mountaineering club in the world to welcome women as charter members. They quickly cast aside skirts for the more convenient and safer bloomers, which then gave way to knickers and socks, with protective bandaging of calves, used by men and women.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Aileen Harmon at Mt. Assiniboine, 1934 || The new sport of cross-country skiing was introduced to the Canadian Rockies by Norwegian ski instructor, Erling Strom, who built the first ski lodge in the Canadian Rockies at Mt. Assiniboine in1928. With his daughter, Aileen, and Ike Mills with his dog team, Byron travelled to Assiniboine Valley in 1934 to photograph new and old ways of navigating and enjoying a Canadian winter.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
Byron Harmon, 1932, Skiers at Skoki, Near Lake Louise || Byron didn’t ski; he used dogsleds and snowshoes for winter travel. The three skiers in this photograph are likely Rupert Edwards and Cyril Paris of Banff, and Byron’s son, Lloyd; I don’t know who is who.
> PURCHASE INFORMATION
