The Borderlands of the American and Canadian Wests: Essays on Regional History of the Forty-ninth Parallel

18. “The Geology Recognizes No Boundaries”: Shifting Borders in Waterton Lakes National Park

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 [309], (11) Lines: 95 to ——— 9.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: Eject [309], (11) 18. “The Geology Recognizes No Boundaries” Shifting Borders in Waterton Lakes National Park Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands On the Forty-ninth Parallel This is an essay about the forty-ninth parallel: the physical parallel, a “vista” six meters (eighteen feet) wide that the International Boundary Commission ordered, in 1925, to be regularly cleared. Specifically, it is an essay about that portion of the “border swath” that runs right through the middle of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, neatly dividing in two an area of land reserved to celebrate international peace (and now ecological connection) between two nations. The irony of that boundary hit me squarely when I first saw the clear-cut swath on a hike along the shoreline trail beside Upper Waterton Lake. I was not alone: There is a concerted campaign, spearheaded by the International Rotary Club, to stop clearing the swath for both ecological and symbolic reasons. When I began to research the swath, I found a borderline of considerable interest. In 1818, the Convention of London firmly set the boundary between “the territories of the United States and those of His Britannic Majesty” at the forty-ninth parallel, from the northwest tip of the Lake of the Woods to the summit of the Stony (now Rocky) Mountains. In the midst of international political wrangling, the line was extended westward to Vancouver Island; surveyors were dispatched in 1857, and by 1861 the line was marked from the Pacific Ocean to Upper Waterton Lake. This was following by more politics and, in 1872, more surveyors. After two years of hard labor beginning at Lake of the Woods, U.S. and 310 | Mortimer-Sandilands 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 [310], Lines: ——— 13.66801pt ——— Normal PgEnds: [310], Figure 17. The forty-ninth parallel swath between Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta) and Glacier National Park (Montana). Photo taken by author. British parties reached Upper Waterton Lake from the other direction. The dividing border was thus completed in what is now Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. As a border line, the forty-ninth parallel marks Canada’s difference from the country to its immediate south. Canadians have imbued this line with huge metaphoric weight; it currently marks the end of handguns and the beginning of health care. It has also concretely offered, at different historical moments, limited sanctuary to Sioux, slaves, and draft resisters. This border is a symbolic crossing-place that marks distinction on the line and national solidity (however functional) on either side. But the place is more than the line: As a borderland, the forty-ninth parallel blends two national cultures that slop from one side of the line to the other. The borderland is thus a hybrid place; frequent crossings mean that there is a unique complexity to the border zone that is not the sole property of either side and that, as W. H. New suggests, indicates “in-between-ness” rather than difference.1 That this portion of the borderlands happens to include two national parks adds another layer of interest. From my side, Waterton Lakes National Park is a formally designated space of Canadian nature and nation- “The Geology Recognizes No Boundaries” | 311 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 [311], (13) Lines: 126 to ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [311], (13) ality, yet its geology, large carnivores, and economic history, among other things, draw most meaningful links across the border. It is a “representative ecosystem” in a Canadian mosaic of nature; it is also an ecosystem that is only tenable in its attachment to a U.S. federal nature space. In this chapter, then, I would like to consider the border line of the clear-cut swath (figure 17) in the context of the border land that is Waterton Lakes...