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Jasper is a specialized municipality and townsite in western Alberta within the Canadian Rockies. The townsite is in the Athabasca River valley and is the commercial centre of Jasper National Park. [edit] History
Established in 1813, Jasper House was first a fur trade outpost of the North West Company, and later Hudson's Bay Company, on the York Factory Express trade route to what was then called "New Caledonia" (now British Columbia) and Fort Vancouver on the lower Columbia River. Jasper House was 35 km north of today's town of Jasper. Jasper Forest Park was established in 1907. The railway siding at the location of the future townsite was established by Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1911 and originally named Fitzhugh after a Grand Trunk vice president (along the Grand Trunk's "alphabet" line). The Canadian Northern Railway began service to its Jasper Park station in 1912, about 700 m from GTP's Fitzhugh station. The townsite was surveyed in 1913 by H. Matheson.[1] It was renamed Jasper after the former fur trade post. An internment camp was set up at Dominion Park in Jasper from February 1916 to August 1916. The park was renamed Jasper National Park in 1930. By 1931, Jasper was accessible by road from Edmonton. In 1940, the scenic Icefields Parkway opened, connecting Jasper to Lake Louise and Banff in Banff National Park. The first step towards incorporation of Jasper occurred on August 31, 1995 when the Jasper Improvement District was formed from a portion of Improvement District No. 12 (Jasper National Park). The improvement district was subsequently incorporated as a specialized municipality under the name of the Municipality of Jasper on July 20, 2001.[2] The incorporation order established the Jasper townsite as the Town of Jasper and the surrounding balance of the specialized municipality as a rural service area that was deemed equivalent to a municipal district. [edit] Research Tips
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