Making Space for Fossils: Power and Paleontology in Yoho National Park (1907 – 1988)

Abstract

Yoho National Park protects the Burgess Shale: a chain of fossil beds in British Columbia bearing what paleontologist and science writer Stephen Jay Gould once called “the world’s most important animal fossils.” They are an extraordinary record of underwater soft-bodied organisms from just after the Cambrian Explosion, around half a billion years ago. Paleontologists and geologists have shaped public understanding of the fossils through their fieldwork and research activities. They have also shaped all actors’ use of the Burgess Shale fossil beds in Yoho through the arguments and tactics that they used to access, collect, and recognize the heritage value of the fossils. In this thesis, I present three case studies of moments in the twentieth century when paleontologists helped shift the access regime around the Burgess Shale. I begin with the first systematic scientific studies of the Burgess Shale, from 1907 – 1925. I examine how Smithsonian Institution Secretary Charles Doolittle Walcott, family members like his wife Mary Vaux Walcott, and the rest of the Smithsonian team negotiated access to the Burgess Shale. They did so by claiming space for Parks Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway through species naming, by trading favours, and by participating in recreational activities that helped promote the mountain tourism industry. Next, I focus on two permit requests that the Royal Ontario Museum made in the 1970s: one that was denied, and one that Parks Canada found impossible to refuse. I examine how curator and paleontologist Desmond Collins tapped into the discourse of nationalism and an endorsement from the Geological Survey of Canada to make his case for access. Finally, I examine the Burgess Shale’s nomination to the World Heritage list in 1979, and the consequences for park management up to 1988. Here, the authorized heritage discourse and expanding tourist pressure met a parks agency increasingly concerned with wilderness preservation. Through their research in the Burgess Shale, these generations of paleontologists expanded collective understanding of the evolution of life on Earth. At the same time, they helped Parks Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company claim territory in the Rocky Mountains, increased Parks Canada’s perception of the fossils’ heritage value, and ultimately helped make the sites so popular with tourists that park managers saw strict access restrictions as the only way to protect the fossils.