A Poetics of Simpson Pass: Natural History and Place-Making in Rocky Mountains Park

A Sprig of Mountain Heather, a historic pamphlet by J.B. Harkin and Mabel Williams, reveals how natural history practices enabled European settlers to culturally appropriate remote wilderness spaces like Simpson Pass in Canada’s Rocky Mountain Parks. By embedding Scottish lore with a pressed alpine heather specimen, the pamphlet demonstrates the power of natural objects as loci of memory, facilitating emotional and cultural attachment to geographically and culturally distant lands. This colonial curatorial approach underscores the role of botanical inventory in shaping national park narratives, blending scientific documentation with place-making to bridge alienation between settlers and wilderness.

Krotz, S. W. (2019). A Poetics of Simpson Pass: Natural History and Place-Making in Rocky Mountains Park. Studies in Canadian Literature, 39(1). https://doi.org/10.7202/1062355ar