A Rocky Mountain Original

“He was efficient, daring, highly imaginative, an excellent man with the horses and a good friend. He spoke in a low, quiet voice of a true westerner, but even so he spoke rarely. His forte was doing things, not talking about them.” (Walter Wilcox)

Ebenezer William Peyto (pronounced Peetoe) was a Rocky Mountain original, one of the most colourful characters ever seen in the Bow Valley area. He was a guide and an outfitter, prospector, soldier and early Banff National Park Warden.

He was born February 14, 1869, in Welling, Kent, not far from London, England, Peyto was the third son in a large family of nine. He emigrated to Canada in 1887 when he was 18 years old.

For the first several years he travelled in and around western Canada, working for the CPR, homesteading near Cochrane and prospecting. Eventually he settled down in Banff, a small frontier town that was just getting started.

The Canadian Pacific Railway at that time was bringing mountain climbers and adventure seekers to their new hotels in the Rocky Mountains and guides were needed to lead them through the wilderness. This line of work appealed to Bill and he started working for guide and outfitter Tom Wilson in 1894.

Over the next 1/2 dozen years Peyto was involved in some of the most important early explorations and climbs in the Canadian Rockies: the exploration of Mount Assiniboine in 1895; the first ascent of Mount Athabasca in 1898 with J. Norman Collie; the exploration of the Yoho Valley in 1901 with Edward Whymper and the first ascent of Mount Assiniboine in 1901 with Sir James Outram.

Norman Collie described Peyto: “[He] made an ideal picture of the wild west, mounted as he was on an Indian steed, with Mexican stirrups. A great sombrero hat pushed to one side, a buckskin shirt ornate with Indian fringes on sleeves and seams, and cartridge belt holding a hunting knife and a six-shooter, recalled the romantic days of old when this was the costume throughout the entire west.”

Bill Peyto was a brave and daring soldier who served his country well, first in the Lord Strathcona Horse Regiment in the Boer War where he saw lots of action.

Back in Canada, Bill fell in love and married Emily Wood on January 6, 1902. A son, Robert (Robin) W.F. Peyto was born on Nov 19, 1904. These were some of the best years of Bill’s life and he was tremendously happy. But the marriage ended in tragedy when Emily died suddenly on Sept. 6, 1906. This broke Bill’s heart and that year he gave up guiding. For the next few years he lived a solitary life, keeping himself busy trapping and prospecting. Much of his time he spent at his cabin, which he called Bookrest, high in the mountains near Simpson Pass, where he had a copper mine. His son, Robert, went to the Okanagan to live with relatives.

In 1913 Bill was hired as one of the first wardens in Banff National Park, where he patrolled the Healy Creek/Sunshine District keeping his eye out for poachers.

In 1915 Bill again signed up for military service, although he was 46 years old. He served in the Twelfth Mounted Regiment and Machine Gun Brigade in Belgium and France and was wounded in his right leg by a piece of shrapnel at the Battle of Ypres on June 2, 1916.

He returned to Canada about a year later and went back to his duties as a warden, enforcing park regulations and served until 1936 when he retired.

Bill is famous for his wild escapades and many stories abound. One that is often told is the time he brought a live lynx that he had trapped, tied up securely to a pack frame, into a bar in Banff. According to historian Ted Hart he released the cat, “and stood back to enjoy the scene as it proceeded to wreak havoc among the terrified victims.”

Bill married a second time, in 1921 to Ethel Wells, and lived quietly in Banff. He tried to sign up to fight in WWII but, at 70 years of age, he was deemed to old. He died on March 23, 1943.

Bill Peyto’s presence is still felt in Banff in many ways. For several decades a large sign with a photo of a wild-eyed Peyto greeted tourists as they entered the town. Peyto Glacier, Peyto Lake and Peyto Peak, along the Icefields Parkway are all named for him. There is a book about him and singer/songwriter Corrie Brewster even wrote a song about Bill. His grave, in the Old Banff Cemetery, is much visited by those who enjoy the old stories of Banff.

By: Chic Scott