Experience Waterton’s History

The area that we now call Waterton Lakes National Park has a long history with nomadic Indigenous peoples who first arrived here after the last glacial retreat, more than 10,000 years ago. They followed herds of migrating bison and would camp, hunt, and gather plants along the waterways here.

The introduction of horses (circa 1725) changed everything.

First Nations began to hunt buffalo from horseback and were also able to expand their territories. The arrival of Europeans brought the first wave of small pox among the indigenous comminites which decimated the population at the time.

It wasn’t until 1858 that the first European visited the area. Lieutenant Thomas Blakiston was a member of the Palliser Expedition, tasked by the learned Royal Geographical Society of England with discovering a route through the mountains to the Pacific coast. On a scouting expedition, Blakiston came