Lost: The real Cardinal Divide

Pulling together some back of the book material for the publication of The Cardinal Divide, I was recollecting that when I was introduced to that landscape in 1995 by Ben Gadd and Dianne Pachal, various factions were conspiring to dig a twenty-two kilometre long open-pit mine along the north side of the Divide, back toward Jasper National Park. I went there on an Alberta Wilderness Association field trip and fell in love with the sensuous curve or the earth, and for many years afterwards, lobbied for its protection. I even recall sitting with then Minister of Fisheries and Oceans David Anderson, pleading the Cardinal Divide’s case, but to no avail. When powerful forces are bent on the destruction of a place for profit, citizens groups and the wild creatures that inhabit our wildlands are easily overlooked.

So it has been with the real Cardinal Divide. While the Divide itself is protected from development in the Whitehorse Wildland Provincial Park, the area immediately to the north and west of that hight of land is not. In the novel, Cole sits on the crest of the Divide and looks north and west to where the real world ghost town of Mountain Park is located at muses about its uncertain future. In the real world, news from the folks monitoring the mining operations is that this region has recently been destroyed by road building and open pit mining for the real Cheviot mining operations. Five open pits are planned by Elk River Coal for the region, with two already complete. Massive road building operations have been underway for several years.

This view, from the crest of the Cardinal Divide, is just a memory now.

What ever purpose the novel The Cardinal Divide serves, it won’t stop Elk River Coal from mining in the Mountain Park region, and defiling the supurb view from this rare and precious landmark.