the story of
two mountain writers
living a century apart
Mountain writer and historian Meghan J. Ward recruits a team of creative women to revisit Mary Schäffer Warren’s 1908 expedition to Maligne Lake, in Alberta’s Jasper National Park. Blending backcountry adventures with historical research, Wildflowers demonstrates that sometimes we must look back to blaze a better trail forward.
in the footsteps of a trailblazer…
Mary Schäffer Warren (1861-1939) was 43 years old and recently widowed when she bucked Victorian-era conventions and reinvented herself as a mountain explorer, writer, and photographer. Over a century later, Meghan J. Ward — an outdoor writer, historian and Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) — encounters Mary’s remarkable story. Captivated by the mystery of this woman she can’t meet in person, Meghan embarks on a journey of archival research and backcountry adventures to better understand Mary’s legacy and motivations. She invites photographer/RCGS Fellow Natalie Gillis and travel writer Jane Marshall on a six-day hiking and paddling expedition to retrace the final leg of Mary’s famous 1908 expedition to Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, Alberta. Delving into a landscape that connects adventurers across time, the modern-day team compares past to present, reflects on Mary’s legacy, and discovers that sometimes we must look back to blaze a better trail forward.
[Mary Schaffer with horse] V527 / PS 1 - 151 WMCR
“…there are some secrets you will never learn, there are some joys you will never feel, there are heart thrills you can never experience, till, with your horse you leave the world, your recognized world, and plunge into the vast unknown.”
- Mary T.S. Schäffer, Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies (1911); republished in 1980 by the Whye Museum of the Canadian Rockies in a compilation titled A Hunter of Peace.
with
support from
and
Goldilocks Goods, Pure Outdoors, Banff Hospitality Collective,
Banff Airporter, GemTrek Maps, FATMAP, Paul Zizka Photography, Dry Peaks
Wildflowers is filmed and produced on Treaties 6, 7 and 8 Territory, the traditional and sacred lands of the Niitsitapi from the Blackfoot Confederacy (the Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani Nations); the Stoney Nation comprised of the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney; the Tsuut’ina Nation; the homeland of the Métis and Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation of Alberta; the Ktunaxa and Secwépemc Nations; the Mountain Cree clan of Chief Peechee; the Dene; and the traditional territories of the Katzie and Kwantlen Nations. It is with gratitude that we visit these landscapes.
Archival images used with permission of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies.
Top photo: [Camp at Maligne Lake] V527 / PS 1 - 69 WMCR]
Filmed on location and with the permission of the Parks Canada Agency, at Jasper National Park and Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, as well as with permission of the Town of Banff.