Wood Buffalo National Park : An Historical Overview and Source Study

Parks Canada Manuscript Report Number 345. Canadian historian and journalist Barry Potyondi has written several books on western Canadian history and geography. Here, Potyondi offers a history of Wood Buffalo National Park (in northern Alberta) and a survey of the sources written about the Park and the region’s past. He begins by outlining encounters between First Nations groups and European fur traders and explorers in the area in the 18th and 19th centuries, followed by the arrival of Christian missionaries and the beginning of economic development in the region. Potyondi traces the growing need for wood buffalo preservation in the region, the Park’s opening in 1922, and changing government policies and attitudes towards the Park up to 1965. Includes endnotes and a large bibliography of resources for further reading.