Town of Banff

Archeological Sites

For 10,000 years, people have been using the valleys, passes and high alpine areas of Banff National Park.

As of the fall of 2004, 766 archaeological sites have been recorded in the area, including 416 aboriginal sites and 309 historic sites (17 sites have both components). Most of these are in the main river valleys, but traces of prehistoric occupation have been found throughout the Park, including the high alpine areas.

A site is a place where past human activity has left physical traces. These traces can be artifacts, such as arrowheads or other tools; traces left by food processing such as butchered animal bones; or they can be features, such as hearths or historic structures.

Examples of historic sites in our area include:

• the remains of the coal mining towns of Anthracite and Bankhead, found along the Lake Minnewanka loop
• cabins in the backcountry
• historic dumps
  

Prehistoric sites include:

• campsites
  
• butchering sites
  
• quarries where native people found raw materials for making stone tools
  
• depressions left in the ground from construction of pithouses
  
• places where isolated artifacts such as arrowheads or scrapers are found

Sites in the Vermilion Wetlands area have been dated to 10,800 years ago. These are among the oldest sites known in Western Canada. The Bow Valley, in the area near Banff townsite, contains sites with dates ranging from this period to the time that Europeans and Canadians began to arrive and irrevocably change the Native lifestyle.

See the Parks Canada website for more information.