Travelling a Traditional RouteFOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS and long before it was named Yellowhead, this low pass was used by indigenous peoples. For Aboriginal people this corridor was an important travel and trade link, providing access to hunting and gathering of food and medicinal plants on both sides of the divide.
Several nations had a long relationship and connection to these mountains and valleys. Today, the descendants of those nations, from both sides of the Rocky Mountains, still feel a strong connection to this land and have their own stories of how and when their people passed this way.
Yellowhead Pass
Yellowhead Pass was named after Pierre Bostonais, an lroquois-Metis guide and fur trader who spent much time in the area and led an expedition through the pass in 1825.
Bostonais was known by the nickname 'Tête Jaune' or 'Yellow Head', due to his unusual fair hair. The first place to bear his nickname, was Tête Jaune Cache, the location where he cached the furs he trapped. His legacy lives on by having a village, a lake, a mountain and a highway named for him.
"Today the Yellowhead Pass is a valley corridor containing a highway and railway beside crystal clear rivers, through dense forests under rugged peaks links Jasper town site and the provincial border of British Columbia. In the past the low elevation made for easy movement for Indigenous peoples, fur trappers, railways and explorers. The name Yellowhead is the nickname of a fair-haired Metis-Iroquois-freeman named Bostonais, active here in the early 1800s."
Source: Parks Canada