This marker relates the story of John Palliser, the first to carefully map and study the Canadian Prairies. A man always in search of adventure and exploration,
John Palliser was responsible for the initial accurate mapping and scientific study of the Canadian Prairies. While in the west he studied the flora and fauna of the area, one aim being to ascertain whether the prairies were suitable for settlement.
One will find his namesakes in many places in southern Alberta, such as Palliser Square, in downtown Calgary.
John Palliser enjoyed his life as a member of a well-to-do land-owning family in Ireland. He attended Trinity College in Dublin, traveled in Europe, enjoyed music and the arts, and hunted grizzly bears and buffalo in 1847 in the far western United States. To these interests he added exploration, and in 1856, brought a Plan to the Royal Geographic Society proposing an expedition to explore parts of British North America.
Palliser proposed traveling from the Red River Settlement near present-day Winnipeg, across the southern prairies, and through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The Society not only supported his idea and secured financial backing from the British government's Colonial Office, but added scientific investigations to his Plan. Palliser's proposal was timely. The British government needed more information about these vast lands. Could they support agriculture? Were there timber and mineral resources? Should the Hudson's Bay Company, a large fur-trading business, have its charter to the lands renewed? Should the lands be opened for settlement?
Between 1857 and 1860, Palliser and his expedition members including European scientists, and Native and Metis hunters, guides, and interpreters, traveled the cart tracks and trails of the west, and searched for passes through the southern Rockies. Through summer and winter, they traveled, observed and sketched the conditions they saw. When they were done, the store of geographic and geological information had been greatly expanded, and the accuracy of maps much improved. They collected thousands of plant specimens and carefully recorded observations on everything from climate and soils to insects and birds. Several comprehensive reports and a detailed map presented the expedition's findings.
The Plan of Mr. Palliser had become a treasure chest stuffed full of knowledge about what would soon become western Canada.
From the Alberta Heritage Marker