Peter Lougheed Park has roots deeper than you think

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park sits on land with a surprising past. Before it became the sprawling Kananaskis wilderness area, the land was actually part of Banff National Park.

In the early 1900s, sections of what is now Kananaskis Country were included within Rocky Mountains Park—now known as Banff—as part of a much larger protected eastern Rockies zone. The national park system was still developing, and Rocky Mountains Park covered significantly more territory than today's Banff. In 1911, new federal legislation reorganized the park and drastically reduced its boundaries, shrinking it to the Banff we know now.

In 1930, the land that would become Kananaskis Country transferred from federal to provincial control under the Government of Alberta. Two decades later, nearby protected areas began forming—Bow Valley Provincial Park in 1959 and Bragg Creek Provincial Park in 1960—as conservation and recreation interest grew.

By the early 1970s, Calgary architect Bill Milne pushed for public input on the region's future. When the government received more than 48,000 responses, most people supported creating a large protected space over expanding road access. Premier Peter Lougheed was convinced. After flying over the region by helicopter, he saw the need to protect it.

In 1978, Lougheed officially created Kananaskis Country and Kananaskis Provincial Park. In January 1986, the park was renamed Peter Lougheed Provincial Park to honour his conservation vision. Today, the 4,200-square-kilometre wilderness is one of Alberta's most visited protected areas, a testament to Lougheed's choice to preserve rather than develop.