Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (World Heritage Site)
The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is a unique cross-border park that spans Alberta, Canada, and Montana, United States. Established in 1932, it is recognized as the world’s first international peace park, symbolizing cooperation and goodwill between two nations. The park encompasses two national parks: Waterton Lakes in Canada and Glacier National Park in the United States, covering an impressive area of 1,720 square miles. This site is notable not only for its breathtaking landscapes, which include glacially carved mountains and diverse ecosystems, but also for its cultural significance, as it intersects with the traditional lands of several Indigenous nations, including the Niitsitapi and the Blackfeet.
In 1995, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, highlighting its ecological diversity and the importance of its international status. The park serves as a habitat for various wildlife species, including grizzly bears, bald eagles, and mountain goats, making it a key area for conservation efforts. The park’s significance is further underscored by its role in inspiring a global movement toward the establishment of peace parks. Activities such as the International Peace Park Hike celebrate the ongoing friendship between Canada and the United States, with events commemorating the park's founding. As the best place in the world for stargazing recognized in 2024, it continues to draw visitors seeking both natural beauty and a connection to its rich history of peace and collaboration.
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (World Heritage Site)
Site information
- Official name: Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park
- Locations: Alberta, Canada, and Montana, United States
- Type: Geological
- Year of inscription: 1995
The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is a combination of two parks in North America: the Waterton Lakes National Park on the Canadian side of the border and the Glacier National Park in the United States. The respective governments jointly manage the combined park. As the world's first international peace park, Waterton-Glacier fittingly occupies space across the world's largest undefended border, with the park comprising 1,720 square miles, intersected by the Canadian–American border. The park is dedicated to the demonstration of peace and goodwill in protecting natural wildlife, landscapes, and vegetation. This spirit is underscored by the fact that each park shared the same topography, climate, flora, and fauna.
History
Human settlement in Waterton-Glacier area has existed for at least twelve thousand years. On the Canadian side, the park crosses into the first nation homeland of the Niitsitapi, comprising the nations of the Piikani, Siksika, and Kainai, as well as the Ktunaxa Nation. In Montana, the southern edge of Glacier National Park touches the Blackfeet Nation Reservation, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai nations lie to the south and west of the park. The mountains within the park are viewed as traditional ceremonial sites to the indigenous communities, while Chief Mountain and the Two Medicine area are still considered sacred areas and traditional vision quest pathways known as the "Backbone of the World."
The Waterton Lakes are the deepest lakes in Alberta. The Canadian section of the park was named for British naturalist Squire Charles Waterton, by Lieutenant Thomas Blakiston during his 1857–60 surveying expedition to catalogue native species of plants and explore railway routes. Glacier National Park in the United States takes its name from the evidence of widespread glacial flows, carving out valleys, jagged rock formations, and ample lakes. The best-preserved sedimentary rock and fossilized records from the Proterozoic period have been recovered from Glacier National Park. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed within fifty miles of the park area during their 1806 exploration of Marias River.
When mining operations proved to not be economically viable, tourism to view the natural beauty of the park was encouraged by railway operators. In an effort to protect the area, the Great Northern Railway lobbied to designate the area as a forest preserve in 1897. By 1910, a congressional bill was passed to transform the area from a forest reserve to a national park. Tourism continued, following along the railroad line, where a number of hotels and mountain chalets, built in Swiss architectural styles, were erected.
One such chalet was the Prince of Wales Hotel, built in Waterton in 1927. It was the site in 1931, during the joint annual meeting of the Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana Rotary clubs, that a resolution was proposed to create a joint Canadian–American International Peace Park. While there are now 170 peace parks in the world, this proposal was the first of its kind. The one hundred members unanimously voted to adopt the resolution.
One year later, in 1932, the US congress passed a bill creating the unified peace park. When the Canadian version of the bill was passed one month later, Prime Minister Richard Bedford Bennet proclaimed that Waterton and Glacier National Parks are "to be known as one international peace park for the purpose of indicating that a boundary line passes through the park and divides two great counties and two great peoples who have lived in peace for many years and who, we all hope, will continue ever to live in terms of amity, goodwill and peace." The Rotary club sponsored the erection of two stone monuments, marking the international boundary within the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, united under a ceremony of a handshake across the border. Every year, this handshake is reenacted at various cross-border exchanges, in what has become known as the International Peace Park Hike. In 1982, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Peace Park founding, a Peace Park Pavilion was built on the Waterton lakeside. In 2024, the park was named the best place in the world for stargazing by the index of Best Starry Night Experiences.
Significance
The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park was listed as a World Heritage site in 1995. While the listing is based on the park's physical characteristics, it also recognizes the significance of its shared cross-border status. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) notes that both Warterton and Glacier were, respectively, originally designated as national parks by Canada and the United States because of their abundant wildlife diversity, the glacially transformed landscape, and the mix of mountains and prairie climates. Yet it is in combining the two parks that it becomes a World Heritage location, occupying a pivotal place of ecological complexity that cannot be found anywhere else. The UNESCO committee noted the cultural importance of its International Peace Park designation as one criterion in their decision to list the park as a World Heritage location.
In combining the park, the headwaters of three major watersheds are brought together in one international park, creating a divide that drains into three separate oceans. These crossing headwaters create a high concentration of fauna and flora diversity within a geographically compacted area. The glaciers that carved the sharp peaks of the mountains and created large, scattered lakes that melt into stunning waterfalls and mineral-rich rivers. Among the rarer wildlife, the park is home to grizzly bears, gray wolves, lynx, bald eagles, and peregrine falcons. The park also has large elk, coyote, and mountain goat populations. Alpine meadows, prairie grasslands, and ancient forests are filled with rare plants and wildflowers. The founders of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park can also be credited with inspiring the multitude of international peace parks across the globe.
Bibliography
Ellison, Aaron. "Political Borders Should Not Hamper Wildlife." Nature, vol. 508, no. 7494, 3 Apr. 2014, p. 9. doi:10.1038/508009a. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.
Holston, Mark. "Peace Parks." Americas, vol.60, no. 4, Jul./Aug. 2008, p. 3.
MacDonald, Graham A. Where the Mountains Meet the Prairies: A History of Waterton Country. U of Calgary P, 2000.
Sholar, Curt. "Glacier National Park and the Blackfoot Nation's Reserved Rights: Does a Valid Tribal Co-Management Authority Exist?" American Indian Law Review, vol. 29, no. 1, 2004/2005, pp. 151–72.
"Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park." National Park Service, 29 Mar. 2021, www.nps.gov/articles/000/waterton-glacier-international-peace-park-world-heritage-site.htm. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.
"Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park." Natural Wonders and Cultural Treasures. Parks Canada, 19 Feb. 2015. www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/waterton/natcul/inter.aspx. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.
Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. World Heritage List. World Heritage Cultural Centre, UNESCO, 2016. HYPERLINK "http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/354/" whc.unesco.org/en/list/354/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.