“In 1873, my great-grandfather, Michael Phillipps, was the
first white man to cross the Crowsnest Pass—and he did it
from West to East.”
— Lexine Phillipps, Cranbrook, BC

“Today’s adventurers can trace the routes of our national
trailbreakers—David Thompson in Canada and Lewis and
Clark in the American West—as they explore what we now
call the Crown of the Continent. Amtrak riders still follow
the original trans-Rockies route of the Great Northern
Railway, while motorists in Canada parallel the tracks of
Canadian Pacific’s Crowsnest Route. The two railroads
opened the Crown to settlement in the late 19th century,
bringing with them the wood cutters and miners whose
descendants share the valleys with today’s so-called
‘amenity migrants’—those among us who first come to
visit, and then return to stay.”
— John Kinnear, Crowsnest Pass, AB