Hamber Provincial Park
| Hamber Provincial Park | |
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Fortress Lake
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 Location of Hamber Provincial Park in British Columbia
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| Location | British Columbia, Canada |
| Nearest city | Revelstoke, Jasper |
| Coordinates | 52°22′05″N 117°51′59″W / 52.36806°N 117.86639°WCoordinates: 52°22′05″N 117°51′59″W / 52.36806°N 117.86639°W |
| Area | 240 km² |
| Governing body | BC Parks |
Hamber Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located at the provincial boundary with Alberta, surrounded on three sides by Jasper National Park. When the park was created in 1941, it constituted one of the largest protected wilderness areas in Canada. In the early 1960s, the provincial government reduced its size by 98% due to pressure exerted by the forestry industry, planned hydroelectric developments along the upper Columbia River and the re-routing of the Trans-Canada Highway away from the park.
Established on 16 September 1941 by an Order in Council issued by British Columbia premier Thomas Dufferin Pattullo, the park was named in honour of Eric W. Hamber, Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia from 1936 to 1941. Covering approximately 1,009,112 hectares at the time of its establishment, it was one of the largest parks in Canada. It shared a common boundary with portions of Mount Robson Provincial Park and Jasper, Banff, Glacier and Yoho National Parks. Designated a "Class A" provincial park, it afforded the "highest degree of protection from exploitation" to a vast tract of wilderness in the Selkirk Mountains and the western ranges of the Rocky Mountains.
Pattullo established Hamber as a new protected area which bridged the gap between several existing mountain parks in the hope that his action would spur the Canadian government to declare Hamber a new national park. He envisioned that a substantial increase in the national park system's coverage of western Canada's mountainous terrain would boost tourism revenue. Part of this economic benefit was anticipated to derive from improved access to the region made possible by federal support for road infrastructure within a nationalized Hamber park. The Canadian federal government, whose attention was directed towards World War II, expressed little interest in Pattullo's idea. Moreover, Prime Minister Mackenzie King preferred that national parks be spread throughout the country and not be concentrated only in the mountains of western Canada. No portion of Hamber was ever incorporated into Canada's national park system.
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