Field is an unincorporated community of approximately 169 people located in the
Kicking Horse River valley of southeastern
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
,
Canada, within the confines of
Yoho National Park. At an elevation of , it is west of
Lake Louise along the
Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...
, which provides the only road access to the town. The community is named for
Cyrus West Field of
Transatlantic telegraph cable fame, who visited the area in 1884.
Demographics
In 2011, Field had a population of 195 year-round residents.
Townsite administration
Field's land ownership was split between the Crown and the
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), with the border between the two jurisdictions being Stephen Avenue. The railway was in charge of the water and electricity supply for the town until the 1950s, when the Canadian government took over. Today, the townsite is managed by Parks Canada. Local residents lease their land from the park administration, with a term of 42 years.
Burgess Shale
CPR track workers in Field discovered the fossils of the
Burgess Shale. Commonly called by the workers "the stone bugs", the first fossils were discovered on
Mount Stephen.
[Richard McConnell, of the Geological Survey of Canada, was mapping the geology around the railway in September 1886 and was pointed to the Mount Stephen trilobite beds by a construction worker. Source: Collins, D. (Aug 2009). "Misadventures in the Burgess Shale". ''Nature'' 460 (7258): 952. doi:10.1038/460952a. ISSN 0028-0836. .] In 1909,
Charles D. Walcott discovered the Walcott Quarry on the slope of
Mount Field.
References
External links
*
Field.ca - Information for people traveling to Field and Yoho National ParkFieldbc.ca - Community website and history of the townFriends of Yoho - The Friends of Yoho National Park Society promote appreciation, understanding and stewardship of the ecology and culture of Yoho National ParkBC Archives Photo: Mount Stephen Hotel and CPR Station in Field, 1905
{{Canadian Rockies, state=collapsed
Designated places in British Columbia
Yoho National Park
Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia
Columbia Country
Populated places in the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District