(1:21:25) Sharon – That all came under Don Dumpleton.

(1:21:27) Gord – That all came under Don Dumpleton as our chief.

(1:21:29) Sharon – When he came in it changed to the function system because Mickey was gone. That was his job actually Don’s job was to change it to functions.

(1:21:47) Gord – I guess it was still a function system or thought of that way when we left. But now you know the story ( In 2000, Banff warden, Douglas Martin filed a federal Labor Code Complaint arguing that, without a side arm, he was being placed in situations of potential danger without the necessary protective equipment. (Remington, Robert. “Men for the Mountains.” Discovering Alberta – A Calgary Herald Magazine Series). After seven years of discussions and appeals, the National Occupational Health and Safety Policy Committee recommended that Parks Canada give wardens side arms. However, wardens were later relieved of their law-enforcement duties, with the exception of enforcing federal conservation laws. “In 2008, the union complained wardens could be mistaken for police officers because of their uniform and cars and that they were still unable to protect themselves. Parks Canada has since ruled that wardens will dress like any other park employees and 100 armed-enforcement officers were hired. These 100 officers are now the only employees with the warden title and uniform. They are in charge of protecting Canada’s 41 national parks and park reserves.” (Agrell, Siri. “Park Wardens Out of Uniform: From Stetsons to Ball Caps” Globe and Mail. June 7, 2008.)

(1:21:58) Sharon – Better than us!

(1:21:59) Gord – Yeah, we are trying to divorce ourselves from even thinking about it. Toni lived here in retirement, they’ve had to move him back to Jasper to a home. But he used to come to visit once a week and inevitably we would get to talking, complaining about where the outfit was going. So it has been good actually in the sense that I don’t have anybody around to complain about things anymore. I am getting a little bit more removed, but it is still pretty hard to take for a lot of guys. Some are more emotionally involved than others. I got really emotionally involved in that Sky Walk. (In February 2012, Brewster Travel Canada was granted permission to build a 400-metre skywalk and glass-floored observation deck suspended from a cliff face at the Columbia Icefields in Jasper National Park despite local, national and international protest. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2012/01/12/edmonton-jasper-walkway-petition.html)

We did everything we could and it went to deaf ears, so what can you do?

“Is there anything about the warden service as you knew it that you would like future generations to know?”

(1:23:07) Gord – Yeah, I would like them to be able to experience what we experienced you know.) I think that we had the best of both worlds at the time. We were getting a little more professional at what we were doing as far as reporting on things and so on. Of course enforcement and public safety became very sophisticated. The way it was from 1975 to the early 1990s, were the glory years I guess you could say. But you talk to the older generation and they think that they had the best years when it was the district system.

“It would be very interesting to talk to your daughter and see what she says.”

(1:23:54) Sharon – So it is everybody’s story…She has got stories from her early life and then from her warden life. (She was blessed to not only work on the trail, but she got to be sort of a backcountry warden by being at the Broken Group Islands by herself for a couple of years. Doing that was kind of interesting too, because she was a bit like us in the fact that when we started…we were pretty green. We had to be brave and actually take our mentoring and the encouragement from our peers and the same thing happened to her. She would get out and she would get on someone’s million dollar yacht and talk to them about stuff. They would want to know all this stuff, like as if she knew everything…But she became – actually and not just because I am proud of our daughter – she became a very skilled boat woman.

Rundi at work with Gord as a ride along

(1:25:11) Gord – She did night rescues where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. She was just going by the instruments on the boat.

(1:25:18) Sharon – She got sent to some pretty good courses and had high acclaim by the people she worked with, the guys she worked with on the boat.

(1:25:33) Gord – She was recruited, she was the first warden in the Gulf Islands. Ron Hamilton recruited her. He stole her away from Pacific Rim!

(1:25:47) Sharon – She had a lot to do with the boat design and some of the early stuff there.

(1:25:56) Gord – Setting up the park and the procedures and so on.

What did she study in University?

Sharon – She did environment science and geography and then she took a Masters Degree in public administration after she went to Victoria.

(1:26:16) Gord – Her and a lot of her peers are gone from the park system now and it is the park’s loss.

(1:26:28) Sharon – Her superintendent was trying to talk her into staying and she said, “Well you are trying to get away. Why would you be telling me to stay when all the people that I worked with have been shipped down the river?” Her superintendent took an early retirement…her chief warden found another job…there was just a lot of hurt over the whole thing.

(1:27:10) Gord – She felt the morale was toxic. She said, “It is toxic around here. I can’t live with this.” I guess it is probably the same in most parks.

(1:27:20) Sharon – But you know we don’t know people’s stories too…everybody has their own different hold onto their story. Her story was about the basic park. Some people stories are about their jobs. Everybody holds onto a different story of why it affects them and how it affects them.

‘Do you think that she always wanted to be a warden? Did that surprise you?”

(1:27:53) Gord – Actually prior to her graduating from high school, she thought about being a marine biologist, that was one of the ideas that she had. But she came and worked in Jasper as a summer student with the warden service in different jobs eh, like she ran a weed control crew one summer and so on. And she worked with Nora Manners, who was a former warden. I don’t know if you have heard of Evan and Nora? Nora was just a real talented person. Rundi really looked up to her I think and that maybe she had some influence on her…And just her exposure through us. She had some backcountry trips and she did a lot of skiing, and all the different things that you do in a park.

Rundi and Gord Anderson at Camp Parker

(1:28:49) Sharon – I would have thought Travis more than her. He went to school in Lethbridge, but it was really hard for him to live in Lethbridge. He went to school in Calgary and then to Lethbridge and both were really hard living for him, but he finished his schooling and came back and applied. But at that time they were hiring all university students. I can remember the Kubian brothers saying, “My God.” Because he knew the backcountry like the back of his hand and all of his summer jobs had been on trail maintenance and he was a horseman.

The Anderson Family 2003

(1:29:27) Gord – Travis was more prepared to be a warden than I was by a long shot! He knew the horses, he knew the trails.

(1:29:36) Sharon – And boating, he was a raft guide. He knew all that kind of stuff, he could live off the land. Then he got a little discouraged and he started building log cabins and he liked that.

(1:29:51) Gord – He wouldn’t have made a good warden nowadays because he wouldn’t have been happy.

(1:29:54) Sharon – He wouldn’t have done the law enforcement, I don’t think that was his thing.

(1:29:58) Gord – He would have been an old district warden type of guy.

(1:30:01) Sharon – He was a few years too late!

“But you say that you and Rundi were the first father/daughter wardens?”

(1:30:11) Gord – Yep, as far as I know I am pretty sure we were We certainly were in the west because I knew everything that was going on out here. Actually I think that we were hiring more female wardens out here than they were in the east anyway early on.

Gord and Rundi Anderson at National Park Warden Centennial Celebration – 2009

(1:30:29) Sharon – But she got to train a lot of wardens too.

(1:30:35) Gord – She trained at depot and at the Palisades, she was training recruits.

(1:30:42) Sharon – That is why she knows so many wardens because she trained them.

(1:30:47) Gord – She worked with Tim Auger and Sylvia two different years at the Palisades, Sylvia Forest.

“Is there anyone from the service who really stands out in your mind? Any characters or people you worked with?”

(1:31:09) Gord – Well, we would have to say Andy I think off the top of our heads.

(1:31:15) Sharon – Yeah, he was a pretty interesting character, plus an influential and a good friend.

(1:31:22) Gord – Yeah, that is the main thing. You hear all kinds of different people’s opinions on Andy, but he was always pretty dear to our hearts, that is for sure.

(1:31:31) Sharon – There are lots, like Wendy and Larry Harbidge, Bev Hunter as the warden secretary.

(1:31:41) Gord – Mac was a big influence too, Mac Elder.

(1:31:46) Sharon – And Gordon and Sandra McClain.

(1:31:48) Gord – Oh, the McClain’s absolutely! Gord got me straightened out. When I came to Jasper I was all confused with packing horses. I had Earl Skjonsberg, I had Jack Woledge, I had a little bit of Billy Vroom, Jimmy Robertson and I don’t know who else. They all told me, “This is the way to do it. This is how you do it.” I came here and I made one trip in the fall with McClain. He said, “This is what works for me.” Just subtle differences on how he presented it. After three weeks in the backcountry with him, I came back out and I knew how to pack horses and I knew how to do all kinds of things. I was self reliant and that is why we got to go to the Rocky River, because I had spent the fall with him. (Gord added later, “My backcountry trips in Banff varied from numerous day rides to three day trips with several five day trips over the two seasons. In Jasper, 21 to 24 day patrols were the norm. This provided me with repetitive opportunities to learn and develop routines.”
The interview paused while Gord and Sharon looked for photos.)

(1:32:36) Sharon – And Bob Barker. Oh my goodness, you have to mention Bob. He is living just outside of Edson now. He would be a great person to interview. He is a little older than us, not much.

(1:32:54) Gord – He is 72 this year.

(1:32:55) Sharon – He has good stories and he is such a neat guy, and Al Stendie.

(1:33:00) Gord – They live close together. So if their names come up you could get the two of them together. Al lives about nine kilometers or so from Bob. They were both long time Jasper wardens. Bob is remarried; his first wife Barb was a warden’s daughter, Barb Young.

(1:33:25) Sharon – Norm Young was her dad.

(1:33:29) Gord – She was quite young when they got married…

(1:33:32) Sharon – 18, she had just graduated right out of high school!

(1:33:35) Gord – (When) their daughter Cheryl was born, Barb took her into the Brazeau when she was six weeks old and spent the winter in there with her…In the real backcountry, they were the last family to live there year round. It was only one year I think that Cheryl was back there and then they transferred out of there. But Bob was there for four years in the Brazeau district and he’s got all kinds of Brazeau stories. He was actually one of the last guys hired on who didn’t have some sort of a secondary education.

(1:34:20) Sharon – He was there before we became wardens though because remember when we were on the lookout we used to hear his voice on the radio? Then it was kind of interesting to meet him afterwards. He had a nice voice and I used to picture what these people looked like from their voices on the radio. I was quite surprised. He looked a lot different than how he sounded…Bob was another Ed Carleton type of guy, good looking…

“Did you ever find it hard in the backcountry with two little children?”

(1:37:06) Sharon – Not really. There is one story she wrote in there, that I mentioned where Travis was under the horses belly. He was out in the sandbox and I had gone in to punch down bread or something. When I came out he was sitting there and that was a testament to how beautiful the horse Paddy was because her legs were just shaking like this (demonstrating) and he was right under her belly. I can remember thinking “Oh God!” and going over and just dragging him out and then saying, “Thank you Paddy!” His head and every part of him was very close to her legs. He was just sitting there, she was a big horse and she was just standing there, she knew… Then after that we really tried to protect that horse because she was very old. We came out very late in the season with the horses because…she was about the age that they took them to the canners and we didn’t want her to go to the canners. So we came out in this snowstorm and stayed out very late in the season with the horses! (Gord and Sharon were interviewed as part of Nicole Eckert-Lyngstad’s thesis – The Backcountry as Home: Park Wardens, Families, and Jasper National Park’s District Cabin System, 1952-1972 )

Sharon later added, “Paddy the horse was actually a very noble old gelding who incidentally was one of a few horses who transferred to the mountains from Prince Albert national park.

“What do you think made the warden service such a unique organization? Was it the type of people attracted to it?”

(1:39:49) Gord – Probably, it had a lot to do with the type of people who were attracted to it. I think it also had to do with the tasks that (we were assigned)…

“Do you have any lasting memories of your warden life? A favorite place, or horses…”

(1:45:04) Gord – We’ve got sort of our top ten favorite placesThey are all in the backcountry, Cairn Pass in Jasper is probably right up there near the top. There are lots of places in the backcountry that I would love to go again and visit. Sharon and I spent a fair amount of time in the Cairn Pass area and Rocky Forks. It is a beautiful setting, it is similar to Cyclone (in Banff National Park), great big meadows. I was always partial to Scotch Camp too, but I never got to spend much time there because it was sort of a short stop over place. But that is probably one of the nicer places in Banff that appeals to me anyways, the big open meadows. There are places like that in Jasper, lots of meadows. Horse heaven sort of thing!

“Sharon do you have any favorites?”

(1:45:15) Sharon – Yeah, Cairn Pass of course, undoubtedly. There are lots of places in Banff that hold good memories, like in and around Castle Mountain. I love just about anything out in nature anyways! I guess one of the places I did a lot of walking was living out at the Maligne Canyon. At Maligne Canyon I did a lot of skiing that route, like everyday type of thing. Walking to the Meeting of the Waters was also a special place, meditative. Of course I loved the Rocky River district because it was our home, it probably holds some of the biggest highlights and I still like the lookout, Sunset Lookout. It was pretty neat, walking up to get our water with jerry cans on our backs…

(1:47:22) Gord – It is pretty hard to narrow it down to one specific favorite place.

(1:47:28) Sharon – But I guess in the backcountry, like a place to travel to if I was telling somebody in Jasper, it would be Cairn Pass. The trip itself is pretty interesting and then when you get up there you are in high alpine meadows.