First Nations Family: Samson Beaver, his wife Leah, and their daughter Frances Louise, in Canada - 1907

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In 1907, Samson Beaver met Mary Schäffer, an explorer, who had just failed in an attempt to find the route to a reputed large lake high in the mountains between Louise and Jasper. Samson sketched a map showing the route to “Chaba Imne”. The following year Schäffer returned with her friend Mary Adams, guides Sid Unwin and Billy Warren. Using the map provided by Beaver, they found the lake, and explored it by raft. The lake is now known as Maligne Lake, part of Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. Later, she wrote that at the far end of the lake “there burst upon us… the finest view any of us had ever beheld in the Rockies”.

You can read and download the entire book in various file formats at archive.org, the Beaver family photo appears on page 181 in the book:

https://archive.org/details/cu31924028903445

In honour of Samson and Leah’s contribution to Mary’s survey work and Rocky mountain exploration, she named the two most striking peaks after both of them.

Screenshot of the mountains and lake from Google Earth. You can explore the area youself via this link: https://earth.google.com/web/search/Maligne+Lake,+Alberta,+Canada/

Samson's map. Mary wrote his name as Sampson.

Licencing questions? Email me!