Mary Schäffer Warren

Mary Schäffer Warren (née Mary Townsend Sharples) was the premier explorer of the Canadian Rockies; known to the Stoney Nakoda as Yahe-Weha (The Mountain Woman). Born to wealth in Philadelphia, she died a legend in Banff, having traded corset-stiffened society for buckskins and campfires. She was not merely a visitor; she led expeditions, hired guides, paid the bills, and decided the route. In the Alpine Club of Canada, where men usually led and women followed, Mary was the “Chief.”

1903: From assistant to lead explorer. Before 1903 Mary assisted her husband Dr. Charles Schäffer, painting the flora he catalogued. That year she lost her husband, mother, and father. She chose to complete Charles’s work: Alpine Flora of the Canadian Rocky Mountains (1907), collaborating with botanist Stewardson Brown. The wilderness became a “healer of sorrows.” She hired Billy Warren (whom she later married) and realized she wanted to go where the maps were blank.

Chaba Imne and Maligne Lake (1907–1908). Mary had heard rumours of a hidden “Lake of Spirits” (Chaba Imne; Beaver Lake) from the Stoney Nakoda. In 1907 she failed to find it, turned back by snow; the surveying establishment was skeptical. Unlike surveyors who distrusted Indigenous knowledge, Mary trusted it. She befriended Samson Beaver, a Stoney Nakoda hunter; at the Elliott Barnes cabin on the Kootenay Plains he drew a map from memory (on paper; often romanticized as buckskin), marking the route. Following it, Mary’s party pushed up the Brazeau River. On 8 July 1908 they crested a ridge and saw the lake stretching 22 km; the largest in the Rockies. She built a raft, the HMS Chaba, to explore it; she renamed it Maligne Lake. Her survey was so precise that government cartographers later found little to correct. The Geological Survey of Canada asked her to return in 1911; her maps helped secure the Maligne area within Jasper National Park. She did not “discover” the lake; she acknowledged that Samson Beaver showed it to her; in her writings she advocated for Indigenous peoples being pushed off traditional lands to create the parks.

Artistic legacy. Mary was an expert photographer who hand-painted glass-plate negatives with transparent oils to capture glacial blues and alpine colours. She toured cities with “Magic Lantern” shows, mesmerizing urban audiences. Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies (1911) is a vital primary source; humour, hardship, and the joy of trail life.

Lake Louise and Banff. Mary explored the backcountry behind Lake Louise; Skoki Valley and Ptarmigan Valleys; before lodges or ski lifts. Her photography provides a baseline for the Victoria Glacier and Lake Louise before the Chateau’s expansion; climate scientists overlay her images to measure glacial recession. She moved permanently to Banff, building a home called “Tarry-a-while” (Tarm Tarm), and hosted dignitaries as a bridge between pioneer days and the modern park era.

Social defiance. She wore a modified shorter skirt with bloomers to ride astride; scandalous but practical for dangerous passes. With Mary Vaux Walcott, she was among the first white women to explore the Nakimu Caves near Rogers Pass. She named Mount Mary Vaux in Jasper (1908). Schäffer Camp at Lake O’Hara and Mount Schäffer bear her name.