Touring Alberta's Palaeoscape in the Drumheller Badlands
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies Legacy Theses 1998 Insitu time: Touring Alberta's palaeoscape in the Drumheller badlands Wood, David J. Wood, D. J. (1998). Insitu time: Touring Alberta's palaeoscape in the Drumheller badlands (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/10917 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/26183 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Ins i t u Time: Touring Alberta's Palaeoscape in the Drumheller Badlands David J. Wood A THESIS SUBTVIITTTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIRElWNTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY CALGARY, ALBERTA MARCH, 1998 O David J. Wood 1998 National Library Bibliotheque nationale of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliogwphiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON K 1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde me licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pennettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prster, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent 2t.e imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT The Badlands landscape of Drumheller, Alberta is renowned nationally and internationally as a place of abundant fossil resources. Accordingly, Alberta's Badlands host the meeting of Earth science and popular culture in the conduct of a growing palaeotourism industry. The thesis is oriented by attention to the paths tourist follow and create as their pursuit of the late- Cretaceous past draws them into an Albertan palaeoscape. By paying ethnographic attention to the structuration of this movement, we can see how palaeontologists' concern with epistemology (the ins itu fossil) facilitates the industrialization (tourism) of the Badlands landscape (fossil resources). In turn, I am able to suggest that the emergence of the fossiliferous landscape form is related to the emergence and development of modernity. Set in a relevant historical and regional context, I suggest Badlands palaeotourism is a cultural landscape process that draws upon and elaborates a historical "political economy of the imagination." iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has developed through the stimulation, support and criticism of the following people: Dr. Peter Gose, University of Regina, Linda Ecklund Digby and Robin Digby of Groundwork Natural Science Education and Monty Reid of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. Andrew and Antonia Dejong of the Willow Tea Room and the East Coulee School Museum deserve a special mention for feeding my curiosity as well as my stomach during the fieldwork phase of this project. Dr. Frances Slaney and Dr. Keith Parry of the University of Regina provided usefull comments during the development of the draft. Dr. Diane Draper of the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary did an excellent job of identifying editorial problems in the text. Kerry Stothers lent her support with some of the illustrations and editing tasks towards the completion of the draft. My supewisor, Dr. Alan Smart, has helped me integrate the variety of perspectives and analyses elaborated here, and I thank him for his firm patience with this project. In the wake of my former supervisor's death (Dr. Herman Konrad), Dr. Smart's support has been sincerely appreciated. Finally, the administrative prowess of Myrna Haglund has been instrumental in the completion of this project. To each of these people, I extend my gratitude. DEDICATION To the memory of Craig Douglas Powell 1969-1996 It's a truck; it can go anywhere... " TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Approval Page ........................................................................................................11... Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 11.1 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. iv Dedication ................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... vi Cis t of Tables ............................................................................................................ viii List of Figures ............................................................................................................ ix CMAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 Locating Past: The Alberta Badlands .......................................... 4 Drumheller's Cold Shoulder ....................................................... 7 Tourism: A Political Economy of Past ...................................... 11 Methodological Considerations .................................................... 21 CHAPTER TWO: HSTOIUC CONIIEXT ......................................................... 21 The Significance of J.B. Tyrrell .................................................... 21 The Journey........................................................................................ 24 The Survey ........................................................................................ 32 Landscape Structuration ................................................................ 38 CHAPTER THREE: REGIONAL CONTEXT ...................................................... 46 Establishing a Regional Standard: The RTMP ........................... 46 "Historic" East Coulee ..................................................................... 52 "Place" and the internal structuration of East Coulee ............. 55 Defining an Interpretive Commodity / Defining Place ............ 61 CHAPTER FOUR: OBSERVATIONS .................................... ., ....................... 68 Tourist Production of Badlands Landscapes .............................. 68 The Tourist Path ....................................................................... 70 A Spatial Organization of Tourist Agency: The Campground .................................................................................... 72 What is a Site? Swinging the Bridge ............................................ 75 Framing the Hoodoos: Inside a Recreation Area ..................... 80 An Analysis: Paths In Search of Projects .................................... 87 CHAPTER FNE: ANALYSIS ................................................................................. 93 The Interpretive Event .................................................................... 93 Making Biographies/ Indexing Badlands .................................... 93 The Guided Path ............................................................................. 98 lhe Return of the Agenda ............................................................. 100 LJocating the Late Cretaceous .................................................... 106 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................... 113 The Palaeoscape: Towards a Political Economy of the Imagination ................................................................................. 114 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 121 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................122 APPENDIX A: FIGURES ............................................................................... 129 APPENDIX B: PALAEOSCAPES .......................................................................... 142 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 J.B. Tyrrell. locational Practice and a Structural Core ............... 42 Table 2 Diachronic Inversion of the Core ............................................. 44 Table 3 Diachronic Inversion of the Core ................................................ 60 Table 4 General Contrasts in Tourist Paths ................. ..,.... .................... 100 Table 5 Earth Science Contradictions in the Badlands Landscape ...... 115 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 The Badlands Landscape Homology .......................................... 130 Figure 2 Grid. Highway. and Region ........................................................... 131 Figure 3 Tyrrell-Eas t Coulee Radius ........................................................ 132 Figure 4 Legal Map of East Coulee ..............................................................