Ramparts Range

The Ramparts (83D)

This range lies to the west of Amethyst Lakes and the Tonquin Valley. It forms a portion of the Continental Divide.

Although the name was used prior to 1920, in that year the name was officially applied by the Interprovincial Boundary Survey which also named most of the individual peaks after various components of medieval castles.

In 1916, Morris Bridgland became the first known visitor to see the Ramparts. He wrote that, ñThis valley, with its beautifully coloured lakes, its wide meadows and park-like forest, and its majestic peaks, is one of the most beautiful spots is the mountains.

After climbing in the area in 1933, mountaineer C.G. Wates wrote, "I know of no compact and continuous range in the Canadian Rockies which can show such an array of difficult peaks."

In his book, "The Glittering Mountains of Canada," J. Monroe Thorington wrote, "The surveyors who christened the Ramparts thought of it as a castellated range and bestowed upon the peaks the medieval names suggested by their counterparts -Turret, Bastion, Redoubt, Dungeon, Postern, and Casemate. But the crest is so sinuous and angulated that, as we looked toward it from across the valley floor, we felt that the analogy to the spiny remains of a petrified dinosaur or some similar creature was an equally good one. Certainly there were never any man-built castles in Jasper Park; but did we not know from the Indian stories that it had always been the abode of dragons?"