SOIL SURVEY

-3-The Kicking Horse River and Kicking Horse Pass apparently weren't explored b yEuropeans until the arrival of Dr . James Hector with the Palliser Expedition o f1857 - 1860. Hector followed the Vermilion River to the Kootenay River basin an dfrom there followed the Beaverfoot River to its confluence with the Kicking Hors eRiver . It was there that he was kicked by his horse which led to the naming of th eriver . After his accident, he travelled up the Kicking Horse River, found th eKicking Horse Pass and descended to the Bow River .In 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway decided to route its rail line throug hthe Kicking Horse Pass . Survey work started almost immediately and by 1885 th erailway line was completed . The building of the railway was perhaps the most importantevent in the history of Yoho . With the railway construction there was an influx o fworkers, lumber was cut for ties, mineral deposits were discovered and a small townsit ewas formed . In addition, there was the legislation concerning the land ownership i nthe "Railway Belt" (a zone of land, 20 miles wide on each side of the rail line) whic henabled the Federal Government to establish Yoho National Park .In 1886, the Federal Government established a park reserve of ten square mile sencompassing Mount Stephen, which was known as the Mount Stephen Reserve . Thi swas expanded to 825 .5 square miles in 1901, and was renamed the Yoho Park Reserve .The area was formally declared a National Park in 1911 and its boundaries were change dseveral times until in 1930 the present Park area of 507 square miles was established .Under the terms of the transfer of the Railway Belt, the Federal Governmen thad control over the administration of the timber rights in the Railway Belt . The firsttimber berths were alloted to the C .P .R . in 1884, 1886, and 1887, and by the lat e1890's a total of 117 timber berths were licenced within the Railway Belt . Lumberin goperations in Yoho were centered on the Kicking Horse, Beaverfoot, and Ottertai lRivers . With the establishment of the Park Reserve, regulations restricting cutting ofgreen timber were introduced so that very little green timber was cut after the earl y1900's . A notable exception to this was the lumbering operation in the Amiskwi Valle ywhere approved cutting began in 1952 and continued on a sporadic basis until 1968 .