Wildflowers: The Story Behind the Mary Schaffer Documentary
There’s this person I met about 17 years ago. It was my first summer working in the mountains at a historic lodge in Banff National Park.
Now, by this point, this person had been lying in the Banff Cemetery for 66 years, but her story was so compelling that it has been the subject of much Rockies folklore. Her accomplishments as an explorer, writer, photographer and artist put her name in the history books alongside notable men of the same era.
Mary Schäffer was no ordinary woman.
Cover of biography, No Ordinary Woman, featuring Mary Schäffer and Billy Warren.
During that first summer working at Bow Lake, I came to learn the most popular story about Schäffer, that in 1908 she and her friend Mollie Adams were joined by two guides, Billy Warren and Sidney Unwin, on a historic expedition to find an elusive lake known to the Stoney Nakoda as Chaba Imne (present-day Maligne Lake). Certain details surrounding the expedition seem as though they were pulled straight out of a storybook: a tip from friend Jimmy Simpson regarding the existence of the lake, a map provided to her by Samson Beaver, the horseback trip from Laggan to Maligne Lake (making Schäffer and Adams the first non-native women to reach that far into present-day Jasper National Park) — all finishing with a sail on Chaba Imne aboard a hand-hewn raft.
Sitting in the Whyte Museum archives. Still from footage by Trixie Pacis.
Over the course of the next 17 years, Schäffer’s story somehow weaved itself into mine, in curious and surprising ways. The lodge I worked in at Bow Lake was built by Jimmy Simpson, the same person who tipped Schäffer off about Chaba Imne. As my freelance writing career grew, I found myself writing about her for magazines and other media. She also inspired a radio show about mountain women that I used to write and host on Park Radio. And then, about six years ago, I discovered that the house I was renting in Banff was across the street from Schäffer’s historic home, Tarry-A-While. I loved to imagine her walking up the same streets and crossing her yard to her steps, or sitting by the window writing.
A long story made even shorter, over a year ago a friend and filmmaker named Trixie Pacis mentioned she had the idea of creating a short documentary film about Mary Schäffer. Though Schäffer has intrigued me for a long time, my first reaction was to suggest that perhaps the mountain community would be disenchanted with her story, especially with it being such a dominant one in Rockies lore.
“But is her story well-known outside of the Rockies?” Pacis asked.
I responded that I did not think it was, that in the national context, perhaps her story was largely circulating in academic circles. Over the next year, Pacis and I discussed the film and what new perspectives we could bring to light in Schäffer’s story. She recruited Canmore-based filmmaker Caroline Hedin to join the production team. We explored funding options, developed a project deck for applications, and began to have conversations with potential research sources and interviews.
I’m keeping a journal through the process, which will house my thoughts, notes and research on Schäffer. Still from footage by Trixie Pacis.
Gradually, a story began to form. There was so much more to Schäffer beyond her 1908 expedition and what she’s more popularly known for. We discovered that an interesting point of entry was actually the intersection of Schäffer’s life and mine. The parallels were both convenient and compelling, namely that we both moved west, left behind more conservative lifestyles, and took up a vocation as writers. The timeline also intersects with me entering a new phase of my life: my forties. Schäffer redefined her life many times and often bucked societal norms to carve out her own identity. But it was in her mid-forties that as a recent widow she reimagined herself as a mountain explorer and began nearly a decade of backcountry exploration and adventures.
What might I learn from Schäffer’s story about embracing change and reinventing myself through various stages in life, including midlife?
Through all of our brainstorming, funding applications and conversations, we landed on this focus: the film would explore the common threads between two women—kindred souls living a century apart—and the door that opens for modern-day women to explore their own wild spirits.
We gave the film the working title, Wildflowers. You can learn more about the film here.
Here I am talking to Whyte Museum archivist Elizabeth. She’s showing some of Schäffer’s images that have been digitized. Still from footage by Trixie Pacis.
Because I can’t actually meet Schaffer for myself, I’m doing my utmost to revisit her life here in Banff and her old stomping grounds. I’m doing a deep dive into her letters, journals, photographs and other archival materials at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. I’m reading any literature about her that I can get my hands on. And, finally, our intention is to follow Schäffer’s footsteps into the backcountry by retracing the final portion of her 1908 expedition from Poboktan Creek to Maligne Lake. Beyond it being a willow-choked valley with no official trail, nor bridges to assist with river crossings, today the trek also requires some logistical gymnastics in order to obtain permits. It’s a far cry from the experience Schäffer had, which adds some interesting layers to the story.
Along the way, we’ll also be pulling on other threads: women claiming space in the outdoors, women’s voices in the narrative on mountain history, the legacy of Jasper National Park, as well as Indigenous perspectives on Schäffer’s story.
Of course, none of this may happen as planned, which all adds to the magic of filmmaking. ✨
If you’d like to follow our film’s journey, hop on over to Instagram and click to Follow.
If you think you may be able to assist the project in some way, either as a source for research, financing, or the creative process, please don’t hesitate to Contact Me.