The big white boulder that sits in the parking lot on Connaught Drive has a history that predates the town. The glacial material found throughout the valley was built over, around, moved or re purposed throughout Jasper. Some of our photographs show a boulder painted white, labelled with the names of the surrounding peaks and topped with a metal pointer near the original Grand Trunk railway station.
It’s possible the original rock might have been destroyed when the station was rebuilt after a fire in 1925. Railroaders remember a huge boulder rolling down a hill and blocking the railway track west of town. Since that massive rock had to be moved with a crane, it might have been easier to load it onto a railway car and simply unload it near the railway station.
The boulder has been moved to several locations, but it spent many years in the station parking lot where it was a hangout for kids waiting for their fathers to pick up their pay cheques at CN. Newspaper delivery boys also picked up their papers at the rock. Several years ago, it was moved a little to the west to a better location, repainted and a new pointer installed, and now marks the end/start of Highway 93.
