Article
Mary Schäffer Warren
Mary Schäffer Warren (née Mary Townsend Sharpless), naturalist, writer, photographer, surveyor (born 4 October 1861 in West Chester, Pennsylvania; died 23 January 1939 in Banff, AB). Schäffer Warren is best known for being the first non-Indigenous person to explore Maligne Lake in the Canadian Rockies. She was one of the first non-Indigenous women to travel through much of what is now Banff and Jasper national parks. Although she had no experience as a surveyor, the Geological Survey of Canada asked her to survey Maligne Lake in 1911. As a result, Schäffer Warren is responsible for naming several of the geographic features surrounding the lake (see also Ten Mountains in Canada Named After Women). Through writing and lantern-slide presentations of her hand-painted photographs, she encouraged tourism to the Rockies.