topic:"Biography" found 2 records - Research Collections - Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

Abstract: Diary of a Wilderness Dweller by Chris Czajkowski begins: “It is two days since I left my truck at the end of a logging road twenty miles east of here. I have hiked through untracked forest and over a mountain, through country I have never seen before, to reach a point of land jutting into an un-named lake five thousand feet hight in the Coast Range of British Columbia. And yet, unbelievably, I now have rights, in our civilization’s laws, to adapt this uncompromising pile of boulders and its wind-weary trees to my own ends; I plan to build on it, single-handedly, two cabins, a business, and a life. I must be crazy” Thus wrote Chris Czajkowski as, aged 37 years old, she arrived at an un-named location that she later called Nuk Tessli. This book spans a period of three years where first Chris lived in a tent until she erected the first cabin, finding, falling, peeling and hauling all the logs alone, then moved under the first roof while she completed (more or less) the second. Contact with the outside world was via a long hike in summer and a 4-day snowshoe trip in winter. Crazy or not, Chris made this place work for her, and eventually lived there for 23 years.

Notes: The front inside cover of the book has been annotated by the author. The annotation reads as follows, “To Janet, All my best, Chris Czajkowski”; The abstract has been taken from the official website of the author, the URL can be found below

URL Notes: The URL has been linked to the official website for the author, Chris Czajkowski. Contains information on the book, as well as additional information concerning the authors personal life.; The second URL is linked to the authors official website in which the abstract has been taken from

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1 website

Subjects: History; History of Alberta; Biography; Wardens; Banff; Banff (residents)

Abstract: The book is a testament to three sons’ love for their parents, Ed and Dorothy. Ed and Dorothy were kind and caring people and raised their family with those values. This book is also a testament to a family’s love of community, the community of Banff National Park.I hope when you read this book, you’ll be immersed in a bygone era that includes the Second World, to the backcountry of Canada’s oldest national park. I hope you will see a way of life that can never be recreated in a place that is ever-changing but will always be home to Ed and Dorothy. (Edited down from Our Family Lines website)

Contents: Foreward; Introduction; Chapter One: Edmond Clarence Carleton; Chapter Two: Calgary Highlanders; Chapter Three: Dorothy Eileen (nee Sweetzer) Fowler; Chapter Four: Exercising War; Chapter Five: Looking Towards the Future; Chapter Six: Mr. and Mrs. Ed Carleton; Chapter Seven: "Home" in Banff; Chapter Eight: This is backcountry living; Chapter Nine: Nature reels; Chapter Ten: Tragedies and changes; Chapter Eleven: A time capsule, royalty and lots of wildlife; Chapter Twelve: A year in the life of a warden and his family; Chapter Thirteen: Conservation and concerns; Chapter Fourteen: Making new memories while remembering the old; Chapter Fifteen: Life moves on; Endnotes; Acknowledgements; Sources

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