Fonds consists of materials pertaining to Ben Gadd's personal life and career as an environmental researcher, educator, interpretive guide, publisher, public speaker and author, ca.1956-2018. Fonds includes maps, research materials, publication notes/drafts, correspondence, contracts, photographs, …
ca. 7.9 metres of textual records -- ca. 274 maps -- 29 VHS tapes -- ca.15 discs with digital files -- 21 cassettes -- photographs -- oversized materials -- USB stick with 15 sldeshows
History / Biographical
Ben Gadd (1946-) is a retired naturalist, guide, geologist, instructor, freelance writer and award-winning author based in the Canadian Rockies.
Ben was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1946. He met his wife, Cia (Langdon) Gadd at Colorado College in 1965, and the couple married four weeks later. Ben and Cia had two sons, Will and Toby. Ben and his family relocated to Jasper in the late 1960s. Ben later attended the University of Lethbridge and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Earth Science in 1972.
Between 1976 and 1980, Ben taught classes at Mount Royal College and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology; he later taught additional classes at Grant MacEwan College and Lakeland College. From 1981, Ben also worked as a seasonal naturalist/guide for Parks Canada. Ben left Parks Canada in 1985 to start an independent naturalist guiding business with Cia based in Jasper and other parts of the Canadian Rockies, which the couple continued to operate for over two decades.
Ben published his best-known work, "Handbook of the Canadian Rockies", through his publishing company Corax Press in 1986. The second edition of "Handbook of the Canadian Rockies" received multiple awards after its release in 1995. Ben's fiction book, "Raven's End" won the title of Best Canadian Rockies Book at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival in 2001 and became a Canadian bestseller. Overall, Ben has authored or co-authored 11 books and received nearly one dozen awards for his achievements as a writer, researcher and guide.
Ben continued to lead guided hikes and school programs until his retirement in 2016.
Scope & Content
Fonds consists of materials pertaining to Ben Gadd's personal life and career as an environmental researcher, educator, interpretive guide, publisher, public speaker and author, ca.1956-2018. Fonds includes maps, research materials, publication notes/drafts, correspondence, contracts, photographs, video and sound recordings, and other related material. Materials donated in 2024 include one USB stick containing
Notes
Ben Gadd fonds arrangement:
Series I : Personal records
- Subseries A : Travel guides and maps
- Subseries B : Education and early writings
- Subseries C : Personal interest files
- Subseries D : Other personal and collected
Series II : Research and publication records
- Subseries A : Handbook of the Canadian Rockies
- Subseries B : Other publications
Series III : Professional records
- Subseries A : Parks Canada Records
- Subseries B : Interpretive guiding
- Subseries C : Teaching records
- Subseries D : Other contracts and projects
Series IV : Legal and financial records
- Subseries A : Legal records
- Subseries B : Financial records
Series consists of five sound recordings pertaining to A Life in the Wild: The Story of Mountain Explorer John Baldwin. Includes interviews of John Baldwin, Helen Soudat, Ed Amann and "Steve".
A Life in the Wild is a biography of John Baldwin written by Chic Scott. The booklet is the Twenty-fifth in the Alpine Club of Canada's Summit Series which recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of exceptional individuals who have, through their achievements as explorers, mountaineers, volunteers, outfitters and storytellers, helped define and shape Canada's unique mountain community.
"Since his teenage years John Baldwin has explored the rugged Coast Mountain Range, climbing 700 peaks, many of them first ascents, and making perhaps one-hundred multi-week, long-distance forays across the icefields and along the ridges of what is one of the last true wilderness areas on earth. Shunning the easy path and forging his own way through some of the roughest geography on the planet. He is a mountaineer and explorer of the first order."
- Chic Scott
Scope & Content
Series consists of five sound recordings pertaining to A Life in the Wild: The Story of Mountain Explorer John Baldwin. Includes interviews of John Baldwin, Helen Soudat, Ed Amann and "Steve".
A Life in the Wild is a biography of John Baldwin written by Chic Scott. The booklet is the Twenty-fifth in the Alpine Club of Canada's Summit Series which recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of exceptional individuals who have, through their achievements as explorers, mountaineers, volunteers, outfitters and storytellers, helped define and shape Canada's unique mountain community.
"Since his teenage years John Baldwin has explored the rugged Coast Mountain Range, climbing 700 peaks, many of them first ascents, and making perhaps one-hundred multi-week, long-distance forays across the icefields and along the ridges of what is one of the last true wilderness areas on earth. Shunning the easy path and forging his own way through some of the roughest geography on the planet. He is a mountaineer and explorer of the first order."
- Chic Scott
Scope & Content
Series consists of textual records pertaining to the creation of A Life in the Wild.
Notes
Series consists of three sub-series:
M57 / XV / A : Draft manuscript
M57 / XV / B : Research notes
M57 / XV / C : Publications