The Six and Twenty Club was hosted by Marsha Wagstaff on Sept. 20 at the First Christian Church in Wilmington. President Cincy Crosthwaite called the meeting to order. Wagstaff was also the program leader for the day. She discussed and related her book for 2024, “No Ordinary Woman – The Story Of Mary Schaeffer Warren” (Janice Sanford Beck) to her program, her vacation on the “Rocky Mountains Through the Clouds Canadian Rail Trip.”
Mary Warren was an explorer, artist and photographer in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s of the Canadian Rockies. Born in Pennsylvania, she made several trips to her beloved Rocky Mountains with her first husband, Charles Schaeffer, and later, with her guide and second husband, Billy Warren. She overcame a fear of bears, mosquitoes, and riding a horse to become one of the first white women to see the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. She explored the Yoho Valley, Kootenay Plains, Jasper and Banff National Parks.
Finding Maligne Lake (near Jasper) was her dream, which she did find and later surveyed. She published several books including “Old Indian Trails.” Her drawings and watercolors of the surrounding flora had never been seen before. She settled in Banff and built a house, “Tarry-A-While.” She died there in 1939. She is quoted as saying, “One night on its shores (Lake Maligne), our tents were pitched in a garden of crimson. As I lay back by a tree near a campfire, the evening breeze brought the odor of countless flowers to me. I closed my eyes and in thought was back in Pennsylvania in clover time. Then sounded the crash of an avalanche from a glacier opposite me, and far away came the whining of a coyote. No, it was not my Pennsylvania home but my rocky Mountain Garden.” Mary found peace in the Rockies, especially since she had lost her first husband and parents in the same year, saying, “No one may know, I went among those hills with a broken heart and only on the high places could I learn that I and mine were very close together. We dare not tell those beautiful thoughts. They like to say ‘explorer’ of me. No, only a hunter of peace. I found it.”
Wagstaff then followed with a program of her train journey in 2022 from Vancouver to Calgary, Canada. Referencing a scrapbook that she had made of her journey, she shared pictures and memorabilia of her trip through Kamloops to Jasper National Park and Jasper, passing Maligne Lake. The train excursion then switches to motor coaches as we passed through the Columbia Ice Fields and the Athabasca Glacier. We actually walked on the glacier! Observing Peyto Lake, Bow Lake and Lake Morraine was spectacular as our guide informed us that each lake is a different color or hue of blue depending on the sun’s reflection of glacier sediment. The next stop was Lake Louise located in Banff Park, over 2,456 square miles and 25 peaks over 9,800 feet. We boarded a gondola ride rising from 5,194 feet to 7,486 feet with views of six mountain ranges. The last stop on the journey was Calgary, home of the Calgary Stampede and the 1988 Winter Olympics. While a robust city, Calgary is the end of the breathtaking Rockies and beginning of Canada’s never-ending plains and the end to our never-to-be forgotten journey.
Wagstaff served treats, including Canadian’s favorite Ketchup Potato Chips, Canadian Chocolate Mystery Nut Candies, Macaroons, and as a tribute to returning home, Ohio Buckeye cupcakes. Members enjoyed seeing some of Mary Schaeffer’s books and several books about Canadian Railway journeys.
