Canada’s First Youth Hostel
It’s time to set the record straight about Canada’s and North America’s first youth hostel, here in Bragg Creek.
Let’s set the stage. During the Great Depression, Calgary sisters Mary and Catherine Barclay initiated the idea — after Catherine’s trip to Europe where she discovered places hikers could engage in nature and stay at a reasonable fee.
Like today, a visit to the Bragg Creek area then likely meant passing through the White property, which now comprises much of the land adjacent to White Avenue. Ida May White operated the Wake Siah Lodge at the time but gave permission for a temporary tent camp at this location for the Barclay sisters to recruit support for developing a hostel. They charged travellers 25 cents a night to sleep in their tent.
After garnering enough interest over two years, they decided they needed a permanent site and structure. The story goes that the Barclays “accosted” Tom Fullerton (eldest son of T.K. Fullerton and the Fish and Game Warden patrolling the river) and asked permission to set up the hostel on his property, the Last Break Ranch site (NE ¼ 24-23-5W5). Inspired by the Bragg Creek example, the Canadian Youth Hostels Association was formed in 1934 and hostels were established in various rural locales across the country, especially in National Parks.
That era of hostelling in Bragg Creek came to an end around 1947, although the later owners of the property (Bapties, who were “cabin people,” not full-time residents yet) would meet travellers and would-be hostellers into the late 50s. Today, only remnants of the cement rock fireplace remain. Quite a few years passed before a second hostel opened inside the area now known as the West Bragg Creek area of Kananaskis in 1977. It only lasted a few years before it was destroyed by fire in 1984.
For years, a plaque outside Ida May White’s Lodge erroneously claimed the site as the location of the first youth hostel in Canada. Not true, just as there had been no Colonel Bragg. The Barclay sisters, supported first by Ida May White and then by Tom Fullerton, had built Canada’s first hostel, the Bragg Creek camp, at the Last Break Ranch.
To put the issue to rest in 2018, Parks Canada and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada officially unveiled another plaque commemorating the national historic significance of the Canadian Youth Hostels Association. Situated on White Avenue, it reads:
On May 13, 1933, Mary and Catherine Barclay and a few of their friends pitched a large canvas tent on Ida May White’s property in Bragg Creek. They began to charge young hikers a modest fee for a safe place to stay and soon started a permanent home for the hostel on Thomas Fullerton’s nearby property. Inspired by the youth hostelling movement in Europe, the energetic Barclay sisters founded the Canadian Youth Hostels Association. By the early 1940s, its success had led to the creation of a network of affordable accommodations in Canada, offering opportunities for independent, adventurous travel.
Photo Credits:
“Catherine Barclay, Mary Barclay”, 1920-1923, [NA-2468-58]. Glenbow Archives, University of Calgary.
“Faith” automobile used by youth hostellers. ca. 1933, 1934, [NA-2468-31]. Glenbow Archives, University of Calgary.
“Tom Fullerton seated beside fireplace at youth hostel, Bragg Creek, Alberta.” Youth Hostel”, ca. 1940 – 1949, [NA-5157-3]. Glenbow Archives, University of Calgary.
“Bragg Creek Youth Hostel”, ca 1940s, [NA-5157-1]. Glenbow Archives, University of Calgary.