In 1923, a party guided by Walter Nixon, an outfitter from Windermere, BC, had come up to Wolverine Pass near Tumbling Glacier. The group included Reginald Townsend,  of Country Life in America magazine; Mrs. Townsend; H.B. Clow, President of Rand McNally Map Makers; R.H. Palenske, well known Chicago artist; Dr. J.  Gibbon, General Publicity Agent of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR); H. Armstrong Roberts; and Byron Harmon, official photographer of the Alpine Club of Canada.

The idea of an "Order of the Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies" found welcome support among the outfitters and other trail riders. To help provide a draw for its hotels at Banff and Lake Louise, the CPR readily agreed to sponsor the Trail Riders (and later, their sister organizations, the Skyline Hikers and the Ski Runners) and to advertise the Order world-wide.

The Early Days

An organizing committee was formed with Dr. Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as Honorary President and Gibbon as Secretary-Treasurer. The Council, an advisory committee, was made up of J.B. Harkin, Commissioner of Dominion Parks; W.T. Hornaday, Director, New York Zoological Society; Sir James Outram, a noted mountaineer; Carl Rungius, a wild life artist; Mary Vaux Walcott; Mary Schaffer, botanist and explorer; Jim and Bill Brewster, Jim Simpson, and Bill Potts, outfitters. This interim executive was charged with organizing the first official ride to be held in 1924, and the first annual meeting to be known as The Pow-Wow (an Algonquin Indian word meaning "get together").

The Yoho Valley was chosen for the first Pow Wow because of its accessibility, as well as for its majestic beauty. With the co-operation of the CPR, the accommodation at the Bungalow Camp at Takakkaw Falls was supplemented with twenty Indian teepees and a large circular tent  in Indian fashion as a Sundanc

e Lodge. The decoration of the Sundance Lodge was done on the spot by Chief Walking-in-the-Road of the Stoney Indians, assisted by two artists of his tribe whose skill and speed astonished not only the army of photographers but also the noted artists in attendance.

207 enthusiastic people attended the first Pow Wow. To mark such a notable occasion, a bronze plaque had been prepared of Tom Wilson, one of the outstanding guides of the Canadian Rockies. Modestly, Tom at first refused to be present at the unveiling, but on receipt of a telegram from Jim Brewster reading, "Get here if you have to break your neck", Tom took the train from Enderby, BC. Tom's response to welcoming speeches by Col. Phil Moore and Mrs. Walcott was brief and to the point: "I am not accustomed," he said, "to extemporaneous speaking unless a coyote has stepped upon my foot."