Caroline Hinman

Caroline Hinman was an American organizer of “Off the Beaten Track” pack trips that brought Eastern elite; particularly women; into the remote Canadian Rockies between Banff and Jasper, avoiding the standard CPR tourist loop. She marketed “safe danger” to families from Philadelphia, Summit (NJ), and Boston, allowing young women to shed restrictive social conventions for breeches and backcountry life.

Itinerary and routes. Guests gathered at the Banff Springs Hotel before pack trains pushed north along the Continental Divide. Favoured routes included Pipestone Pass and the Siffleur wilderness toward Saskatchewan River Crossing; Mount Assiniboine (Marvel Pass, Wonder Pass); Willmore Wilderness and Robson Pass; and the terrain north of Lake Louise toward the Skoki Valley and Ptarmigan Lake; effectively “Hinman country,” among the first commercialized for women’s recreational use. Her 1915 diary records a pivotal trip to Robson Pass and Ptarmigan Lake with Mary Jobe Akeley and Donald “Curly” Phillips.

Outfitters. Hinman acted as impresario, hiring local talent for logistics. Donald “Curly” Phillips (Maligne Lake, Robson area explorer) was her primary outfitter from 1913/1915. She later formed a deep partnership with Bert Wilkins (Jasper), enabling complex one-way traverses across terrain that would become the Icefields Parkway.

Later transition. Post-WWII, aging and the paved parkway shifted her model. She offered motor tours (bus and car) to Banff Springs, Chateau Lake Louise, and Jasper Park Lodge, and specialized fishing trips to remote BC lodges. She famously stopped her motorcoach in Jasper to introduce elderly clients to “the son of the outfitter who took me through the backcountry.”

Archival legacy. The Caroline Hinman fonds (V282) at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies holds 3,300+ photographs/lantern slides and 17 reels of 16mm film. Her lantern slides were marketing tools; she toured New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey in winter to recruit wealthy clients. The collection documents camp life, glacial recession (Victoria, Crowfoot, 1915–1955), and early women’s travel history. Lillian Gest learned backcountry skills on Hinman’s trips (1923–1933).