Mount Burgess

Mount Burgess, a 2,599-metre peak in Yoho National Park’s President Range, rises beside Burgess Pass between the Emerald and Kicking Horse river valleys. Named in 1886 by astronomer Otto Klotz for Alexander MacKinnon Burgess, it was first recorded climbed in 1892 by James J. McArthur during a Canadian Pacific Railway land survey. The mountain gained worldwide scientific importance in 1909, when geologist Charles D. Walcott discovered the Burgess Shale fossil beds there. These middle Cambrian black shales, about 508 million years old, preserved soft-bodied as well as hard-shelled organisms, revealing an extraordinary diversity of early life. Its enduring prominence was later reflected in UNESCO World Heritage recognition for the surrounding fossil area.

British Columbia · Canada