Book excerpt: Relates the fascinating history of the valley from Neolithic peoples to present-day tourists. The area was controlled by the Stoney Indians in the mid-1800's when James Sinclair and Captain John Palliser travelled the valley in search of a pass across the Rocky Mountains. In the early 1900's trapper, surveyors and gold seekers set the stage for the commercial exploitation of the 1940's and '50's when the valley became a source of lumber, coal and power for the rapidly-growing City of Calgary. Nowadays the Kananaskis Valley is the heart of Kananaskis Country, a multi-use recreation area developed for Albertans in 1977.