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Congratulations to the winners of the Trivia Game!
The first five people to correctly identify the Fairmont Chateau
Lake Louise were Boris Vortsman, Clinton Keay, Ma Lan, Katelyn
McLaren and Leslie Urquhart.
The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
is a Fairmont hotel on the eastern shore of Lake Louise, near
Banff, Alberta. The original Chateau was gradually built up at
the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century by
the Canadian Pacific Railway and was thus "kin" to
its predecessors, the Banff Springs Hotel and the Château Frontenac.
The hotel's wooden Rattenbury Wing burned down on July 3, 1924,
and was replaced by the current Barrot Wing one year later. The
Painter Wing, built in 1913, is the oldest portion of the hotel
still standing. The Mount Temple Wing, opened in 2004, is the
newest wing of the hotel and features modern meeting facilities,
including the Mount Temple Ballroom.
The hotel was first conceived by
the railway at the end of the 19th century as a vacation destination
to lure moneyed travelers into taking trains and heading west.
By the time airplanes and automobiles displaced trains, it had
gained sufficient renown to have a life of its own. The Canadian
Pacific Railway long ago sold it to other interests.
From the start, the goal was to
exploit the stunning natural beauty of the emerald-green lake
and of Victoria glacier, which rose above it. There were many
hiking and canoeing itineraries for nature lovers. Eventually,
all the natural areas around the hotel were incorporated into
the Banff National Park. This park has been declared a World
Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Originally built to function only
in summer, the hotel was winterized in 1982 and now offers all
of the regular ski resort fare during the winter months. In addition
to the usual skiing, ice skating and snowboarding, there are
sleigh rides, ice sculpture contests and snowshoe excursions.
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