Jasper is a specialized municipality in western Alberta, Canada. It is the commercial centre of Jasper National Park, located in the Canadian Rockies within the Athabasca River valley. Jasper is approximately 362km west of Edmonton and 290km north of Banff, Alberta, at the intersection of Highway 16 (Yellowhead Highway) and Highway 93 (Icefields Parkway).The Municipality of Jasper, comprising the Jasper townsite known as the Town of Jasper and a surrounding rural service area, was established as a specialized municipality on July 20, 2001. Governance is shared between the municipality and the federal Parks Canada agency.HistoryEstablished in 1813, Jasper House was first a North West Company, and later Hudson's Bay Company, fur trade outpost on the York Factory Express trade route to what was then called "New Caledonia" (now British Columbia), and Fort Vancouver in Columbia District on the lower Columbia River.