British Columbia Historical News British Columbia Historical Federation JOURNAL OP THE B.C. HIsT01UcAL FEDE1TIoN P0 Box S254, STATIoN B., VIcTolIA BC V8R 6N4 PuBLIsHED WINrER, SPRING, SUMMER, so FALL A CHARITABLE SOCIETY UNDER THE INCOME TAX ACT EDIToR: ExECUrIvE FRED BscHEs HoNoIcY PATRON P0 Box 130 HIS HONOUR, THE HoNoLE GARDE B. GARDOM, Q.C. WisoNNocK BC, VzW 1V9 HoNo1crsY PRESIDENT PHONE (604) 462-8942 LEONARD MCCANN, VANcoUvER MARITIME MUSEUM [email protected] OFFIcERs BooK REVIEW EDITOR: PRESIDENT: RON WELWOOD ANNEYAI’tnLE R.R. # i, S-22 C-I, NELSON BC VtL 5P4 3450 WEST 20TH AvENUE PHONE (250) 825-4743 [email protected] VANcouVER BC, V6S 1E4 FIRST VICE PRESIDENT: WAYNE DEsR0CHERS PHONE (604) 733-6484 #2-6712 BARER Row, DEETA BC V4.E 2V3 [email protected]. CA PHONE (604) 599-4206 FAX. 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SHIRLEY CUTHEBETS0N #306 - 255 BELLEvILLE SmEET,VICrORc& BC V8V 4T9 PHONE (250) 382-0288 FAX (250) 387-5360 BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL NEWS PuBusrnNG COMMITTEE see column on left side Visit our website: http://www.selkirk.bc.ca/bchf/mainl.htm BRITIsH CoLuMBIA Volume 33, No. Winter 1999/2000 HIsToRIc $5.00 NEWS ISSN 1195-8294 Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation 2 Steamboating on the Peace River [_JISToRIANS rely on written and by Edward L.Affleck 1. 1. spoken words. The collection and preservation ofprimary documents 8 Three Tough Men: Surviving the 1969 Balmer concerns everyone interested in history. Archival records are not South Flood and Cave-in simply “arti facts,” or “heritage items.” They are by Michael Saad above all messengers from the past. BC Historical News intends to present 13 Strait ofAnian: In Search of the Northwest Passage under the direction of FRAN GuNDRY in British Columbia a regular feature called “Archives &Ar by Paul G. Chamberlain chivists,” providing insight in the “ar chival” world, the first ofwhich appears 16 The Road to Tofino in this issue. by Walter Guppy MELvA DwYER prepared, with her usual tenacity and skill, the index for 1998, which is included in this issue. 19 Bowen Island’s Howe Sound Hotel Read RoN GrtENE’s first contribu by Robertj Cathro tion of a series of histories about to kens from his collection. 22 Nelly Tilt’s Journey to New Westrn.inster Articles published in this issue called for an unusual number of maps. A 25 Glanville’s Dairy of Grand Forks, BC chance(?) encounter with her husband, by Ronald Greene PATRIcK, introduced us to CATHY CHAPIN of the Geography Department 26 Book Reviews ofLakehead University inThunder Bay and we are very fortunate that she vol unteered to do maps for us. Readers 31 Archives & Archivists — Gary A. Mitchell, CRM will recognize her name from maps published in The Beaver. 32 Historians of Discovery Visit Nootka Manuscripts keep coming in and we by Michael Layland look forward to more. Don’t be shy and share your slice ofBC history with us, 33 Malaspina Research Centre opening in Nanaimo as the contributors to this issue did. by Nick Doe With this issue I have completed my first year as editor. Many volunteers— 34 Anderson’s Brigade Trail named or not named—have contrib by Charles Hou uted to the success of our journal. A warm “thank you” to all. 35 News and Notes the editor 37 Federation News Any country worthy of a future 38 Index Vol. 31 should be interested in its past. W. Kaye Lamb, ‘937 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - WINTER 1999/2000 Steamboating on the Peace River by Edward L. Affleck Steamboating arrived late on the Upper Peace River and was soon overtaken by the frenetic settle ment and railway development which took place prior to and during World War l.The topography of the Peace River country militated against the development of a chain of neat little communities nestling on the riverside. In these days of magnificent industrial highways sweeping over the plateau in the Peace River country, providing a speedy link with Prince George and other British Columbia centres, the era of meandering steamboats seems as far removed as that of theYork boat. northeast corner ofBrit Ted Affleck is well- HE history of freshwater steamboating in southern part ofthe vast known for his exten British Columbia involves navigation on ish Columbia. The huge body of water now sive research on the T at least 20 different stretches of water. backed up by the Peace River power develop steamers on the inland Many of these stretches have a similar history ment today masks the turbulent water, which waters of British dating from the second half of the nineteenth formerly poured through a wild canyon gouged Columbia. He is century Prospectors discovered gold on the banks through the Rocky Mountains.A few miles east working on the of hitherto uncharted creeks and rivers and of the canyon, at Hudson’s Hope, the velocity of pubtication of a book of adventurers followed in on foot. Then the huge volume of water slackened sufficiently containing the names hordes invasion craft, the to permit navigation. Over 100 miles into North of about a thousand the white man’s inimitable ern Alberta, the River takes a broad sweep north, steamers, titled: sternwheeler, steamed up the Pacific Coast to describe a wide arc through A Century of enter the mouth of major rivers and proceeded then east again to Paddlewheelers in the to work heavy cargo up white water to service the vast northern plateau of the prairie province. erosive Pacific Northwest, the the mushrooming mining camps on or near the Throughout the centuries, the relentless Yukon and Alaska. river.This is true of watercourses which rise west force of the mighty waters of the Peace scoured upper part of the of the continental divide and discharge into the out a huge trough, so that the hundred waters of the Pacific Ocean such as the Stikine, navigable reaches of the river lie several plateau. the Skeena, the Fraser, and the Columbia. It is feet below the level of the surrounding downstream, in however, not true at all for the Peace River, which More than five hundred miles River approaches pierces the continental divide to join the vast the far north of Alberta, the Here the Slave—Mackenzie drainage system to the Arctic. basaltic formations near FortVermilion. decidedly more shal Between 1794 and 1823 the Upper Peace scoured trough becomes until several miles River area was the scene of active fur trading and low and the River more swift, over theVermilion Chutes. also of intense rivalry between the North West flirther east it tumbles flows on serenely Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Below the Chutes, the River confluence with the Great massacre of five HBC men by natives at St.Johns north and east to its in 1823, combined with a depletion of fur and Slave River. thus has two navigable food resources in the area, ended the Upper Peace The Peace River mind boggling in their length River trade for four and one-half decades. Fort stretches; both the typical reach of most of Dunvegan became the western outpost in the when compared to other navigable rivers. The area for the Hudson’s Bay Company. British Columbia’s extends almost 600 miles In the 1860s and 1870s prospectors, fanning upper navigable stretch Hope, BC to Fort Vermilion, far out from the Cariboo and Omineca diggings, from Hudson’s inAlberta.The lower stretch, scoured the Finlay and Parsnip, headwaters of the to the north and east forms part of the vast Peace, for gold, but no findings were sufficiently below Vermilion Chutes, River system which begins at enticing to prompt a major rush to the area.