On the cover.

Part of Port Alberni’s waterfront, circa 1930. In the foreground is a cannery; the government assembly wharf is beyond. story starts on page eight

MEMBERSOCIETIES

Member societies and their secretaries are responsible for seeing that the correct addresses for their society and for its member subscribers are up-to-date. Please send changes to both the treasurer and the editor whose addresses are at the bottom of the next page. The Annual Report as at October 31 should show a telephone number for contact......

Member dues for the year 1982-83 (Volume 16) were paid by the following member societies: Alberni District Historical Society, Box 284, Port Alberni, B.C. V9Y 7M7 Atlin Historical Society, P.O. Box 111, Atlin, B.C. VOWlAO BCHA — Gulf Islands Branch, do P.O. Box 35, Saturna Island, B.C. VON2YO BCHA — Victoria Branch, c/o Margaret Bell, 1187 Hampshire, Victoria, B.C. V8S 4T1 Burnaby Historical Society, dO 3755 Triumph St., Burnaby, B.C. V5G 1B7 Chemainus Valley Historical Association, P.O. Box 172, Chemainus, B.C. VOR1KO Cowichan Historical Society, P.O. Box 1014, Duncan, B.C. V9L 3Y2 Creston & District Historical & Museum Society, P.O. Box 1123, Creston, B.C. VOB1GO District 69 Historical Society, c/o Mildred Kurtz, P.O. Box 74, Parksville, B.C. VOR2S0 East Kootenay Historical Association, c/o H. Mayberry, 216 6th Avenue S., Cran brook, B.C. V1C 2H6 Golden & District Historical Society Box 992 Golden, B C VOA1HO Ladysmith New Horizons Historical Society c/o Mrs V Cull R R #2 Ladysmith B C VOR2E0 Lantzville Historical Society, c/o Susan Turnbull Box 76, Lantzville B C VOR2H0 Nanaimo Historical Society, P 0 Box 933, Station “A”, Nanaimo B C V9R 5N2 Nanooa Historical & Museum Society, R R #2 Texaco Box 5 Nanoose Bay, B C VOR 2RO Nootka Sound Historical Society, Box 748 Gold River, B C VOP1GO North Shore Historical Society, c/o Robert W Brown 2327 Kilmarnock Crescent, North Vancouver, B C V7J 2Z3 Princeton & District Pioneer Museum and Archives, Box 21 Princeton, B C VOXiWO Sidney & North Saanich Historical Society, c/o Mrs Ray Joy, 10719 Bayfield Road, R R #3, Sidney, B.C. V8L 3P6 Trail Historical Society, P.O. Box 405, Trail, B.C. V1R4L7 Vancouver Historical Society, P.O. Box 3071, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3X6 West Vancouver Historical Society, P.O. Box 91785, West Vancouver, B.C. V7V 4S1 Windermere District Historical Society, Box 784, Invermere, B.C. VOA1KO BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL NEWS

Letters to the Editor 4 Writing Competition 6 Honorary President Col. Gerald S. Andrews 7 Features Re-Discovering Port Alberni’s Vanished Waterfront 8 by David Leigh Stone Learning Our Legends Through the Hudson’s Hope Museum 10 by Shirlee Smith Matheson A Royal Tour 1860: How Princeton Got Its Name 14 by Margaret Stoneberg An 1897 Sea Serpent Sighting 15 by David Mattison The Role of St. Mary’s Mission School in Settlement 16 by Gigi Huxley The Old Yale Road 1875 18 by R.C. Harris New and Notes Reports from the Branches 23 Archives 24 Historic Trails Update 26 News from the British Columbia Heritage Trust 27 Bookshelf 28 Contest 30

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Editor the To each issue: Editor’s and related expense $70; From the Editor Typesetting $748; Printing $1,606; Address labels etc. $76; and Postage $142; for an issue total of $2,642, or a yearly total of $10,568. During the same period the main sources of features a number of shorter articles income were: (1) for 1981-82: dues through This issue Member of the enthusiastic response to our Societies $2,176; subscribers— because individuals writing contest. We are particularly pleased with $423 and institutions $1,451; sales (stores & back issues) the response from members of local museums, $42; Total $4,092. (2) for 1982-83: dues—arrears and hope that many more articles will be $1,421, current $3,542; submitted from these dedicated people subscribers—individuals $559 and institutions throughout the province who help to preserve $1,451; sales $624; Total $7,597. (3) for 1983-Nov. 16: dues and interpret local history. $657; subscribers—members $415, individuals $116, institutions $425; sales $209; Total A Research column has been introduced to assist $1,822. (4) Bank Interest and Exchange were not you with personal and local historical research. allocated to the cost of the magazine. The This issue concentrates on genealogical sources, total allocated receipts came to $13,511. The but we would welcome your queries about difference between total costs of $23,780 future topics. Is there a difficult area that we may and total receipts of $13,511 is $10,269. For this be able to help you with? period we received a very much appreciated grant of $9,999 from the British Columbia Heritage Trust. Our grant from the Heritage Trust has expired. — Marie Elliott An application for a renewed grant has been submitted in order to give us more time to improve the financial foundation. But we cannot continue to rely on government help. We should not; we must not. In 1986 the Federation Convention is to be held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. At that time many visitors from other parts of Canada, from the United States, and even from other parts of the world will be in From the Treasurer Vancouver for Expo ‘86. This presents the Federation with a great opportuity to generate interest in the varied history of British Columbia. A soundly This note is financed British Columbia Historical addressed particularly to all those News will members who are unable be an important aid in the generation to attend the Annual of this interest. General Meetings and Conventions of The British It is hoped that all members will do their Columbia Historical Federation. It utmost concerns the to support our periodical and to expand financing of The British Columbia its sales Historical News. in local stores, museums, and other outlets, as well as to A major reason for the effort widen the list of both of the last two and individual and institutional a half years to re-write, and subscribers. It would have approved, the be a great help if some Constitution, Bylaws and member of the Federation Regulations of the who has had experience Federation was to try to up-grade in publicity and the status of marketing would be willing our magazine. (The documents are to undertake such included as a activity on behalf of the removable insert in this issue.) News. If anyone feels The following that he/she can undertake figures reveal the urgency of this position please this effort. The total get in touch with the President, cost of the last nine issues of The Secretary or British Treasurer, as listed on the inside back Columbia Historical News (Volume 15, Nos. 1 to cover. 4; Volume 16, Nos. ito 4; and Volume 17, No. 1) was $23,780. This breaks down into an average for — J. Rhys Richardson

Volume 17, No. 2 Page 5

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CONFERENCE— 1 STUDIES After completing high school in Alberta, Gerry enrolled in pre-engineering at the University of British Columbia in 1920. The following year, Honorary President because he was short of funds, he obtained a teacher’s certificate and later taught in the small rural districts of Big Bar, northwest of Clinton, and at Kelly Lake (near Tumbler Ridge) in northeastern British Columbia. Gerry subse quently obtained a degree in forestry from the University of Toronto in 1930, and returned to work for Surveys Division of the B.C. Forest Service. He pioneered the use of aerial photography to map and inventory the province’s forested areas efficiently and accurately, and became chief of the Forest Service’s Air Survey Section in the late 1930s. During World War II he served with the Royal Engineers stationed in Great Britain. In 1944, as a major, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements in improving the optics of aerial cameras. Photogrammetry was a very important asset when mapping strategic landing areas on the Normandy coast of France in preparation for the Allied invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944. When Gerry was discharged in 1946 he had attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He returned to British Columbia and was soon appointed Surveyor-General and Director of Surveys and Mapping Branch, Department of Lands, Forests, and Water Resources. He retired from this position in 1968, then travelled to South America and southeast Asia in a professional Col. Gerald Smedley Andrews capacity. When Gerry began his career with the provincial government there were few accurate maps of the hinterlands. The province is now If being a pioneer means facing adversity with completely charted—the last small area to be courage and ingenuity, then Gerald Smedley done was in the Coast Range west of Atlin. Andrews qualifies in spades. Gerry is a beloved Gerry’s pioneering spirit calls him back to Atlin member of the Victoria Branch of the British every summer, where he has a cabin. Columbia Historical Federation. He served as At the present time Gerry’s toughest challenge president of the Branch from 1967-1968, and as is to set down his memories of his teaching president of the Federation from 1972-1974. This experiences at Kelly Lake, which was a Metis long involvement with the Federation, com outpost. We have been promised a book before record bined with his as a teacher, forester, too long, and, knowing Gerry, he will accomplish soldier, and Surveyor-General of British this task with the same perserverance that has Columbia, makes him richly deserving of the won him so many awards and admirers position as Honorary President of the BCHF for throughout his lifetime. 1983-84.

Volume 17, No. 2 Page 7 David Leigh Stone

Re-Discovering Port Alberni’s Vanished Waterfront

Industry came to Port Alberni in 1860—with Twenty years later, settlers returned to the guns primed and decks cleared for action. Two district. They were farmers, not loggers, and they armed merchant ships forced the Tseshaht just burned off the forest to get at the soil. They people out of its village so that workmen could worked inland, leaving the harbour empty. 13.C.’s build a sawmill on the spot. The seaside today is first paper mill was set up on the Somass River in completely transformed, edged by two huge 1892. It machinery could not pulp wood so it tried sawmills, a plywood plant, the pulp and paper to use rags and even ferns as raw materials before mill, and vast lumber wharves. going bankrupt. The change caused the harbour to be dredged In 1896 the harbour was finally re-occupied. up and filled in, buildings to be erected and This time the cause was neither farming nor demolished and new ones raised in their stead. forestry. There was a brief gold rush a few miles Modernization obliterated not only the ancient down the Inlet, at China Creek. “New Alberni”— shoreline but also all signs of the early industrial a wharf, a few stores, and some hotels—sprang landscape. up near the old mill site to service the mines. It The Alberni Valley Museum is working to save was an import economy: it trans-shipped goods the city’s industrial heritage. No area is more and passengers from the Victoria steamer to the crucial to that effort than the waterfront. Last gold fields. Even the lumber for the wharf was summer the B.C. Heritage Trust Summer Student brought in by ship! Employment Program funded a Museum project The mining boom quickly faded but the town to survey the structures which have stood on the did not, partly because new techniques made waterfront from 1860 to the present. The aim was logging a paying proposition. At the turn of the to catalogue what buildings stood where and century a tiny sawmill, really just a shed over when, their types, uses, machinery, and histories: some old equipment, was built on the seashore. in essence, to re-discover the “look” of the It sold only to local buyers but in 1905 a much waterfront over decades. bigger mill started up, aimed at the overseas Port Alberni’s first sawmill was also the first market. Port Alberni was returning to its destiny, large export mill in B.C. The Anderson Mill— the export forestry trade. built by Captain Edward Stamp, who later From the arrival of the railway in 1912 to the founded Vancouver’s Hastings Mill—began Great Depression the harbourside changed cutting in May, 1861. A busy little village continually. This was the era of small enterprises. clustered around the plant, which shipped There were usually two or three mills making lumber as far away as England, Australia, South lumber or shingles: typically each was an open- America, Hawaii, and the Far East. sided affair of rough beams, was powered by a Just three years later the once and future single steam engine, and employed twenty or sawmilling town ran out of trees! In those days, thirty men. Canneries, herring plants, shipyards, logs were dragged by oxen to streams and then a railway dock, assembly wharves, houseboats, floated to the mill. Since the animals could not small floats, and even blacksmiths’ shops, also pull such huge trunks more than about three dotted the waterside. miles, most of the Alberni Valley’s vast timber The companies were small and failed regularly. stands were beyond reach. The town was Their structures were almost as transient. Practi abandoned and the derelict mill burned down a cally everything was made of wood and nearly all few years later. of the buildings eventually burned down. This

Page 8 British Columbia Historical News ;

Ow Pii Lamb€r Ca i Port AThrrn IL C ‘

The Canadian Pacific Lumber Co. Sawmill in 1912. Built in 1905, it operated until 1980. pioneer industrial landscape was finally buried agree with each other. Blueprints almost always by the changing nature of our economy. In the show what the structure was meant to be, not forest industry in particular, big firms got bigger how it was actually constructed or what it later while small outfits went under. From the mid became. The biggest problem is the sheer size of 1930s onward the harbourside was gobbled up the job. Industries constantly change machinery by a very few plants of unprecedented size and and buildings; to trace them all requires an permanence. The last of the old buildings, a exhaustive, and exhausting, search through sawmill structure dating to 1905, was demolished decades of old newspapers. in 1981 to make room for a computerized The work done last summer is a significant replacement, one of the most advanced mills in start. We now have data files for future research the world. ers to work from. More importantly, the material The “look” of the early industrial waterfront has been collated into a working catalogue ot can now be re-captured only on paper. The structures, including company histories and Museum’s own fine collection of historic photo other documentation. This research is of more graphs is an important resource. The Alberni than academic interest. The harbour, for so long District Historical Society, municipal and corpor a workplace, is becoming a community place, ate archives, and interested individuals are too. The city is developing the public foreshore contributing valuable aid to help explore our into a recreational and tourist-generating site, to industrial heritage. be called Heritage Harbour Park. The Alberni It is not an easy task. Photographs are difficult Valley Museum’s on-going research program is to interpret since different camera lenses the crucial link chaining the park to its historic compress distance or distort shapes in different surroundings. ways. And, of course, pictures tell nothing about what goes on inside a building. Maps and David Stone is presently completing an M.A. in blueprints are just plain treacherous. Maps rarely History at the University of British Columbia.

Volume-17, No. 2 Page 9 Shirlee Smith Matheson Learning Our Legends Through the Hudson’s Hope Museum

All the history books which contain no lies are These and other legends are preserved in the extremely tedious. museum in Hudson’s Hope. Housed in the old Anatole France (1844-1924) Hudson’s Bay Company store, the same walls that once supported supplies for trappers, guides and The history of Hudson’s Hope needs no lies to outfitters, the store that once sold the bright make it interesting. Where else can one tread in ribbons to Indians whose decorated horses then the paths—even in the very footsteps—of three raced up and down the flat in front of the old storey high dinosaurs? Follow the raging river store, now displays our legends for all visitors to that transported Alexander Mackenzie to his see. destination of the Pacific Ocean? Even paddle a canoe over the now placid Dinosaur Lake hiding Early History the treacherous Rocky Mountain Canyon where Mackenzie had to haul his canoe over steep cliffs The first white explorer through the area was to avoid the river’s wrath? Alexander Mackenzie in 1793 on his journey up And then come the legends, of mysteries so the Peace River, the only watercourse that complex many have never been solved: the completely traverses the Rocky Mountains. By mysterious slaying of the Danes in 1918—one the early 1800s the Peace had become estab body found in the cabin shot ten times with a 303 lished by the Nor’Westers as a major trade route British rifle, the other found much later on the through the Rockies to their posts at Fort flat west of Hudson’s Hope, burned almost McLeod and Fort St. James in New Caledonia. beyond recognition; the death of the astrono The economy of the area was based on the mer whose body was found in the spring by lucrative fur trade. tracing his footsteps that eerily resurfaced as the Alexander Mackenzie found only a few Indian snow melted; the mysterious disappearance of teepees dotting the banks of the river when he Bob Porter, fur buyer, in the Black Canyon. made his epic trip in 1793; even then, though, the When his body was found months later his area amazed him for its beauty, its ruggedness, money belt containing $2,000 fur buying money and, with an eye to commerce, its vast quantities was gone, although he was still wearing the of excellent coal. The Aylard Mine, once located trousers the belt had been attached to. Then part way between Hudson’s Hope and the there’s the tale of George Clark who defied Bennett Dam, worked on a coal seam eight feet death by water one fine October day, the 22nd to thick, composed of top quality semi-anthricite, be exact, at ten o’clock in the morning—only to which left only 3% ash. The old donkey boiler have death claim her due exactly three years from this mine can be seen in the Museum’s later, on October 22nd. Time of death? Ten display yard. Mackenzie, and others who o’clock in the morning. followed, saw these coal seams in the rock cliffs;

Page 10 British Columbia Historical News they saw the available lumber, the agreeable people here like the name and don’t worry too climate, and the great river for transportation much about from whence it came. Hudson’s and power. Mackenzie’s diary also commented Hope is not a town that seeks out pedigrees. on another of our singular features: in the area of The losing of our “apostrophe s” is another the Gething and Aylard Creeks, it was noted that matter, however. All throughout our historical one could burn a shoe while standing on certain documents, the name has been recorded as cracks in the earth, from which emitted heat, “Hudson’s Hope”. Somehow (again subject to smoke and a stench of sulphur. These rose- legend), around 1915 the postal authorities colored sandstone areas are the result of slow omitted the “s” on their rubber stamp and burning underground fires, and can still be seen continue to omit it, although the postmaster, below the W.A.C. Bennett Dam. Where else can mining recorders and Hudson’s Bay Company one’s eyes view Heaven, while one’s feet smoke continued to use it for many years thereafter. We from the fires of Hell? are now legally “The Municipal District of Fort Hudson’s Hope was originally known as Hudson’s Hope, Hudson Hope, B.C.”. A queer Rocky Mountain Portage Fort, built by Simon lot, to be sure. Fraser in the autumn of 1805 at the foot of the Rocky Mountain Canyon on the north bank of the Peace River. Operated for a time by the 1900 - 1960 after Hudson’s Bay Company its coalition with Hudson’s Hope continued to be an important the North West Company in 1821, it was navigational point because of the in 1825 impassable abandoned for a time to punish the rapids above the town. Settlers and supplies were for massacre at Fort St. John in 1823. Indians a freighted in from Lake Athabasca at first, then New Hudson’s Hope was built about 1875 on later from Peace River Crossing when the railway the south bank about twelve miles further reached that point. The sternwheelers, upstream near the east end of the canyon, at its beginning with Bishop Grouard’s St. Charles in foot. Some time after 1880 this post was again 1903, broke the eternal silence of the North with moved to its present location on the north side, their sharp whistles and easier ingress of settlers. on a seven-acre site surveyed out and still These boats operated the 525 in the name of the Hudson’s Bay miles from the remaining rapids called Vermilion Chutes in except for portions sold the Alberta, Company, to upstream to Hudson’s Hope. In Anglican Church and the Hudson’s Hope 1905 the The town Hudson’s Hudson’s Bay Company put their sternwheeler, Historical Society. of Hope is Peace River, into operation; it an unbroken flat of land running 55 was a 110’ long situated on vessel that could carry forty tons of parallel to the Peace River for five miles, with an freight. The book, North With Peace River Jim written in average width of two miles. 1910 and recently published by the Glenbow The name “Hudson’s Hope” has been Foundation of Calgary, gives us a flavor of those recorded as early as 1869. Although the origin of days: of our unsolved the name is another mysteries, Lying up against the far bank, several conjectures as how when we there are to the name arrived, was the little white Hudson’s was given: it was named after an old prospector Bay steamer, Peace River, ‘coaling up’ with named Hudson (or Hodgson) who “hoped” to cordwood slid down a 200’ chute to the make a strike here. It was named for the river bank and packed on board by the half- Hudson’s Bay Company in their establishment of breed hands. a post here, the farthest point of navigation before the portage. As the boat pulled out, the citizens, and The word “hope” has been traced to an old entire population of Peace River Crossing, meaning, that of a “small, enclosed valley, gathered on the bank and gave us god- especially a smaller opening branching out from speed and good wishes. We responded with the main dale and running up to the mountain three cheers and a tiger. Three half-breeds ranges; the upland part of a mountain valley; a with loaded rifles knelt on the bank and blind valley.” These meanings were used to the fired the royal salute with rifle muzzles end of the 19th century and place names ending pointed skyward and the butts on the in “hope” were quite common in Scotland and ground. Again we cheered and again the north-eastern England. Whatever its origin, salute crackled out, then the steamerswung

Volume 17, No. 2 Page 11 wide and took the big turn, and the current In 1901, Neil Gething and W.J. “Steel” Johnson and the sternwheeler paddles soon took us discovered this coal in the Peace River Canyon from the sight of the beautiful Peace River but had to wait until 1908 before the “Peace River Crossing. Block” was opened by the federal government The 55 Peace River (a model of which may be to mineral staking. By 1911 and 1912 the Peace seen at the Peace Canyon Dam Visitors Centre in region was gradually being settled by home Hudson’s Hope), was replaced by the Athabasca steaders, who recognized the resources of the River in 1915, which could carry 110 tons, and country. The problem ... transportation. again by the famous D.A. Thomas which ran the As early as 1878 a rail line was proposed river from 1919-1929. Built at a cost of $119,000, through the Peace River Pass to the Skeena area. she could carry 100 passengers and more than In the early 1900s it was again proposed and a 200 tons of freight. Optimism about the Hudson’s Federal Charter was taken out to construct a Hope coalfields convinced her owner, Baron railway from the Peace River Block west through Rhondda, a Welsh coal millionaire, of future the Peace-Finlay area to Stewart (approximately resource supplies, so he had oil tanks installed in 120 miles north of Prince Rupert). D.A. Thomas coal deposits of the boat. However, in its entire career, the D.A. had taken out leases on the Thomas burned only cordwood cut in four-foot Carbon Creek and also had a rail charter from lengths, and lots of it. Edmonton to the Pacific via either the Nass or Several smaller boats navigated the Peace, Skeena Rivers. In 1915 the Dominion Telegraph most belonging to sawmill companies such as the reached Hudson’s Hope from Fort St. John, and a Diamond P’s Grenfall and Peterson’s Pine Pass. wagon road was extended from Hudson’s Hope From 1920 to 1952 the Hudson’s Bay Company to East Pine. World War I put a stop to local operated a fleet of motorships on the Peace. The progress. first was the Weenusk which operated from 1920 In 1923 the first load of coal was barged to 1940 on diesel engines. In 1940 it was replaced downstream to Peace River Crossing, the head of by the Weenusk II which operated until 1951. the Edmonton-Dunvegan and B.C. Railway. But Another unique enterprise in Hudson’s Hope it wasn’t until the construction of the Alaska was Jack Pollon’s lime kiln situated on the lime Highway in 1942 that Hudson’s Hope coal was in bed beneath the spring that gushes out, summer demand. and winter, on the riverbank below the present Dawson Creek was allocated as the railhead of town waterpump. The first batch of lime was the Northern Alberta Railway. In 1952 the Hart burned in 1932, and by the 1940s it was being Highway was extended north through the Pine shipped by the Hudson’s Bay boats to all points in Pass to link the Peace area with the southern the Peace and north to the Bering Sea. One can portion of the province, leaving Hudson’s Hope still see the base of the old rock kiln, although somewhere in the middle. It was Axel local residents will never again smell the pungent Wennergren’s resource development plans that carbon burn-off smoke from the kilns, nor will centered Hudson’s Hope in the picture of the Hudson’s Bay Company house ever again progress by his plan to harness the power of the feel the rattle of falling pebbles from the blast of Peace. The rest is modern history. black powder. The boats no longer come, although many The Future? people stifl living in Hudson’s Hope remember The future of Hudson’s Hope? Whether it lies clearly the excitement of the shrill call of the in our hydro-electric power production, our boats, for it indeed represented not only coalfields, our hidden gold deposits, our transportation and freight shipments, but a dwindling timber stands or, as in the past, in the reassurance that Hudson’s Hope was part of the sheer determination of the people, is hard to say. ever-quickening pace of the outside world. In his report to the Surveyor General in Ottawa in Sometimes we still need that assurance, but the 1922, Dominion Land Surveyor, L. Brenot, writes: whistle will no longer come from the river, but With untold mineral wealth, untold water- from the great silent black caves of coal that have powers, large tracts of agricultural land and waited for other aspects of development to catch being the head of navigation, Hudson’s up, or slow down, so its tremendous potential Hope should be one of the foremost towns can once again be realized. of the North.

Page 12 British Columbia Historical News Our fertile valleys and flats were uncaringly tramped over by the feet of prospectors trudging over the ill-fated route from Edmonton by way of Athabasca, Peace and Mackenzie Rivers, through the Laurier Pass to the Yukon. Glittering coolly from the sanctuary of our river bars, our placer gold yielded itself in bits and pieces to prospectors who, in the depression of the 1930s, Annual Convention set up their home-made sluice boxes on Two- Mile Bar at the head of the Canyon, on Brenham Flats, and on almost every bar scattered along the Peace, into the Finlay, the Parsnip, and up to the Omineca, Osilinka, Osipika and the Nation Rivers. The gold still must be there, buried even more securely by the waters of Williston [ake reservoir. It will be there for eons. In 1954 the population of Hudson’s Hope was under 100. In 1965 it was 2,700True to its erratic nature, Hudson’s Hope in 1965 became an “Instant Municipality”, the third in British Columbia, matching its status of being also the third oldest community in the Province of British Columbia. Its 400 square miles held the largest territory of any municipality in the province. During the Bennett Dam hey-day, activities in the town included no less than thirty-seven recreation and service clubs, ranging from music appreciation to fly-tying to sky diving. They’ve come and they’ve gone, and the Hudson’s Hope Museum has their passage recorded. Come and sense our mystery, our unique The 1984 Convention will be held at heritage! There are artifacts on display ranging the Village Green Inn, Vernon, May 4- from dinosaur fossils to part of the phenomenal 5. Guest speaker: Dr. Margaret conveyor belt that once carried the gravel from the glacial moraine on its three-mile trip at Ormsby. Registration details will be twelve miles per hour, to fill the Bennett Dam. contained in the next issue of the The moraine is still an excellent area in which to News. seek fossils. For sale in the Museum are items such as local woodcarvings, inscribed plates,

goldpanning equipment, and books ... books that tell you of our legends. We don’t need to invent any lies.

Don’t let your subscription expire. Check your address label for date of renewal.

Volume 17, No. 2 Page 13

News Historical Columbia British Page 14

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surveyed Hind had western and the far as as lands District Museum and Archives.

St. by way increasing of Paul, Minnesota, Dawson Secretary, and helps to supervise the Princeton and

travel Coast; West to the the Red Margaret Stoneberg River is hardworking our Recording was

stirring. John Palliser’s reached expedition had

In western the were part events the of country,

see and acclaim the party. royal reflected the esteem was in held. which she

the So celebrations. to almost everyone able was son’s their was success and exaggerated only

and newspapers, about all up springing told over, royal prerogatives—both that to think preferred

becoming more person general the for average ed uncles, and of his her jealous mother fiercely

becoming ever was more Travel sophisticated. behaviour unlament of grandfather her her and

fortunes were being made was life and social and family her dissolute did the not repeat

and manufacturing importance, growing in father, His wife that watchful his ever osee to

period of steam, of canals, railroads built, being of be his head turned”.

pioneering days were largely in this over, and arrived he “not admonished home, to being

When the prince the early visit his paid a Bertie got reception cool aet when parents from his

him. had that It paid anti-climax rather an was such projects.

afterwards Douglas that unaware honour the of Buildings a Ottawa, in other dozen and so or

The Prince shortly home himself sailed and also the Parliament cornerstone new the for

Upper Lower and Canada. cornerstone Montreal, the for Victoria Bridge in

Princetown of in then royal the honour in visitor His duties laid were onerous. the not He too

named or townsite the rnesTown Prince’s small a Canada in blaze of felicitous warmth.

Similkameen patriotically River. Douglas James He VII. travelled Lower across and Upper Canada

a laid out the townsite of the at forks near or train was prepared future Edward King the for

that he had had and assignment his completed that time a a were special novelty prideful and

reported Sergeant McColl Engineers of Royal the latest thing Railways in illumination—gaslight. at

visiting Keremeos, Kamloops. and Similkameen took place under the in the at evenings, least,

1860 of interior journeyed the Douglas into culminating a All every in this grand city ball. with

many year that September CaJifornia. from of In welcoming committees events and social

Douglas of with struggling was miners, an influx succession kind—parades, every festivities of of

James Governor two and years its before, His a reception off was setting tremendous,

1858, of just British in been Columbia formed had Albert, Consort. Prince

were colony The everywhere. up springing new Queen Victoria father, and rather severe his

Townsites Similkameen and Forks regions. Grand figure, representing mother his formidable

the the in throughout River lower Fraser and age was he a experiencing public as first trial his

discovered Beyond gold the had Rockies been Edward Britain, of years “Bertie”. of At called 18

expand West. what Canada was include to then John’s, Newfoundland, Albert young a prince,

that to four the soon federated were provinces the of American St. at Civil arrived there War,

eaeevident became beyond, and Rockies, the and it the In summer the start 1860, year a before of

Name Its Got Princeton How

A Royal 1860 Tour

Margaret Stoneberg David Mattison

An 1897 Sea Serpent Sighting In the Queen Charlotte Islands

About 4.30 this morning we left Caedoo [Kaidju?]. I was steering the boat and pushing an oar at the same time. There was no wind. The boat was about 100 yards from shore, going south, with a fair tide. I saw ahead of us what I thought was a piece of drift wood. On getting closer! noticed it was moving towards us. When within 50 yards I said to Walker (my partner), What is that? It seems to be moving this way (against the tide). What we could see was an object like sketch (A) sticking out of the water about two feet. When within a few feet of it the end uncoiled & raised a long neck about five feet out of the water with a head like a snake[’Js on it. The arched portion makinga broad flat chest like I have seen on the cob[r]a I think. When the serpent or whatever it was saw slightly towards land to avoid serpents have been with us in British us it turned Sea boat. The head and neck were almost Columbia for longer than most people realize. the water again. it 19th century example is a classic immediat[e]ly put under As One late the boat, at a distance, that with an sighting that may have gone unnoticed up to passed thrown a[n] oar on it we eyewitness account is worth repeating effort, I could have now. The about 25 feet long tapering event because of the accuracy of the could see a body in any fishlike tail and I think a continuous observer and his foresight in providing a written with a Fergusson, prospector, and fin running the length of the body. account. Osmond a went along identified only as Walker, were the A slow undulating motion the his partner, while the tail part had a steady sweep sole witnesses and only Fergusson’s written body, survived. Dated January 12, 1897 from side to side of about six feet. A curious testimony has neck or chest an error for 1898), and recounting an thing was the broad part that (probably the arch (or hurricane dick, as occurrence on June 26, 1897, his statement is formed [sic] it). The only part out of straightforward and believable. The fact that he Walker called when the head was down was not made a drawing at the time and later resketched water his prospecting background, that of exposed broadways in the direction the fish it reflects decided twist to the left observation towards detail and the unusual. The was going, but hada flow through it. account itself is found in the C.F. Newcombe allowing the water to (1851-1924) collection in the Provincial Archives of B.C. (PABC Add. Mss. 1077, v. 20). It is hand written in black ink on lined paper folded in half David Mattison is an archivist with the Sound and and bearing a blind stamp reading “Congress” Moving Image Division, Provincial Archives of along with a rendition of the U.S. Congress British Columbia, Victoria, and a regular contributor building. to the B.C. Historical News.

Volume 17, No. 2 Page 15

News Historical Columbia

British

16 Page

number pieces of ability.” 1 with

a numbering perform “and sixteen the instruments, 1890s as the urban focus for the region.

band ability, brass a remarked he they had that Mission, which supplanted New Westminster by

musical boys’ sweetness of area. Of their the singing. First, formed it the nucleus of the town of

the by knitting and girls, displayed and role the in the settlement and development the of

also upon of excellence remarked sewing the The Mission school a played highly important

geography, Commissioner etc.” own arithmetic, The or their parents’ lands.

able examination stand grammar, writing, reading, in them in good stead farming in either their

a 22 credit boys, and “all the very passed of whom children were taught useful that skills would

report girls attendance 32 of notes that for year the sons and daughters of struggling settlers, as

Commissioner’s the at Affairs The school. Indian evidently an eminently practical arrangement for

by boys Indeed, cattle) than were 1875 girls there more and two draft horses. The school was

were by Mission. accommodated herd St. Mary’s forty of “horned animals” (presumably

students of 1879, female male 1868, studies in and both the Mission school farm also included a

course separate a charge farming, and of girls’ dormitory girls sewing, spinning and knitting’s In

to take Sisters When the arrived St. of boarding Ann school—boys taught trades and

Indian wives. 1879 described St. Mary’s as “an industrial and

had early of children whom all of majority nearly settlers, on the farm.” An Indian report Affairs of

the educational invaluable but role an for mill, the sawmill or the carding mill, and the

area to the a not provided kitchen, only religious focus others the in bakery, others the at flour

a Mary’s at tural certain St. curriculum, the mission amount of manual work, some the in

industrial-agricul nature report and its school, of the Canon states, “Outside class of they do all

residential and Due Island. Nicomen to the industrious and Christian life.” 2 In the same

Prairie public Burton at Indians nearby schools built were and half-breed children to lead an

when school 1880s, area the in the purpose early until of this establishment to train is the

only mixed-blood of the was Indeed, children. Mary’s St. it his in annual Vicariate Report: “The

and Indian twenty school served this years, school principal his of day), outlined purpose the

residential George over For Mission. St. Mary’s school, Forbes, was the outstanding Indian

Indian of bank (and the Fraser first Oblates’ River, the who, according to Oblate historian Rev.

north from on New the Westminster who establish, to was rector of St. Mary’s to from 1872 1883

upriver travelled Fouquet later, curriculum. miles Father forty Father Alphonse Canon, a Belgian

educational year Fouquet. New Father Westminster A by emphasis on was the industrial

in mission a the 1860, in establishment with of art civilizing of music. But

the primary Mission’s

began Columbia missionaries, the efforts their basic British education of students its as well

as the

Oblate the to According records Obviously, the of the Mission took pains with both

Settlement

in School Mission

Mary’s St. of Role The

Huxley Gigi Secondly, and equally important, it served as the Columbia changed from colony to province, and only school for an entire generation of early the land around St. Mary’s Mission became part settlers’ children. Without the stabilizing of the Federal Railway Reserve, the Mission influence of the school upon the area, families served as an anchor in an otherwise turbulent might have sent their children away from home atmosphere. to be educated. They would not have been as likely, in that case, to return to farm the family 1 Canada, Sessional Papers, 1876, Vol. 9, p. 29. homestead. St. Mary’s had a flexible boarding with some students in residence only 2 Oblate Correspondence, Microfilm, U.B.C., reel 706. situation, 2249. for the week, returning home on weekends and p. holidays on foot, or on horseback; there were Canada, Sessional Papers 1879, Vol. 12, p. 7. even a few day students. The school’s availability consolidated the Gigi Huxley teaches French and Spanish at Delta position of the early settlers, geographically and Secondary School, Ladner. She is interested in socially. The fathers remained and improved the role that Indian women played in the early their homesteads while the sons and daughters settlement of the Fraser Valley. learned farming and domestic skills. The daughters often married locally after leaving This article compliments several others that have school, as one can observe by tracing names recently appeared in the News about St. Mary’s from the 1881 Manuscript Census school list Mission. See “On the March: Indian Brass Bands, through subsequent Oblate marriage records. 1866-1915’ Vol. 15, No. 1, and “Roman Catholic There seems to be ample evidence that during Indian Brass Bands’ Vol. 16, No. 2. the crucial years after 1860, when British

Page 17 Volume 17, No. 2 / / CARIBOO WAGGO ‘\; ‘ V \c.r \ ROAD 1S63 • ‘‘ .•....., •. .;; !5rOP HOPE • I I \-I” I I4-9 CHILLIWACK I I A 1Jr HEAD OF NAV1GA11ON - NEW \?vESTMNSTER L\ ‘/ALE ROAD I75

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F “ 5eve n h Prirne \ \ ‘%AA HE OL D 7A, L E ROAD Mer:dn of RIy lt \ RA5ER u I i RIVR1 “l..F\ 1875 \\ Io known as 7 NEW WE5TMIN5TER AND HOPE wcoH ROAD NEW WE5ThIIN5IER AND ‘!ALE ROAD JRLJNK) MIS5 iON\ iqAbboI ThE TRUNK ROAD FROM LADNER5 TO HOPE CITy). ‘ALE AND NEW WE31MNTER ROAD Ii YALE AND LOWER FRA3ER ROAD ‘YALE TRUNK ROAD 3. ‘YALE ROAD

- / /1 LANGL g ‘r Ih217(( PITT ‘ ‘ \ I p / /#Lan3Iey ,ie Prare LECFMD 1) / /z OLD ‘yALE ROAD, 1E74-, 7 .__--- C,ontroc 6e_cons own aLtrnotn9

WACT&OM • . OTHER ROADO / . ‘ I

woy Canada Hwy)

0 IQ .30 kilomelres 5 0 20 nmle5

Page 18 British Columbia Historical News R.C. Harris

THE OLD YALE ROAD 1875

Following Confederation with Canada in 1871, Another component of the Trunk Road system the province showed renewed interest in Public was to run from Victoria to Nanaimo, resuming Works, particularly roads and bridges, to open on the mainland at Ladner’s Landing and running the country for settlement and commerce. Such east to join the New Westminster Road at what works were the responsibility of Robert l3eaven, became Langley, after Fort Langley was bypassed. British Columbia’s seventh Chief Commissioner This is basically the location of the present Route of Lands and Works,who held office from 1872to 10. 1876. His report for 1874 begins: The Legislative Assembly, during the Session The Trunk Road of 1873-74, understanding the necessity for The Trunk Road from New Westminster to opening up for settlement the vacant lands of Yale started from Brownsville, or Brown’s the Province by survey, and by construction of Landing, opposite New Westminster, and climb Roads, Trails, Bridges, etc., wisely appropriate ed to the high ground via a big loop in the larger sums of money than usual for these Semiahmoo Road. Built 1872-73, Section 1 of the purposes; and it has been the special aim of new construction began 11/2 miles from Browns this Department, during the past season, to ville and headed southeast from the Semiah moo carry into effect the wishes of the Legislature Road. with vigor and economy. The alignment stayed south of Telegraph Despite the heavy demands on his department Trail as far as Sumas Lake, where the topography for supervision, Beaven favoured working by confined both routes along the base of Vedder contract. Road work was divided into sections of Mountain. From Vedder Mountain to Cheam, ten to twenty miles, a distance which could be the new road again kept south of the Telegraph completed in one season by an average contrac Trail, traversing the Chilliwack Prairie. to r. The routes coincided from Popkum to Hope. A The 1865 Telegraph Trail, or Sleigh Road,from ferry crossed the Fraser just above the present New Westminster to Yale (B.C. Historical News, double deck road/rail bridge, built in 1915 by the VAnter 1983) ran fairly near the south bank of the CPR for the Kettle Valley Railway to serve Fraser River. It was never completed as a sleigh southern British Columbia. road all the way to Yale, and in any case, it was not Across from Hope, the Trunk Road ran north intended, or suited to, wagon traffic. A new to Yale, at the head of steamship navigation, and Trunk Road location from New Westminster was at the start of the 1863 Can boo Wagon Road. The adopted, running midway between the Fraser road started from the ferry landing a half mile (1 River and the international boundary, thus km) above the present bridge. The CPR main line opening a vast new area to settlement. station — later named Haig — was built adjacent

Volume 17, No. 2 Page 19 to the ferry landing, so that tor some years, Hope Calls on the provincial treasury did not had steamship, rail and end road connections to the when the Road was completed. Endless outside. The rail connections improved further maintenance was required. when the Thirty-five years after Kettle Valley and Canadian Northern the Road was built, the first Pacific lines motor car was driven were built through Hope in 1915. from Chilliwack to Hope. The The route second “benzine to Yale generally followed the 1865 buggy” arrived in 1911, when the Telegraph Trail, and Hope News was mostly the same as the and Gold Trail reported: “From New present Trans Canada Westmin Highway. The contract for ster to Hope, the Cariboo Trail is to be this section was tendered marked a year after the other with direction signs furnished by the Vancouver work, and awarded to low bidders Tierney and Auto Club. But ... signs may not Hick for just under inveigle $20,000. motorists over the execrable road between The seven road contracts were as follows, using Chilliwack and Hope....” the nearest modern names where there were none before:

SECTION TO LENGTH OPENED miles chains Exploring old Yale Road 1 Langley 7 72 1874 An exploration on or near the Old Yale Road 2 Matsqui 13 0 1874 from New Westminster to, say, Rosedale may be 3 Sumas R 10 52 1874 made whenever the ground is clear of snow. A 4 Yarrow 12 60 1875 street map such as Dominion Map Ltd.’s 4A Popkum 22 0 1874 “Sectional Map and Street Directory of the Fraser 5 Hope 20 40 1875 Valley, Vancouver to Hope” will be found invaluable, particularly if time is taken — Yale 14 35 1875 Total new beforehand to emphasize the route with construction: 101 19 coloured pencil. About half a mile (1 km) south of the Pattullo [There are 80 chains to a mile] Bridge, the Old Yale Road leaves the Fraser River, Sections 1, 2 and 3 were 18 feet wide; the opposite New Westminster. Nowadays, this area remainder were generally 12 feet wide. is South Westminster, but in the 1870s it was The government’s general superintendent for Brown’s Landing, or Brownsville. Here, Sessional construction of the Trunk Road was Lewis F. Papers for 1881 record that “James Turnbul! [ex Bonson, a former sergeant of Colonel Moody’s corporal, Royal Engineers] build an excellent Columbia Detachment of the Royal Engineers, wharf and approach’ The site of the wharf can 1858 to 1863. Bonson was still active in 1907, when still be discerned as a gravel jetty, now closed to he struck a jaunty pose in a photograph at a traffic by a pair of large concrete pipes, upended. reunion of the 12 survivors from the detachment. From the site of the “excellent wharf”, the Old Having been located over the best ground, the Yale Road heads southeast over the floodplain, Yale Road was vulnerable to subsequent railway then ascends to the plateau by one large building; the CPR in the 1880s, the BCER and the switchback, crossing the B.C. Hydro Railway en CNR in the 1910s. Between Hope and Yale, the route. There is a short interruption near the top CPR crossed the Yale Road ten times. Citizens of the hill where th Old Yale Road is closed to complained that the CPR had fenced off the vehicles in favour of more recent roads on the perfectly good road at the crossings. The CNR, township grid. Two miles (3 km) from the wharf, then the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway, on the crest of the hill, historic Semiahmoo Road crossed the Yale Road eight times between Hope branches to the right. and Chilliwack. Many years were required to In another mile (1½ km), Old Yale Road, now eliminate these crossings. 4-lane, crosses route 99A (King George Highway) As the Yale Road was superseded and and becomes the Fraser Highway. For some dismembered, it became the “Old Yale Road”. years, this was the Trans Canada Highway. With Some good sections still go by that name, others minor diversions on the slopes of Serpentine have been renamed. It was well enough Flats, the road continues through Langley, established to resist the encroachments of the heading directly for the snowy peak of Mount procrustean Township grid. Baker.

Page 20 British Columbia Historical News On the east side of Langley, the Old Yale Road style to Joseph W. Trutch, the third Chief forks right, passing through Murrayville, and Commissioner of Lands and Works: rejoining the Fraser Highway four miles (6.5 km) Sumas May the 2 1866... a few lines relative to to the east. There are minor excursions at the obstruction of what I consider to be a Aldergrove, and again on approaching the government road ... laid out in 1859 by the Mount Lehman interchange at the freeway. boundary commission ... in August 1862 1 Leaving this interchange as McClure, the old opened it wide enough for a waggon road... road soon forks right, and passes through Thomas Lewis pre-empted 160 acres ... and Clearbrook and Abbotsford. Beyond Abbots- has plowed up the road fenced it up and the ford, it rounds the southwest tip of Sumas drawed logs acrost it I have removed Mountain, and crosses the freeway again at Starr obstructions am threatened with prosecution the Road. it is the only waggon road [we] have to “ 1 The old road is now lost in the farmlands south steamboat [Miller’s] landing.. of the freeway, but it crossed the upper Sumas Immediately north of the freeway, the Yale River at Whatcom Road, continuing southeast Road turned east. It is now named ‘YaIe Road almost to the international border to avoid the West”. This leads right through the City of seasonal floodings and soft margin of Sumas Chilliwack, becoming Yale Road East, and Lake. En route, the old road recrossed the B.C. winding along the south bank of Hope Slough to Hydro Railway (formerly the B.C. Electric Rosedale. Beyond Rosedale, Yale Road East Railway). It is likely that the road here followed a diverges to the right, and “Old Yale Road” line of dunes, which have since been excavated continues straight ahead towards the Rosedale and incorporated in the extensive railway Agassiz Bridge. embankment. Until it was drained in 1926, Su mas East of the bridge the old road becomes harder Lake was seasonal; dry in winter, with its silts and to follow, passing through Cheam IR No. 1 near sands driven into dunes at the west and by cold, the river bank, as “McGregor Road”. This dry interior gales; and flooded ten feet (3 m) becomes Popkum Road, then Julseth Road. deep in summer by the Fraser River freshets. Old Other sections will be found north of the maps show two deltas in Sumas Lake; one on the present Trans Canada Highway and the Canadian east, where Vedder Creek entered; the other an National Railway, just beyond Laidlaw, where it is interesting reverse delta built by the summer signed: “St. Elmo Road (Old Yale Road)’ The last inflows from the Fraser River. remnants before Hope cross Hope Airport, The old road reappears east of Maher Road as a resuming east of Silverhope Creek as Tom Berry sinuous stretch named “Old Yale Road”. It Road. continues, with interruptions from the B.C. A trip along the road shows how the once great Hydro Railway, along the foot of Vedder traffic artery has faded in the last 50 years. The Mountain past the village of Yarrow. The next biggest relocation came when the Vedder River two miles (3 km) of the old road have long been was diverted by the Vedder Canal, and Sumas known as Vedder Mountain Road. At Ford Road, Lake was dyked and drained, to become Sumas the old road diverged north, to cross the head of Prairie, in the 1920s. This allowed about 16 miles Vedder’s Creek, in those days an occasional (26 km) of the old road to be straightened, minor distributary on the great alluvial fan of the between Abbotsford and Chilliwack. Chilliwack River. The main channel of Chilliwack River then ran due north, about two miles (3 km) to the east. The old road also ran north, part is now “Unsworth Road”, its course guided by Atchelitz Creek, another distributary on the NOTES Chilliwack River fan. The following sources were used for most of the article: would have been damaged in The Yale Road starting 1873. These when the Chilliwack River made a Sessional Papers, British Columbia, the late 1870s, include the annual “Reports of Public Works”, and are major shift in course from north to west, and extremely detailed in the early years. The writers are, Vedder’s Creek became Vedder River, however, not clear whether the Trunk Road starts from aggravating the annual floods of Sumas Lake. Ladner’s or from New Westminster, or whether it ends at In 1866, Volkert Vecider moved to protect a Hope or Yale. Hope was the port for the southern interior public road nearby, writing in his usual direct of British Columbia.

21 Volume 17, No. 2 Page Map of New Westminster District, 1876. Hon. Forbes G. Vernon; C.C. Lands and Works. The district extends eastwards to Popkum. The map shows Townships but not Municipalities. The main roads are shown and named. Research

In 1886, the map was revised and reissued by Rand Brothers, Realtors. Municipalities, and the Canadian Pacific Railway, were added. In these rather Township Plans, based on the Coast Meridian. These are unsettled times, researching detailed plans of the six mile square Townships in the the family tree is a reassuring hobby, which lower Fraser Valley, prepared first by the Department of often turns up stories of hardship and Lands and Works, and later by the Dominion Department fortitude that make present conditions pale by of Interior, when the land was in the Railway Belt. Scales comparison. Here are two excellent sources to used were two, four and six inches to a mile. Townships crossed by the Yale Trunk Road are: get you started. West of Coast Meridian: Twps 38, 2 • Membership in the British Columbia East of Coast Meridian: Twps 8, 10, 13, 16,19,22,23, 26, 30 Genealogical Society includes use of their library (over 2,000 books and periodicals), Township Plans, west of the Sixth Prime Meridian. These receipt of six issues of their newsletter, four surveys by the Department of Interior cover the railway belt east of Popkum. The Trunk Road crosses the following issues of the quarterly magazine, and Townships. participation in meetings and special classes. Range 29, Twp 2 Contact Box 94371, Richmond, British Range 28, Twp 3, 4 Columbia, V6Y2A8. Range 27, Twp 4, 5 • A newly revised edition of Tracing Your Range 26, Twp 5, 6, 7 Ancestors in Canada should now be available Official Plans of Indian Reserves. Indian Reserves are from Public Archives Canada, 395 Wellington numerous along the Yale Road and afford a useful second Street, Ottawa, K1AON3. This booklet line of enquiry when authenticating some disused sections describes the major genealogical sources in above Chilliwack. the Public Archives and also lists sources in other 1 PAI3C Colonial Correspondence. File 1797a Volkert Canadian repositories. Vedder. • Branch Libraries of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints in Burnaby and Victoria, British Columbia (and elsewhere in large cities across Canada and the United States) have excellent facilities for genealogical research that are available to the public. I he Victoria library offers orientation classes once a month at 701 Editor’s Note: In Vol. 17, No. 1, we mistakenly Mann Street. Phone 479-5544. described R.C. Harris as retired. Bob Harris works full-time as a consulting engineer in Vancouver. Historians interested in the conservation and protection of heritage property should contact the Resource Information Center of the Heritage Conservation Branch, Ministry of the Provincial Secretary and Government Services, 101.6 Langley Street, Victoria, B.C., V8V1X4. Their resources include an excellent library, which contains periodicals and Back Issues of the News magazines relating to heritage conservation, detailed reports on archaeological surveys and excavations carried out in B.C., a registry of Back issues of the News can be ordered at $3.50 designated sites and objects in B.C.; each plus postage from the Editor. slide/tape kits on restoration and preserva tion; and 16 mm films.

Page 22 British Columbia Historical News 4 • •••• ••• •••• • • •• • • * .. • • . ..•. . •• ••••••••••••••• •••,•••• • .* .““ . I ...... *••• • • •..•. . .. .• .. . . •.• ••. • — .• • • • :._ .. • • : ...: : .1 News and Notes

Reports from the Branches

Gulf Islands Victoria Branch

z

C

>‘ a) c)0 0 0 -c

While members of some historical societies At our Christmas Banquet, December 13, 1983, must battle traffic jams to attend their meetings, Victoria City Archivist Ainslie Helmcken must j. members of the Gulf Islands Branch, BCHF, received a lifetime membership in recognition of cope with complicated ferry schedules. his immense contribution to preserving the Travelling from Saturna and Galiano to Mayne history of Victoria. Island, on August 29, 1983, the members met for and a tour of this historic island. luncheon is the grandson of Dr.John Sebastian in the group pictured outside the local Ainslie Included and great grandson of Sir James museum (a restored 1896 police lockup) are, Helmcken, Douglas. front row, (I. to r.) Mrs. Nan New, Donald New, Miss New. President Marjorie Ratzlaff is immediately behind Mrs. New. In 1983 the Branch reprinted the Gulf Island anthology, A Gulf Islands’ Patchwork, and sponsored an essay contest for the Mayne Island School Centennial in October.

Volume 17, No. 2 Page 23

News

Historical

Columbia British

Page 24

was there already clergy the of one Columbia, others. and Parliament of Members for history

British of Bishop Anglican first the become to constitutional and procedure parliamentary on

1860 in Victoria in arrived Hills George authority When a reputed became Jim Correspondent.

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go to necessary is it reason the understand to the joined he Later, Correspondent. Political

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British of Bishop First Hills, George of Life The hspey rat St the for work part-time youth, his In

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Scotland, Morayshire, Grantown-on-Spey,

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of Ogden. Synod Skene Peter and Provincial Anglican The

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history Canadian western of and colour life members.

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the B.C.H.F. of Branch Committee, Trails B.C. Historic Victoria the joined soon Edith

the and of he Chairman where later and 1970, 1976-78, in Federation, B.C. Victoria, to retirement

Jim’s Historical Columbia motivated British Branch, Victoria problems health Incipient

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1907-1983 McCook James Murdoch featuring programs radio several did he and

interests primary Jim’s of one be to continued

Canada, western of especially 1-Jistory, the Rev. Edward Cridge. In 1865 Bishop Hills appointed Cridge as Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria, and for some years the men got along well despite a considerable difference in their churchmanship. However, in the early 1870s a serious breach occurred between them which resulted in cases in both an Ecclesiastical Diocese of British Columbia Archives, Court and the B.C. Supreme Court. The verdicts were both in favour of the Bishop, but the result Victoria was that Cridge and a large following left the Church of England and formed a new con grega With the support of British Columbia Heritage tion under the Reformed Episcopal Church, of Trust, in 1980 the Anglican Diocese of British which Cridge in due course became a bishop. Columbia opened an archival repository in The controversy over this dispute was long and Victoria. Located in the Bishop’s Chapel adjacent bitter, but by 1913 the wounds were beginning to to Christ Church Cathedral, the Archives now heal. The then Bishop, Dr. j.C. Roper, felt that the houses a valuable collection of documents publication of the book about Hills, which must relating to the religious and social history of the include the story of the affair, would only reopen province. Included are early mission reports, the wounds and start trouble all over again. As a official parish and diocesan records, the private result it was finally decided that the Society papers of several church officials, and collections should purchase the manuscript from the author of paintings, photographs, maps and architec for twenty guineas, put it in the Society’s tural records. strongbox, and leave the whole matter in The documents held in the Archives are abeyance for five years. available both to the Anglican Church and to the World War I intervened and the matter was public for legal, genealogical and scholarly use. never referred to again in the minutes of the Through the funding of the British Columbia Executive of the Society, which are still in Heritage Trust Student Employment Program, existence. material relating to Vancouver Island parishes Sixty-seven years later in 1981 Archbishop G.P. has recently been made more accessible. A Gower, a retired Metropolitan of the Church in student from the Archival Studies Program at the British Columbia, brought the manuscript and University of British Columbia has identified and some accompanying correspondence into the described eighty-five record collections, which B.C. Provincial Synod Archives of the Anglican include: correspondence, parish committee Church. As far as can now be determined the minutes, baptismal, marriage and burial registers, manuscript came into the possession of and the records of such organizations as the Archbishop Harold Sexton of Victoria, probably Women’s Auxiliary. These collections have been about 1959 when the Society was dissolved. He accessioned and listed in an inventory of worked on it for a number of years, and in 1971 holdings. started to make arrangement to have it retyped. Accession notices containing basic informa Unfortunately he died the following year before tion about parish material have been prepared this was done. The manuscript stayed with his for the Union List of Manuscripts, available from papers until his wife died some years later, after the Public Archives of Canada, 395 Wellington which the executor of their estates sent it to Street, Ottawa, Ontario. Further information Archbishop Cower. about the holdings of the Diocesan Archives can Now in the B.C Provincial Synod Archives, it is be obtained by contacting: Diocesan Archives, a valuable addition to the story of the early days Anglican Synod Office, 912 Vancouver Street, of the Anglican Church in British Columbia and Victoria, B.C. V8V3V7. its first Bishop. Garth Walker, Archivist B.C. Provincial Synod

Volume 17, No. 2 Page 25

News Historical Columbia British 26 Page

centre.

Hornby Street,

B.C. V6Z2E2. Vancouver,

information and a

resource central providing

Outdoor

1200 Recreation B.C., of Council

and ‘82) Routes

Historic

was seminar (one

such

information

ORC on

should to The write

meetings

and

workshops

seminars,

conferences,

or Anyone

any society

requiring further

holding plans; recreation outdoor hensive

compre of implementation and development

includes maps. the in government advising recreation; outdoor

$5.00 available and at from copy ORC per for mechanism participation a public providing

It trails is British throughout Columbia. include Council the of objectives Other

seminar historic on and routes aboriginal made. are decisions

transcript the the at of 1982 papers presented land-use when consideration due are given

A Historic A ‘82 Routes Summary: Seminar • beauty natural and recreation values of - wildlife,

BCHF. societies member the of the before, ever than Now, more resources.

has, and be, to to continue will all mailed available of utilization optimum making

ORC Report etc. of copy A publications the values, diverse of range a broad encompass

the province, up-coming new seminars, policies that land-use to ensure has strived

contains around on happenings highlights ORC 1976, in inception its Since level. the local

page) and in was bulletin published October at operating clubs hundred several representing

anticipated will a become (single regular organizations, recreation outdoor wide

ORC The • Report: first what is of edition The province- 40 of nearly the interests after looking

available from ORC. free organization umbrella a is non-profit Columbia

Cowichan Footpath. are Single River copies British of Council Recreation Outdoor The

the and Baden the Trail Centennial Powell representation. co-ordinated such

a Two, gliding. map, describe which include provides ORC impact. little have alone would

hang outdoor to scuba from activities diving voice our groups interested of other support

all Pamphlets: Series Safety covers • The co-ordinated the Without recreationalists.

ORC. or bookshops directly from as historians by concern much as with viewed

$3.95 are at available and many from sports be should threat and this of are heritage part our

as well etc. They a as the brief of history area. province our of beauty natural and wilderness,

trails features, and interest, of points hiking wildlife, The industries. extraction resource

on Overprinted are geological map each from damage by irreversible threatened

Princeton-Manning-Cathedral being continually is past, environment in the the

Shuswap Lake imprint his left has man small areas where these

Campbell River beyond But concern. some cause are for also

Central Okanagan policy lease grazing in changes Recent property.

Greater Kamloops private by surrounding not denied is trails

Whistler/Garibaldi to such access that ensuring of that is overlooked,

Lake Windermere often and Additionally, pass. they which through

100 Mile House environment natural the with together trails

been published: historic maintaining and preserving that is of area

so maps far of have regions the following obvious most The recreationalists. common with

Maps: • scale 1:100,000 Eight topographical have in we what to as arises occasionally question

$2.00 at by year. per individuals subscription the and Member’ Group a as ORC ‘Participating

to member but available associations the with affiliated been years many BCHF has for

to We?” all Are Sent BCHF. on free the The overdue. long perhaps is Columbia — British

“Who a short and Mackenzie article Trail of Council Recreation Outdoor of the — functions

and the restraint on also an up-date includes the outlining our to members A short report

current of the impact on focuses issue

happenings The province. throughout the

some twenty current on pages focusing

Update Trails Historic of Outdoor A newsletter quarterly Reports: •

publications include: ORC’s Other news: News from the The Alexander Mackenzie Heritage Trail: In May of last year the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia entered into a British Columbia four-year Agreement for Recreation and Conservation to protect part of this historic route across the continent—principally that section from the mouth of the Blackwater River near Heritage Trust Quesnel to Bella Coola. The co-ordinating committee has begun publishing a newsletter— the first in September, 1983. Copies may be obtained from Director, Parks Canada, Western The British Columbia Heritage Trust Student Region, 520, 220 - 4th Avenue S.E., Calgary, Employment Program was developed to assist Alberta T2P3H8. heritage groups, public or private organizations Cascade Wilderness: The Cascade Advisory and university students throughout the province. Committee will be presenting their final report Projects which conform to the Trust’s objective to the managers of the Vancouver and Kamloops to encourage and facilitate the conservation, Forest Regions early next year. The Committee is maintenance and restoration of heritage made up of members drawn from ORC, property in the Province and increase public Okanagan Historical Society, Heritage Conserva awareness of conservation in general will be tion Branch and a number of outdoor clubs. funded. During 1983 the Trust provided funds to hire —John Spittle fifty students in a wide variety of projects including historical research, archaeological excavation and “As Found” drawings of heritage buildings. Under the direction of John Mitchell, Museum Director, David Leigh Stone documented the industrial waterfront’s functional areas in Port Alberni with a view to surveying the changing historic image of the waterfront.

J.P. Rafferty Publications

The Midden is published five times a year by the Archaeological Society of British Columbia. It Thinking of Publishing? contains articles related to various aspects of B.C. archaeology, news items regarding both historic and prehistoric heritage issues, book reviews, A seminar on publishing local history, given by notices of new publications, conferences, etc. Helen Akrigg, may be arranged for your Midden Subscriptions, Box 520, Station A, historical society. Please contact Leonard G. Vancouver, B.C. V6C2N3; $8.00/year in Canada McCann, #2, 1430 Maple Street, Vancouver, and U.S. V6J 3R9.

Page Volume 17, No. 2 27 /\mplltying the text are fifty photographs, most in black and white, of the persons interviewed and of current and historic shots of the processes themselves. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA The reproduction of these photographs, the design of the book, and the evocative quality of the pictures’ content are excellent. It is enjoyable that for once a self-published book printed by Friesen Printers emerges not looking like a high school yearbook. Bookshelf Although B.C. Packers paid some of the bills, this is not a typical company history. With some of the interviews, the reader is reminded more of nineteenth century sweatshop conditions or feudalistic paternalism than enlightened labour codes. Long hours, piece work, dangerous working conditions, all show up time and again in the Skeena: A River Remembered. Joan Skogan. interviews. What is also related, however, is the Vancouver: British Columbia Packers Limited, 1983. excitement, the love of the river and the craft, the Pp. 100, illus., $12.95 (paper) (Distributed by Raincoast generosity of the company, and, above all, the fun of it Book Distribution Ltd., 15 West 6th Avenue, all. Vancouver, B.C. V5Y 1K2) The book’s title is, of course, an unfortunate one. A good title is supposed to convey the flavour of a book Local history in British Columbia has certainly and indicate something of its contents. This book in matured in the past few years. It is a long way from the last analysis is about people and an industry. Its joy Gladys Blythe’s History of Port Edward, 1907-1970 to is the celebration of those who have worked in the Skeena: A River Remembered, although both cover fishing industry. The Skeena is a mighty and powerful events in Port Edward. The Skeena book is at once river; it has more things about it to be remembered more specific and more general. Its goal is to take a than just a canning industry at its mouth. topic of a limited nature, the catching and canning of Skogan also does not discuss in enough detail what salmon at the mouth of the Skeena River in she gently calls “increasing pressure on fish stocks” (p. northwestern British Columbia, and to transform it 5) and what others not allied with the fishing industry into a visual and reading delight which will appeal to call “overfishing”. There is no mention, for example, anyone, not just those with an interest in canning of changes in fishing regulations which moved salmon history, the Skeena River country, or Port Edward. fishermen further and further out into open water Research for the book was funded by British away from the mouth of the Skeena to make it harder Columbia Packers. Interviews and text were done by for them to catch the returning fish. These regulations Joan Skogan. The proximate cause of the collabora closed many canneries on the river and favored those tion apparently was the closing of the Port Edward on the coast. She talks of numbers of salmon packed plant of B.C. Packers as part of the consolidation into and cannery bankruptcies, but does not relate this to and expansion of their remaining plant at Oceanside decreasing fish stock in the years until the advent of in Prince Rupert. Interviews were conducted in 1981 salmonoid enhancement. and 1982 with thirty-five people who had worked or There are other smaller errors. Work on the Collins’ were still working in the Skeena fishing industry. Overland Telegraph did not stop “abruptly” but Transcripts of these interviews constitute the continued on to the end of the season in expectation backbone of the book. Skogan expertly weaves that the Atlantic cable would break once again (p. 12). excerpts, usually lengthy, together into a narrative, “Git’K’Shian” is spelled “Gitksan” in current usage offering to-the-point comments and interpretations and the Carrier peopl are Athapaskans, not the dated when appropriate. “Dene” used by Father Morice. And, while it may well be that enough books on the salmon fishing industry have been printed which include glossaries so that everyone is familiar with the usages of the industry, it may have been convenient to define many of the terms used in the book, such as the difference between a seiner and a gillnetter. Patricia Roy is the Book Review Editor. Copies of books for review should be sent to her at 602-139 Maureen Cassidy is well known to readers of the News Clarence St., Victoria, B.C. V8V2J1. as its former editor.

Page 28 British Columbia Historical News Local History in British Columbia. A Guide to Raindrops from Prince Rupert Researching, Writing and Publishing for the Non professional. Maureen Cassidy. British Columbia Kiondike of the Skeena. Phylis Bowman. Prince Heritage Trust Technical Paper Series 6, 1983. Rupert: the author, 1982, pp. 176, illus., $6.00 paper. Maureen Cassidy’s Local History in British of the Skeena, the most recent book in is a welcome addition to my bookshelves. Klondike Columbia Phylis Bowman’s Raindrop Series, is a history of the Cassidy, former editor of the British Columbia once importantcannery town of Port Essington atthe Historical News, knows what advice prospective mouth of the Skeena River on the southern bank. writers of local history need. She gives instructions on Contrary to the implication of the title, Port Essington background work, the use of archives, and the never held the promise of the boom-and-bust cycle writing and publishing processes. The manual is easy of all the gold rush towns, including Dawson City. read and well-illustrated. Examples of finding aids to Rather, its pioneers believed that it could grow original sources enhance the text. and steadily to become the transportation and This technical manual for the British Columbia commercial centre of British Columbia’s northwest. Heritage Trust does have a few flaws. It may be used The town’s analogy is Port Moody, not the Klondike. should be used by professional historians doing and The town began in 1870 or 1871 (both are given as studies. The term ‘non-professional’ in the local founding dates) as the trading post of Robert may put academics off. Some comments in subtitle Cunningham who traded with Tsimshian Indians for text may offend members of local historical the furs, and sold supplies to prospectors ascending the who have done professional level writing societies Later, when Cunningham entered the justifiably proud of it. Skeena. and are steamboat and cannery businesses, Port emphasizes Victoria as the necessary place Skeena Cassidy Essington became a ship-to-boat transfer point. in which to research provincial history. Is it? British Soon other entrepreneurs arrived and built Columbia communities are rooted in a variety of canneries, stores and sawmills. By 1897 there were and in the American Pacific Northwest. cultures “seven cannery buildings on the river, with clustering Researchers should be directed to sources on them. huts around them.” Fishing and forestry attracted The B.C. Geneological Society library and cemetery workers of many ancestries, many of whom brought held in Vancouver are of value on any files their families. Churches, a public school, a school on community. Religious and ethnic associations often the nearby Indian reserve, and a hospital followed keep their records at their mainland headquarters; the settlement of families. However, the pioneers’ the Roman Catholic Oblate missionaries. e.g. dream that Port Essington would become the major Washington State institutions, such as those in centre of the north coast never materialized because may be closer, better sources of Spokane, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway routed its tracks information on many aspects of some British along the north side of the Skeena and terminated districts’ histories than the Provincial Columbia them on Kaien Island in 1914. Not only did the railway Archives in Victoria. by-pass Port Essington, but railway transportation conclusion of Cassidy’s local history manual The soon superseded that of the river boats. As Prince comment too. After good advice on the deserves Rupert, on Kaien Island, grew, Port Essington process of doing a history book, she whole declined. Two destructive fires, in 1961 and 1965, left that writers conserve their research. recommends the place a ghost town. “that’s it”. Pardon me. It’s not. Take for example Then Phylis Bowman has employed an unusual format Vanderhoof, the Town that Couldn’t Wait. This for this history. Photographs, generally fully- history was done and shelved in the local library. captioned, comprise the second and major half of the Everyone said “that’s it’ Then, more sources on this book. The rest is text, most of which is published relatively young community turned up and local accounts, chiefly taken from newspapers, of anything people became interested in preserving historic relating to Port Essington from 1897 to 1979. The buildings, a topic not discussed much at the time the author introduces the section of quotations with a book was written. The point here is that community short history of the town. historians need to be encouraged notjustto research This format appears to suit the history of Port and preserve their notes, but also to go on and write yet the result is not completely satisfactory information and making it available for Essington, collecting because it obviously lacks an editor’s criticism and future researchers. advice. An editor would have eliminated the numer pictures that are superfluous to the history, Gresko teaches History at Douglas ous Jacqueline relegated a chapter listing pupils’ names to an College in New Westminster. appendix, reorganized the historic sketch, required a

Volume 17, No. 2 Page 29 more appropriate ana iarger scale map of the Skeena mouth, and included important details like the dates Road, Rail and River. Phylis Bowman. Prince Rupert: the trading post was built and the last cannery closed. the author, 1981. Pp. vii, 144, illus., $6.00 paper An editor might have advised Phylis Bowman to (Available from 1700 Kootenay Ave., Prince Rupert, devote some pages to personal memoirs of former B.C. V8J 3S7) residents to shed light on a town society that, having a “Jap town”, a “Finn town” and an Indian reserve This volume of Phylis Bowman’s Rainbow Series nearby, must have had a degree of segregation. Most combines anecdotal history and a travel guide. Its certainly, a competent editor would have advised the series of short accounts take the reader along author to give more biographical information, in Highway 16 from Prince Rupert east to Hazelton with footnotes or in an appendix, about individuals who side trips to such places as the Naas lava beds, the are given brief references in the text. Lakelse Hotsprings and to Kitimat. This volume would Not only would the information add to the reader’s be of interest chiefly to the residents of the Skeena knowledge but it would correct errors in these Valley and perhaps, to tourists. accounts. For example, a sentence on page 27 states that C.F. Morrison [sici was in charge of Hankin’s and Cunningham’s store at Hazelton in 1866. In 1866, Charles Frederic Morison was working for the Collins We Skirted the War. Phylis Bowman. Prince Rupert: Overland Telegraph in Wrangell, Alaska, and on the the author, 1975. Pp. vi, 133, illus., $4.00 paper. Stikine River. According to Morison’s journal, not (Available from 1700 Kootenay Ave., Prince Rupert, until 1871 did Cunningham and Hankin hire him to B.C. V8J 3S7) run their trading post at Hazelton. Despite its shortcomings, the text held my interest We Skirted the War is Phylis Bowman’s memoirs of from beginning to end. I attribute my absorption to her service with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps the sense of currency that newspaper reports emit and during the Second World War. The book’s main to the fact that many pages dealt with a puzzling appeal will be to the author’s friends and relatives, and murder case which ended years later with a surprise possibly, to those who served with her. twist, something like an Edgar Allan Poe mystery. Because it is interesting and fills a gap in the history of Georgiana Ball is a researcher, writer, and consultant northwestern British Columbia, this book deserves a with a special interest in British Columbia history. place on the shelves of readers of local history.

We have a handsome prize for the answer to a simple question. The prize is the superbly eontebt illustrated photographic essay, The Kiondike Quest by Pierre Berton (McClelland and Stewart, 1983). Not only is the volume enlivened by Berton’s vivid prose, but many of the two hundred or so photographs included will be fresh even to Kiondike buffs.

The question is: What do two British Columbia premiers and an important Kiondike water route have in common?

Please send contest entries to the Editor, 1745 Taylor St., Victoria, B.C. V8R3EB.

Page 30 British Columbia Historical News THE BRITISHCOLUMBIA HISTORICALFEDERATION

Honorary President: Col. G.S. Andrews, 116 Wellington, Victoria, B.C. V8V 4H7 382-7202 (res.)

Officers President: Barbara Stannard, #211-450 Stewart Ave., Nanaimo, V9S 5E9 754-6195 (res.) 1st Vice President: Leonard G. McCann, #2-1430 Maple St., Vancouver, V6J 3R9 736-4431 (bus.) 2nd Vice President: Naomi Miller, Box 105, Wasa, VOB2K0 422-3594 (res.) Secretary: T. Don Sale, 262 Juniper St., Nanaimo, V9S 1X4 753-2067 (res.) Recording Secretary: Margaret Stoneberg, P.O. Box 687, Princeton, VOXiWO 295-3362 (res.)

Treasurer: J. Rhys Richardson, 2875 W. 29th, Vancouver, V6L 1Y2 733-1897 (res.) Members-at-Large: Tom Carrington, 125 Linden Ave., Victoria, V8V 4E2 383-3446 (res.) Myrtle Haslam, 1875 Wessex Road, Cowichan Bay, VOR1NO 748-8397 (res.) Past-President: Ruth Barnett, 680 Pinecrest Rd., Campbell River, V9W 3P3 287-8097 (res.) Marie Elliott, Editor, B.C. Historical News, 1745 Taylor St., Victoria, V8R 3E8 592-9521

Chairmen of Committees: Historic Trails: John D. Spittle, 1241 Mount Crown Rd., North Vancouver, V7R 1R9 988-4565 (res.) B.C. Historical News Ruth Barnett, 680 Pinecrest Rd., Campbell River, V9W 3P3 Policy Committee: 287-8097 (res.) Publications Assistance: Committee (not involved with B.C. Historical News) Helen Akrigg, 4633 W. 8th Ave., Vancouver, V6R 2A6 228-8606 (res.) Loans are available for publication. Please submit manuscripts to Helen Akrigg. I—

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