Lytton Museum and Archives Newsletter Volume 7 Issue 3

August 2006 420 Fraser Street, Lytton, B.C. Issue 7 Number 3 dian National and the Canadian Pacific Railways at Cisco on Friday, August History In The Making 4th, closed the primary rail routes across Canada completely. Fortunately, the Cisco derailment was fairly minor, and only required a day and a half to clean up. Trains were moving again by Saturday afternoon, but only on the Canadian Pacific track through the Thompson Canyon. With the bridge functional and the river clean-up scheduled to start after the salmon runs and the wreckage gradu- ally disappearing, this incident will fade into history. We hope that the clean-up of the river will clear up some of the questions about the previous wreck. Rumours of a locomotive hidden in deep water may be confirmed or disproved and the car wheels in the river may be recovered for the Museum. Just after 11 p.m. Monday, July 3st, bridge, but twelve plunged into the The following page shows a few pic- 2006, an estimated twenty Canadian river below. tures of this incident. Pacific coal cars left the track on the Thankfully, no one was hurt, however Canadian National railway bridge over as much as ,200 tonnes of coal were IN THIS ISSUE: the Thompson River. dumped into the river, and an estimated History in the Making - Train Wreck . Reports have varied, so the exact num- six cars were completely submerged. Railway Bridges in the Fraser Canyon ber of cars and amount of coal spilled is The debris visible above at the foot of ............................................................ 3 still uncertain several weeks later. Some the east end pier of the bridge is what is Lytton Alfalfa ..................................... 4 accounts have eight cars on the bridge, left of six coal cars and their loads. Chief David Spintlum ........................ 5 but Joe Chute’s pictures, taken early on Meet Our Staff ................................... 7 August st, show seven. Some reports A massive rebuilding effort was put into had the train at ninety-nine cars, others motion, with the re-opening of the main Echos of the Past ................................ 8 at one hundred and twenty-two or one line as the primary objective. Where Are They? ............................... 8 hundred and twenty-four. A second derailment just south of Lytton Seven of the cars remained on the on the transfer track between the Cana- Page Friday, and the only remaining obstruction is the severely damaged span at the east end of the bridge. This span had the ties literally split in half, with a car and several wheel sets falling in on the supporting beams and braces inside the truss. The morning after — seven cars remaining on the bridge and an estimated twelve over the side, the Canadian National Railway crews had a huge job ahead to re-open the mainline across Canada. The worst damage was at the east end of the bridge. By early Monday the rails were once again joined to complete the trans-Canada link. While the repairs continued, trains were allowed to travel the bridge for the first time in a week. By early Monday afternoon, the crews had moved heavy equipment in to empty the loaded coal cars still on the bridge. As the coal was moved to waiting dump trucks, the cars were torn apart by the loaders to move farther onto the bridge. The freight goes through! A massive effort to re-open the The operation went on twenty-four hours a day, with huge lights railway, but the bridge needs railings, internal repair and turning the Thompson Canyon into near daylight brightness. By improvements before the slow movement order can be lifted. Tuesday night, the west end of the bridge had been cleared. All photos courtesy Joe Chute Page 2 The Railway Bridges In The Fraser Canyon Submitted by Joe Chute. In 880, Andrew Onderdonk, construction engineer, was awarded contracts to construct a railroad from Port Moody to Savona. His headquarters were to be in the lower Fraser Canyon. Speculators bought up land by Emory Creek, between Yale and Hope. Lots were surveyed and sold as being the headquarters for the railroad construction. However, the dreams of the pro- moters were dashed when Onderdonk selected Yale as his base of operations. The west bank of the Fraser was selected as the road-bed for the new Canadian Pacific Railway. By 882, the track had reached the spot now known as Cisco. The survey party The Canadian Pacific bridge at Cisco being assembled. Note the men on the beams informed Onderdonk that the Fraser being swung into place. should be crossed to take advantage The parts were fabricated and shipped to the west coast of Canada. The mate- of the easier construction on the east on a sailing ship called the ‘Stormy rial was transferred to stern wheelers side. Petrel’ and arrived at New Westminster and transported to Yale, where it was after having to sail around Cape Horn, brought to Cisco by train. A bridge was ordered from England. the southern tip of South America, to get A highline was set up to move the materials across the Fraser. It soon became obvious that someone had made a mistake, as the bridge work would not line up with the stone pillars which had been set up to support the bridge. This necessitated that the pillars had to be dismantled and moved to fit the bridge. History does not indicate who made the error, Onderdonk’s engineers or the bridge builders. However, the bridge was assembled and the railway contracts were completed. (This Cantilever bridge was later replaced by the present bridge at Cisco, and became part of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway.) The second railway through the canyon was the Canadian Northern Railway. It had reached Prince Rupert via the Yellowhead Pass. Seeing that the CPR was doing well in the Fraser Valley and The completed cantilever bridge crossing the Fraser River. Vancouver area, the Canadian Northern Courtesy Canadian Pacific Archives decided to run a line south, through the continued onPage 4… Page 3 LYTTON ALFALFA tury. Men coming from the California alfalfa of Lytton in the 920’s and gold rush of 849-855 to the Cariboo 930’s quite famous. While browsing through our collection gold rush of 859-865 had seeded al- End of quote. This writer has seen many of B.C. Historical News magazines, we falfa of California origin to feed horses, samples of self-seeded alfalfa with came across an article we felt might be camels and other domesticated animals blooms of deep purple, light purple, of interest to our local ranchers. It was on the terraces of the Fraser, Thompson yellow and white as close as the ditch written by Dr. V.C. Brink, a plant pro- and Nicola rivers. Lytton alfalfa seed along Kent Road in Lytton. fessor at U.B.C., who worked with G.G. sold readily in the middle western states. Moe and did research in the Lytton area At the same time shiploads of dusty, with anthropologist Wayne Suttles. weed and disease laden plants of alfalfa came to West Coast ports from Asia. In The article follows in its entirety: the last century individual plants would Continued from Page 3 In the 920’s for a few years the little live for decades, some perhaps for 50 Railway Bridges town of Lytton, B.C. was famous in years until the introduction in the 940’s Fraser Canyon. To avoid the CPR right- North American agriculture - famous of diseases such as bacterial and wilt. of-way, it essentially had to take the for its alfalfa seed and famous for a Unfortunately, much of the seed export- route which the CPR had rejected. controversy the seed engendered. ed from Lytton and elsewhere produced At the time that it reached the Lytton It may be hard to realize today but in plants which were not usually able to area (92/3), Lytton was an impor- the early 920’s alfalfa was not the survive the winters of the Central States tant distribution center for the interior important crop it is today over most and Ontario. Lytton seed was roundly of British Columbia. To cross over of our continent and over the world. condemned by agronomists such as “Al- to the west bank, to get involved in In much of Canada today we see it in falfa” Graber of Wisconsin and demand transporting goods to and from Lytton, fields, seeding naturally on roadsides for it dropped. two bridges were built, one at each end and natural grasslands. There was a good result nonetheless. of the town. When Cisco was reached In the first decade of this century, al- Legislation was passed in Canada and another bridge was built to avoid the falfa cultivation was almost entirely in the USA to certify seeds as to country CPR. It was the Canadian Northern confined to the Southwestern States of origin and breeding programs were railway which caused the rock slide and Mexico. There non-winter hardy started to develop winter hardy strains. which blocked the river during a salmon narrow-crowned Spanish type alfalfa Hardy strains came from areas such as spawning time at Hell’s Gate. was grown. In a very few places and Ladak in the Himalayas of Northern By 1918, several railways were in fi- on very limited acreages in Ontario, India and from species of alfalfa native nancial trouble, probably caused by too New York and Virginia somewhat more to Russia and Siberia. One breeding rapid expansion of rail lines, draining winter-hardy strains mainly of German program initiated by L.S.

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