By the Road: Fordism, Automobility, and Landscape Experience in the British Columbia Interior, 1920-1970 by Ben Bradley A thesis submitted to the Department of History in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada December 2012 © Copyright by Ben Bradley, 2012 By the Road: Fordism, Automobility, and Landscape Experience in the British Columbia Interior, 1920-1970 Ben Bradley Abstract This dissertation examines how popular experiences of nature and history in the British Columbia Interior were structured by automobility – the system of objects, spaces, images, and practices that surrounded private automobiles and public roads. The Fordist state poured massive resources into the provincial road network during the period 1920 to 1970, and in the process created new possibilities for leisure and for profit. Motoring was a new, very modern way of experiencing BC, and also an important economic engine. Making the province’s highways and the landscapes that were visible alongside them look appealing to the motoring public became a matter of concern for many different parties. Boosters, businesses, and tourism promoters who stood to benefit from increased automobile travel often cultivated roadside attractions and lobbied the state to do the same. Starting in the early 1940s, the provincial government established numerous parks along the Interior highway network: the two examined here are Manning and Hamber parks. Beginning in the late 1950s it did the same with historical sites: Barkerville, Fort Steele, and several others are examined here. These and other parks and historic sites were established, developed, and managed as roadside amenities, and were used to deliver lessons about nature and history to the motoring public ‘by the road.’ Drawing on a wide range of examples from across the BC Interior, including both successes and failures, this thesis examines how the motoring public’s common landscape experiences ii were shaped by state-built infrastructure and by various groups’ efforts to manage, manipulate, and modify the landscapes that were visible by the road. iii Acknowledgments The research for this dissertation was supported by a Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). BC Studies and the University of Calgary Press have given permission to use maps that accompanied an article and a book chapter that were based on this research and which appeared in their publications. My supervisory committee has been very patient as this project ranged hither and thither, sometimes speeding forward, sometimes venturing down unexpected paths, and other times getting stuck on the side of the metaphorical road. Ian McKay and Colin Duncan were especially generous with their time in the final stages of the journey, helping to steer the project homeward when I felt as though I’d misplaced my roadmap. Thanks also to Emily Hill and external examiners Rick Rajala and Laura Cameron, who all provided thoughtful and useful insights. It has been my good fortune to be writing this dissertation while environmental history has been on the rise in Canada, providing many opportunities to share aspects of this research to a receptive scholarly community. The Quelques Arpents de Neige migratory workshop and the Toronto Environmental History Network (TEHN) have both offered friendly venues to test-drive chapters from Part One of this dissertation. Generous support from the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE) also allowed me to attend several conferences and workshops where I presented some of this research. In Toronto I have particularly benefitted from a dissertation-reading group comprised of iv Jennifer Bonnell, Jim Clifford, and Jay Young, three excellent historians who share my interest in environment, landscape, and infrastructure. Though we have not had the pleasure of meeting in person, Chris Garrish and Andrea Laforet kindly allowed me to read their as-yet unpublished manuscripts on BC license plates and the market for native peoples’ coiled basketry. For the opportunity to bounce ideas about this project around, whether at a workshop, on a conference panel, or simply over coffee or lunch, I’d like to thank: Dimitry Anastakis, Claire Campbell, Jenny Clayton, Colin Coates, Lyle Dick, Sinead Earley, Chris Gergley, Ben Isitt, Beth Jewett, Jack Little, John Lutz, Merle Massie, Steve Penfold, Liza Piper, Zac Robinson, Joan Schwartz, Andrew Watson, Graeme Wynn, and most importantly Ruth Sandwell, who has been unflagging in her interest and support. It is impossible to write a history dissertation without the help of archivists and museum staff. The main evidentiary building blocks for this project were made available by the British Columbia Archives, the British Columbia Ministry of Forests Library, and the special collections at the University of British Columbia and University of Victoria libraries. I am also thankful for the assistance provided by the dedicated staff and volunteers working at the community museums and archives in Golden, Invermere, Kamloops, Lytton, Princeton, Quesnel, Prince George, and Revelstoke. Finally, I thank my brother, my mum and dad, and my partner Jan for their unstinting affection and support. v Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….. ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………… iv Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………… vi List of Figures………………………………………………………………………… viii Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………… x Chapter 1 Automobility and the Making of New Kinds of Experience and Place in the British Columbia Interior………………………………. 1 Part I: Shaping Nature by the Road in the BC Interior…………………………………. 36 Chapter 2 The Road Towards a Park in BC’s Cascade Mountains, 1919-1941…………………… 43 Chapter 3 Planning Manning Park Around the Motoring Public, 1941-1949…………………….. 81 Chapter 4 Manning Park and the Aesthetics of Automobile Accessibility in the 1950s…………. 119 Chapter 5 Maintaining Appearances in Manning Park, 1955-1970……………………………… 164 Chapter 6 The Roundabout Route to a Park in BC’s Big Bend Country, 1925-1941……………. 206 Chapter 7 Long, Wild, and Boring: The Failure of Both Hamber Park and the Big Bend Highway, 1941-1973…………... 244 Part II: Shaping History by the Road in the BC Interior………………………………. 336 Chapter 8 The Banff-Windermere Highway and the David Thompson Memorial Fort, 1920-1945………………………………… 345 Chapter 9 BC’s Premier Drive Into the Past: The Fraser Canyon Highway, 1925-1945………… 387 vi Chapter 10 To the Gold Fields: The Cariboo Highway, 1925-1945………………………………. 420 Chapter 11 A Sense of Crisis Amidst Prosperity: History by the Road in the BC Interior, 1945-1955…………………………………... 474 Chapter 12 Active Government and History by the Road: The Stop of Interest Program and Barkerville Historic Park, 1955-1970……………... 512 Chapter 13 History on the Highways: The Proliferation of Major Historical Tourist Attractions, 1958-1970………………... 581 Chapter 14 Looking Back on British Columbia By the Road……………………………………... 636 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………... 657 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1: Map of the British Columbia Interior………………………………………. 13 Figure 2.1: Map of southwestern BC from Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory…….. 47 Figure 2.2: Trail riding in the Three Brothers area, 1930s……………………………... 60 Figure 2.2: Letterhead of the Penticton Board of Trade, mid and late 1930s…………... 76 Figure 3.1: The Similkameen flats in the mid 1940s…………………………………… 90 Figure 4.1: The Skagit Bluffs and roadside pullout, early 1950s……………………... 124 Figure 4.2: The Big Burn and Manning Park Gallows, mid 1950s…………………… 133 Figure 4.3: Map of Manning Park in 1952……………………………………………. 136 Figure 4.4: The Pinewoods concession complex in 1951……………………………… 158 Figure 6.1: Map of transportation routes and parks in BC’s eastern mountains, 1927... 212 Figure 7.1: Map of Hamber Park and the Big Bend Highway, 1941………………….. 246 Figure 7.2: A typical section of the Big Bend Highway………………………………. 282 Figure 8.1: The David Thompson Memorial Fort, 1922……………………………… 368 Figure 8.2: The interior of the David Thompson Memorial Fort, 1922………………. 371 Figure 9.1: The Fraser Canyon Highway, late 1920s.………………………………… 401 Figure 9.2: The Fraser Canyon between Hope and Yale……………………………… 407 Figure 10.1: Advertising for TU Auto Camp at Cache Creek………………………… 422 Figure 10.2: Stagecoach on display at Clinton………………………………………... 433 Figure 10.3: Open-air museum at Quesnel……………………………………………. 442 Figure 10.4: Barkerville, 1930………………………………………………………… 456 Figure 11.1: Fraser Canyon Highway, late 1950s……………………………………... 487 Figure 11.2: Service station and HSMBC cairn at Alexandria, late 1950s……………. 494 Figure 12.1: Stagecoach Run at Clinton Hotel, 1958…………………………………. 521 Figure 12.2: Stop of Interest marker at Osoyoos……………………………………… 547 Figure 12.3: Barkerville Historic Park, 1961………………………………………….. 565 viii Figure 13.1: The David Thompson Memorial Fort, 1954…………………………….. 592 Figure 13.2: Boarded up buildings in Fort Steele, 1957………………………………. 599 Figure 13.3: Fort Steele Historic Park after 1967……………………………………... 612 Figure 13.4: Frontier Mountain Town at Three Valley Gap…………………………... 620 Figure 13.5: The SS Minto ashore at Galena Bay, mid 1960s………………………… 630 Figure 13.6: The SS Minto ablaze, 1968………………………………………………. 634 ix Abbreviations BCA British Columbia Archives BCAA British Columbia Automobile Association BCMFL British Columbia Ministry of Forests Library BRAC Barkerville Restoration Advisory Council BX