Snippets of History

[Glacier]

I'm starting this thread as a medium for sharing your favourite snippets of British Columbia history.

The Moran Dam
Few of you have likely ever heard of this dam even though it would have produced more electricity than all the BC Hydro dams on the Columbia, Peace, Kootenay, and Pend d'Oreille rivers combined. It would have created a lake from near Lillooet to Quesnel and produced as much power as the Grand Coulee Dam and two Hoover Dams combined.

BC Hydro Dams

As early as 1934, the Moran Canyon site was identified as an excellent location for a large hydroelectric dam. During the dam-building era of the mid-20th century, up to five major hydropower projects were proposed on the main stem of the Fraser River. The largest of these, a dam near the railway point of Moran, some 20 kilometres (12 mi) upstream of Lillooet, was put forth by the Moran Development Corporation (MDC). This American firm put forth US$500 million in 1952 to finance the construction of the dam, which would have been the tallest in the world. The Fraser River was favored over other large rivers in BC, such as the Columbia or Peace, because of its relative proximity to urban centers like Vancouver.

The dam would have been 261 metres (856 ft) high, generating as much power on average as Grand Coulee Dam and twice of Hoover Dam combined – much of this energy would have been sold to the northwestern United States. It would form a gigantic reservoir 260 kilometres (160 mi) long, containing some 35.4 cubic kilometres (28,700,000 acre·ft) of water at maximum pool, reaching almost to the town of Quesnel. A significant portion of this capacity would be reserved for flood control as the dam had been proposed in the wake of major floods that occurred just three years before then, in 1948. The BC government gave MDC clearance to begin preliminary work at the site in 1955. However, MDC lacked the funds to build such a gigantic dam and to acquire all the lands that would be flooded under the reservoir, and a rival company, BC Electric (today part of BC Hydro), acquired similar rights to the site that same year.

Moran Dam's tremendous height would make artificial fish passage nearly impossible, and would thus cut off a large portion of the Fraser's prodigious runs of Pacific salmon and steelhead trout. During the later 1950s and 1960s, determined opposition from environmentalists including Roderick Haig-Brown, fishermen and others stalled the project, citing that the dam would block access to over 70% of anadromous fish spawning habitat in the Fraser basin. In addition, it would cause losses of up to 50% of catches along the main stem Fraser and its delta below the dam because of sediment blockage, water temperature changes, and flow fluctuations. The defeat of the dam project, which had one of the largest power potentials of any in North America, uniquely occurred during the height of the continent's dam-building era, before determined environmentalist opposition towards dams such as at New Melones, twenty years later.

In 1970, BC Hydro released a report that predicted annual provincial rises in power consumption of over 10 percent. As a result, the proposed dam project was briefly revived, to the point at which test bores were made at the site in May of that year. After continuing concern over what the dam would do to the Fraser's salmon runs, the Moran Dam was defeated again in 1972. The downfall of the Moran project led to decreased call for power generation on the Fraser River, as Moran would have been the key facility for that matter. If Moran Dam had been built, the vast construction could open much of the Fraser River for development, to the point where it might have even ended up like the dam-straitjacketed Columbia River. Today, despite its alluring hydroelectric potential, the Fraser River remains one of the longest undammed rivers in North America and one of the continent's most productive salmon fisheries.

[Urbane]

Great idea for thread Glacier. I had never heard of this project. I'm sure there are a lot of similar stories out there and hopefully we'll see some interesting contributions here.

[Glacier]

The Battle of Midway

Just over 100 years ago two rival railways were competing to build a route though southern BC. The Kettle Valley Railway, a division of Canadian Pacific, opted the take the northern route skirting Kelowna and Penticton while the lesser known VV&E railway took the easier path back and forth across the border and up the Similkameen Valley. Before they got that far their ambitions collided as the Mdiway museum describes:

It was in November 1905, in the tiny town of Midway that the battle between railway rivals James J. Hill of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and Williams Van Horne and Thomas Shaughnessy of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was to come to physical blows.

The rivalry between these two railways began before the construction of the CPR transcontinental line to Vancouver. Hill and Van Horne, then directors of the CRP, disagreed on the route the CPR would take to the western shores of Canada. Hill, a Canadian by birth, wanted the line south through the United States and north to Winnipeg, thus avoiding the costly construction through the rocky Canadian Shield north of Lake Superior. But Van Horne, ironically an American, wanted an all-Canadian route. The majority of the CPR directors supported Van Horne's all-Canadian route which infuriated Hill. Hill left the CPR and Canada, swearing revenge against Van Horne and the CPR.

In the years that followed, Hill, with the GNR, attempted to gain control of railways into Canada. He was out-manoeuvred each time by Van Horne, who would not allow an American railway into Canada. In retaliation, Hill drove tracks from Seattle to Vancouver only to be stopped 20 miles short owing to a lack of funding for a bridge over the Fraser River.

His next assault was the successful venture with the Kaslo and Slocan Railway (K&S) in 1895, building a line over the mountains to reach the silver mines of Sandon.

At Sandon, there was a conflict regarding the ownership of land on which the Naksup and Slocan Railway (N&S) had built their CPR station. In retaliation the K&S men tore down the CPR station and freight shed.

Skirmishes and legal battles between the two railways were common place. In 1899, Shaughnessy, another American by birth, succeeded Van Horne as president of the CPR and continued on with the fight to restrict Hill from getting a foothold into Canada. Of course, this did not stop CPR from teaming up with Daniel Corbin to drive a rail spike deep into the the heart of Hill's Spokane railway monopoly, building a railway from Spokane to the CPR main line. Corbin had lost his own railway, the Spokane Falls and Northern Railway to J.J. Hill years earlier. Hill did not take this lying down and put his financial backing into the floundering Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway (VV&E).

The VV&E was chartered in 1896 by William Templeton, mayor of Vancouver, in order to build the coast-to-Kootenay railway to ensure that the riches of the Kootenays would fin their way to Vancouver and not into the boxcars of J.J. Hill's GNR. Although there was a general distrust of Hill's promise to build the "cost-to-Kootenay" line, Hill was granted an amendment to the VV&E's charter allowing it to divert through the U.S. in order to complete the line to the coast. The CPR responded immediately by dispatching its surveyors to survey a completely Canadian route from the coast to the Kootenays.

As the grade for the VV&E pushed through west of Midway, it inadvertently crossed a small parcel of land granted to the CPR. On September 30, 1905, the CPR erected a fence across the grade, claiming the VV&E was trespassing. Hill managed to get an expropriation order for the parcel of land, which the CPR immediately claimed invalid and not for the parcel in question. On November 7, 1905, hill massed an army of workers to the disputed property. The CPR responded at once by ordering all available railway workers to Midway. Hill, hearing of CPR's move, dispatched additional troops to Midway. On November 9, the brigade of CPR workers armed with shovels, picks and axes massed against the formidable VV&E. Tracks were torn up, shovels and picks clanged against one another, and shots were fired. Miraculously no one was killed. Nightfall put an end to the day's hostilities. The next morning the CPR workers found the disputed area barbwired. Not wishing to contend with the barbwire without wire cutters, the CPR workers headed for the saloons in Ferry, just across the border. There the hostilities ended with the VV&E and CPR workers standing shoulder to shoulder at the bar. In court the CPR was found to be correct. and Hill had to get an expropriation order for the right parcel of land.

[Glacier]

It often amazes me as to the lengths people would go to try and tame nature. The river is too wild for salmon to swim, and the vertical walls of the Homathko Canyon down into Bute Inlet makes Fraser Canyon look tame in comparison. The route would have required 8 miles of tunnel, but they pressed on anyway.

The Chilcotin War

The Chilcotin War, Chilcotin Uprising or Bute Inlet Massacre was a confrontation in 1864 between members of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) people in British Columbia and white road construction workers. Fourteen men employed by Alfred Waddington in the building of a road from Bute Inlet were killed, as well as a number of men with a pack-train near Anahim Lake and a settler at Puntzi Lake.

BACKGROUND

In 1862, Alfred Waddington began lobbying the press and his political allies for support to a wagon road from Bute Inlet to Fort Alexandria where it would connect to the Cariboo Road and continue on to the goldfields at Barkerville. He received approval for the construction early in 1863. According to Waddington, it would reduce land travel from 359 miles to 185 miles and the total days consumed in packing freight from 37 days to 22 compared to the Yale-Fraser Canyon route known as the Cariboo Road favoured by Governor Douglas.

The Bute Inlet Wagon Road was to follow the Homathko River valley from the mouth of Bute Inlet, cross Mount Waddington and then swing northeast across the Chilcotin Plateau to join the Bentinck Arm Trail at Puntzi Lake and the mouth of the Quesnel River. It was also one of the routes considered and advocated by Waddington for the transcontinental railway eventually constructed to Vancouver instead.

Construction had been underway for two years when, on April 29, 1864 a ferryman, Timothy Smith, stationed 30 miles up the river was killed after refusing a demand from Klattasine, Tallot and other natives for food. Smith was shot and his body thrown into the river. The food stores and supplies were looted. A half ton of provisions were taken. The following day the natives attacked the workers camp at daylight. Three men, Peterson Dane, Edwin Moseley and a man named Buckley, though injured, escaped and fled down the river. The remaining crew were killed and their bodies thrown into the river.

Four miles further up the trail, the band came upon the foreman, William Brewster, and three of his men blazing trail. All were killed. Brewster's body was mutilated and left. The others' bodies were thrown into the river. The band also killed William Manning, a settler at Puntzi Lake.

A pack train led by Alexander McDonald, though warned, continued into the area and three of the drivers were killed in the ensuing ambush. In all, nineteen men were killed.

In New Westminster, Governor Seymour, just a month into his term, received news of the attacks on May 14. The next day Chartres Brew and 28 men were sent to Bute Inlet aboard the HMS Forward but they were unable to make their way up the trail from Homathko valley to the scene of the incident and returned to New Westminster. A second party of 50 men under Gold Commissioner William Cox went to the area using an overland route, met an ambush and retreated. Brew, aboard the HMS Sutlej, along with the Governor and 38 men went out again to reach the Chilcoltin from Bentinck Arm. They arrived July 7 and met Cox. Donald McLean led a scouting party to reconnoitre. A guide, hearing a rifle click, urged him to get down. He didn't and was shot through the heart.

ARREST

In 1864, Chief Alexis and a slave of Klatassine met with Cox and were given assurances of friendship by Cox. The next day Klattassine, Tallot and six others arrived. They were arrested. Although denied by Cox, they claimed to have been offered immunity. The prisoners were returned to Alexandria. Five of the Tsilhqot'in men (Telloot, Klatsassin, Tah-pitt, Piele, and Chessus) were arrested and charged with murder. They were tried in September 1864 at Quesnel by Judge Begbie. In defence of their actions, Klatsassin said they were waging war, not committing murder. The five were found guilty and sentenced to hang.

The incident cost the colony about $80,000. A petition to the Imperial parliament to share this cost was declined. Donald McLean's widow was given a pension of ₤100 per year for five years. Waddington sought compensation of $50,000 from the colony saying that his party had been given no protection. The colony declined saying none was requested and that no state could guarantee its citizens safe from murder.

Waddington was of the view that fears of the introduction of smallpox was the cause of the unrest. Frederick Whymper, an artist attached to Waddington's crew, attributed the unrest to the provision of firearms to the Chilcotin at a time when they were suffering from lack of food. Judge Begbie concluded that the most important cause of the unrest was concern over title to land rather than "plunder or revenge". Others say that the native packers in Brewster's crew were starving while the white members of the crew were well supplied. There were also grievances about desecration of graves and interference with valuable spring waters.

REVIEW OF TRIAL

In 1993 Judge Anthony Sarich, wrote a report commissioned by the government of British Columbia, of an inquiry into the relationship between the Aboriginal community in British Columbia and the justice system. As a result of the recommendations in the report, the Attorney General apologized for the hanging of the Chilcotin Chiefs and provided funding for the archaeological excavation of their graves to ensure a proper burial.

[Glacier]

Here's an interesting map of BC from 1896 when the total population was the size of Kamloops today. Back then Kamloops was the 7th largest "chief city" with a population of 1,000. It's also interesting how Quesnel was spelled Quesnelle back then. The bustling metropolis of Vernon was almost as big as Quesnelle Forks, Barkerville, and Nicola Lake.

[xjeepguy]

Here's an interesting map of BC from 1896 when the total population was the size of Kamloops today. Back then Kamloops was the 7th largest "chief city" with a population of 1,000. It's also interesting how Quesnel was spelled Quesnelle back then. The bustling metropolis of Vernon was almost as big as Quesnelle Forks, Barkerville, and Nicola Lake.

Pretty cool map , it looks like aprox. where Winfield is today , there's a lake there called Lung lake ( looks like it by the spelling?), is that Wood Lake today ? Also noticed that Armstrong and Enderby are on the map , didnt know those towns were that old .

Cool history !

[36Drew]

there's a lake there called Lung lake ( looks like it by the spelling?)

Zooming in, it looks more like "Long Lake", with a glitch around the top left of the "o". It appears to me to be situated on the map where one might expect to find Kalamalka lake today.


...and bingo. Confirmation.

http://summertree.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=209

The Okanagan Indian word Chilutsus pronounced and sometimes spelt Chelootsoos, meaning "long lake cut in the middle" was the original name of the two lakes now known as Kalamalka Lake and Wood Lake. In 1861 the northern lake was referred to as “Long Lake” the southern lake "Prlmeewash Lake" and the strip of land between was fondly called the "Railway", not because there was ever a train track, but because it resembled a railway embankment. Up until 1908 Wood Lake was distinct from Long Lake; during that year a channel (canal) was made connecting the two.

In the early 1920's some of the bigwigs suggested that Long Lake be renamed Kalamalka Lake. There has always been a controversy of where the name Kalamalka originated.

Officially Long Lake was adopted 11 January 1922, and the name changed to Kalamalka Lake 7 February 1951.

[xjeepguy]

Interesting , thanks . Wonder what the fishing was like in Long Lake back in the late 18's ?

[hobbyguy]

Really liked the map. This is such a young country. Interesting to look for places that "aren't" any more (like Oyster Bay) or "weren't" like Kelowna, Tofino and Powell River.

[Glacier]

I'm struck by the number of names that are spelled differently than today! Quesnelle Forks is an abandoned ghost town today, but I always thought it was spelled Quenel. Chilcoh Lake is now spelled Chilko (I've also seen it spelled as chilco on some older maps).

It's interesting to note the various names for the land. Northern Vancouver Island is labeled as "Good Land," the Anahim Lake Plateau is labeled as "Good Summer Grazing Land", and the far north around Dease Lake labled as "Unexplored Land." All these titles look like they are meant to entice people into the north.

And I see they are calling my favourite glacier, Silverthrone Glacier (also known as the Klinaklini Glacier), "the Great Glacier." Sacrilege!

* edit for spelling.

[grammafreddy]

I think that says Long Lake and it looks more like it should be Kalamalka.

There's no Kelowna. Okanagan Mission is there (Father Pandosy's Mission). Benvoulin area is older than Kelowna and its not even on there. My grandfather came to Benvoulin to farm in 1898. Brandt's Mill was operating by then along the creek (LOL - Mill Creek) where the feed lot used to be.

Prince George is called Ft George. Ft St James is on the map and it used to be called Caledonia or New Caledonia and was the capital city before Victoria was.

I see Ft Shepherd on the map just south of Trail. It was a Hudson Bay Co fort.

What a wonderful map! It says so much on it. We have boring maps today in comparison.

[coffeeFreak]

Great thread! I found this link to BC Historical online photo database:

http://aabc.ca/resources/historical-photographs/

[Glacier]

Some histories of BC places:

Armstrong: The first settlers chose the name Aberdeen; however, when the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway (a subsidiary of the CPR) was built, the station here was named after W.C. Heaton-Armstrong (1853-1917), head of the London banking house which had floated the bonds to build the railway. Around 1892 Armstrong visited the little settlement which bore his name.

Arrow Lakes: In 1846 Father De Smet, reporting on his recent journey down the Columbia River, wrote:

The second [lower] lake is about six miles distant from the first [upper lake]. It is about the same length but less wide. We passed under a perpendicular rock, which we beheld an innumerable number of arrows sticking out of the fissures. The Indians, when they ascended the lake, have a custom of lodging each an arrow into these crevices. The origin and cause of the custom is unknown to me. This the reason why the first voyageurs called these lakes the Arrow Lakes.

Beaverdell: Beaverton and Rendell were originally tow settlements about a mile apart. When they united, they adopted this composite name.

Peachland: Formerly known as Camp Hewitt after "Gus" Hewitt who had a mining camp here around 1890. In 1897 John Moore Robinson, who later founded Summerland and Naramata, laid out a townsite here. He probably chose the name "Peachland" because the Lambly family had earlier grown the first peaches in the Okanagan on the flat land here.

Osoyoos: Comes from the Indian word "soo-yoos," referring to a narrow point where two lakes come together. Nobody knows for sure how the initial "O" was added, though there is a story that the Hon. Peter O'Reilly, magistrate withe Hope in 1858, jocularly suggested that adding an O would give dignity to the Indian name. "Osoyoos" appears on the maps as early as 1860. The village of Osoyoos was incorporated in 1946. Old-timers still call the place "Soo-yoos."

[1nick]

Liked this one.

http://knowledge.ca/program/cd-hoy-portraits-from-the-frontier

[grammafreddy]

Those early explorers and map makers were incredible people. Not only did they map the country they traveled through, noting the kind of land they found, they also recorded and drew the plants and birds and animals they saw along the way. Amazing knowledge to have with amazing art skills. We don't make people like that any more.

Wouldn't it be fun to be able to use Google Street View and go see what things looked like then? I'd love that!