The Fur-traders' Great Okanagan Lake

Alexander Caulfield Anderson's 1867 map of British Columbia shows names known by the fur traders for the places along Okanagan Lake.

Few of the names and places remain the same today -- the city of Vernon sits squarely on the land between Long Lake and Great Okanagan Lake; land which the Indian Reserve Commissioners gave to Selixt-asposem's tribe for grazing (mentioned in the last post) -- "Long Lake" on these maps is modern-day Lake Kalamalka and Wood Lakes, merged.

The city of Kelowna stands on the river Anderson called L'anse au Sable, and he indicated where the Roman Catholic Mission once stood on the east side of the lake.

But in James Gibson's book, "The Lifeline of the Oregon Country," L'anse au Sable was where the town of Westbank now stands.

Today's main highway runs down the east side of the lake and rock bluffs almost entirely hide the view.

But there is a road on the west side which allows for splendid views of the lake, and a feeling that you are following along the old brigade trail.

When we speak of the "old brigade trail" in this particular post, we are talking of the trail before 1842.

After 1842 (and exact date of the new trail is unknown, but assumed to be about this time), the fur traders followed a new trail that travelled further west, perhaps on the top of the ridge of hills that lined that side of the lake.

On A.C. Anderson's map the names of the creeks or rivers are sometimes hard to read.

They are also impossible to read on Sam Black's pre-1840 map of Thompson's River (CM/B2079, BCArchives).

But on the Royal Engineers 1861 copy of Sam Black's map (a copy of which was owned by James Douglas), the names of the rivers are easier to read.

This map is in Library and Archives Canada, but you can obtain a rough photocopy of it in BC Archives; its number is P615pBC R888t 1861, Royal Engineers, Thompson River District, British Columbia, from a map in the possession of HE Gov. Douglas, C.B., made in 1836 by S. Black. I have a note its new map number is CM/A294, BCA, so if you can't find it under first number, look there.

Mauvais Rocher has become Bear River -- I should say that Sam Black's Bear River changed to Mauvais Rocher on Anderson's later map.

Bear Creek Park appears to be at the outflow of that same creek, but on the Forest District map the stream no longer bears the name of Bear Creek!

McDonald River, just south of Mauvais Rocher, will have been named for Archibald McDonald (later of Fort Colvile), who spent a few years at the Thompson's River post.

South of McDonald's River is Deer River (on Black's map).

A well-travelled trail followed Jacques River toward the west -- I don't think this was the newer brigade trail but it might have been.

McDonald River is probably where the city of Westbank now stands,

On Black's map R. de Trepannier? (from Anderson's map) is Trepanege(?) River -- still hard to read. But it bears the same name today, and is on the Penticton Forest District map as Trepanier Creek!

South of that is Trout River, a name I could not read on Anderson's map -- I thought it was R. de Fruite and it appears I am right, as James Gibson also calls the creek Riviere de la Fruite (Trout Creek).

Today's Trout Creek appears to flow south-eastward through modern-day Summerland, entering Okanagan Lake at Kikininee Park.

Somewhere where Summerland now stands is Prairie de Nicholas, often mentioned in Alexander Caulfield Anderson's journals.

But on his map, he indicates the resting place as Campment du Prele -- Horse-tail camp -- though it is very hard to read exactly what the writing says. (Horse-tail is a primitive plant the fur traders always called 'Prele').

At the south end of Okanagan Lake is the modern city of Penticton, sitting squarely between Okanagan Lake and Shaka Lake to the south.

Skaha Lake was, of course, the fur traders' Lac du Chien (Dog Lake).

I don't know if any of you want to go out to explore the fur traders trails and camps.

If so, it will be very hard to find them; the population in this part of the Okanagan has exploded and highways and houses have buried any signs of the past.

Selixt-asposem

Thirty years after he rode through this country for the last time in the early 1840's, Alexander Caulfield Anderson returned to the north end of Lake Okanagan.

When he returned to area in 1877, he was the Dominion of Canada's representative on the Indian Reserve Commission.

At this time, the commission consisted of three members -- one representing the Dominion, one the Province of British Columbia, and one who represented both.

Retired fur trader Archibald McKinlay represented the Province, and Joint Commissioner Gilbert Malcolm Sproat represented both Province and Dominion.

According to Anderson's 97-page journal of the British Columbia Reserve Commission of 1878, the Commissioners left Victoria on Tuesday June 12, 1877.

They reached Kamloops on the 20th of the month, and pitched their camp on the Indian Reserve nearly opposite to but a little above the village of Kamloops.

From Anderson's journal: "All the principal Indians with most of their followers, are absent at a grand gathering at the Okanagan Lake."

The missionary Father Grandidier met the Commissioners to express his anxiety of the "condition of the Indian mind at present," and said that the "gathering, which comprises many of the natives resident both in British Columbia and others south of the Line may have a deeper signifance than is suffered to appear."

But even before they had left Victoria, the Commissioners had been made aware that "a confederation has ... been entered into by the heads of the several tribes the object of which is, apparently, to urge their land claims the more forcibly through union. Whatever the nature of this combination, however, there can be no question that the counsels of the envoys from the insurgent septs South of the Line, have served to intensify previously existing discontents."

The "insurgent septs South of the Line" were the American Indians, led by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce people, who were fighting for ownership of their traditional lands.
It's a long story -- In 1875 the president of the United States opened the Wallowa Valley, long-time home of Nez Perce chief Joseph and his tribe, to settlement.
A year later some Indian-hating settlers accused a hunting party of Nez Perce of stealing their horses, and shot a young Nez Perce man named Wilhautyah (Wind Blowing) as he was trying to remove his meat from a tree.
That, at least, was one version of the story. A second version says that as the settlers discussed the stolen horses with the hunters, they got between the Indians and their guns which were resting against a tree.
Another version has one white settler wrestling with Wind Blowing, shooting him.
Whatever happened, the murderers rode away leaving a dead Nez Perce man behind.
Wind Blowing was well known to the settlers as a close friend of Chief Joseph, and they feared the Indians would avenge his death.
They barricaded themselves into their homes and waited for an attack which did not come. (The settler who had lost his horses found them grazing near his home.)
But Chief Joseph kept the Nez Perce calm.

At last the Nez Perce became impatient with white man's slow justice and ordered the settlers to meet with them in a council, bringing with them the men who had killed Wind Blowing.
The settlers refused to hand over the murderer, and the next day saw the Nez Perce armed, painted and stripped for war, riding on the hills.
In meeting after meeting the settlers refused to give up the murderers while the Nez Perce argued for justice.
At last Joseph said that if the settlers did not give up the murderer they would drive the settlers from their homes.
The calvarymen set up camp in the valley to keep the peace and to protect the Nez Perce, who they admired.
They set up an inquiry but the Indian witnesses were not given an opportunity to speak and the murderer was released.
In spite of the betrayal, peace settled over the valley even though the murderer returned home.

Joseph's Nez Perce tribe were non-treaty Indians; that is, their lands were not part of a reservation.
Joseph trusted the US government to respect their home, but was stunned when the US government commissioners asked him to give up the Wallowa and move to a reservation.
Joseph ignored the commissioners' many arguments and argued that his people were unwilling to give up their homes.
His eloquence nettled the commissioners and they were angered because they could not control him, but Joseph refused to give up his lands.
The commissioners wrote, "Indian Joseph...denied the jurisdiction of the United States over them...they were offered everything they wanted, if they would simply submit to the authroity and government of the United States agents."
But Joseph wanted to lived in the Wallowa valley unmolested, as he had always done, and the commissioners refused to listen to him.

After the meeting broke up, the commissioners decided to force Joseph and his Nez Perce to move to a reservation.
In January 1877, an agent instructed Joseph's people to move to the reservation "at once and in a peaceable manner."
In May they were again ordered to depart from the Wallowa valley, and Joseph declared, "You have no right to compare us, grown men, to children. Children do not think for themselves. Grown men do think for themselves. The government at Washington, cannot think for us."
The meeting ended, and soon after the military men discovered that members of many other tribes were riding into Joseph's camp to join the non-treaty Indians.
But none of the Natives wanted to go to war, and to the white men they appeared resigned to their fate and willing to go to their new reservation; they had thirty days to move.

The settlers were delighted when the Indians left the valley for their new reservation, but the Nez Perce lost many of their possessions when they were forced to cross a raging river in a time of high water.
In their camp they spoke of the hard times that had come on them, and their pride rose as they talked of the injustices the white men forced on them.
Drumming filled the air, and for days the younger men chanted and danced.
Three young men dressed in feathers and paint and shot and killed three men known to hate the Indians.
Joseph, still unaware of what had happened, received the message that "War has broke out! Three white men killed yesterday."
Other raiders killed more white settlers; the killings continued for two or more days and the white settlers abandoned their homes.
But the Nez Perce chiefs, including Joseph, remained in camp and worrried about what to do; they were opposed to war but their dreams of peace were fading rapidly.
Their camp was attacked by settlers; though no one was injured the incident turned the chiefs toward war.

The soldiers flooded into the territory and the leader, who could have prevented war by discovering what had actually happened, planned to attack the Indian camp at dawn but was discovered by a sentinel.
As they approached the camp, the soldiers were confronted by a Nez Perce man carrying a truce flag, while others sat on their horses to watch what would happen.
Another opportunity for peace was missed; the surprised captain raised his rifle and fired.
The Natives killed two soldiers and the fight was on -- in a few moments the swirling Nez Perce horsemen separated the unprepared soldiers into small groups, killing them or driving them away.
But after that fight, the whole territory south of the boundary line was involved in an Indian war, and Chief Joseph and his men fought in the front lines.

My information on Chief Joseph's war is heavily edited; if you want to read the whole story find the book: "The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest," by Alvin M. Josephy, Yale University Press, 1965.

This war could have crossed the line to the Okanagan people, close relatives of the American Indians involved, but it did not.
Both Tsilaxitsa and his cousin, Selixt-asposem, played a major role in preventing this war from crossing the line into the British Columbia interior.
Selixt-asposem was the son of the Okanagan chief Nicola, who had always worked with the Hudson's Bay men.
Before Nicola died, he told his son and his nephew, Tsilaxitsa, to follow the same friendly line of conduct with the whites as he had.
Anderson's journal notes that Selixt-asposem's other name was Five Hearts -- that might have been the translation for his Native name -- but that he was known amongst the settlers as Moise.

But when the commissioners reached Selixst-asposem's camp at the north end of Lake Okanagan in early September 1877, he was "absent; and there is a difficulty among the Indians as to who shall act in his absence."
Anderson wrote: "It is especially important, however, that at this point, the head quarters of the Okinagan tribes, a patient and satisfactory decision should be arrived at, as well to do justice to the local occupants, as to obviate the probability of similar delay elsewhere."
On September 8 Anderson wrote, "We have had several conferences with the Okinagans, and have ridden over their Reserve, which we find entirely too limited. Discord among the leading men has delayed a settlement, but we trust on Monday to have another meeting when more active progress will be made. Our action here requires great caution, as upon our successful treatment of the matter now before us, much of our after success will depend, and it is needless here to repeat the combination of causes through which the dissatisfaction of the Indians has arisen and recently been intensified."
The Natives in the interior were anxious for the Commissioners' visit and furious that it had not come earlier; their more recent anxiety was, of course, caused by the Native wars across the border, now two months old.
Ever since the commissioners arrived at Kamloops in July, Native couriers on horseback carried messages from chief to chief -- the Natives knew exactly what was going on, both with the commissioners' settlement of reserves in Kamloops area, and Chief Joseph's battles south of the border.
"However we may depreciate the unwanted delay, and fret under our tedious detention, we have no alternative but to deal patiently and discretely with the difficult problem before us," Anderson wrote.
On the Wed., 12th September, Anderson wrote: "Moise, the head chief, who arrived the night before, came the evening of Tuesday to pay his respects to us.
"He informs us that he had thought it prudent to leave home some time ago, and station himself outside the boundary-line among his relations there, his avowed object having been to check any disposition on the part of the Okinagans of British Columbia to join the insurgents on the Columbia River, in accordance with invitations which had been convertly sent by insurgent Chiefs."
Almost certainly Selixt-asposem had ridden south to join Chief Joseph's warriors, but no one said so.

It was a few days after that that Selixt-asposem and his cousin, Tsilaxitsa, sat down with the Commissioners to talk about Chief Nicola and show them the two medals (see posting re: Tsilaxitsa, earlier).
Tsilaxitsa told the Commissioners that: "While you white chiefs have your paper writing to speak from afar, we, too, have our writing, but it is the tongue that writes, and our intelligence travels fast...
"We will now tell you, Selixt-asposem and I, that it was well for peace that your coming among us was not deferred; for though our words with the young men have weight, they are words only, and however well directed, have not always power to restrain.
"..It was a question of peace or tumult," the chiefs said.

Remember that the Native chiefs' words are filtered through one or two interpreters (the Natives might have had their own interpreter, but the commissioners definitely had one), then written down later in the day by Anderson.
These are not the Natives' exact words, but Anderson's recollection of their words as he heard them from an interpreter.
Anderson was, in spite of his experience, a romantic -- he was drawn into the fur trade by the romantic stories of James Fennimore Cooper.

The result of the Commissioners' work at Selixt-asposem's village was peace, not tumult.
"We have settled satisfactily with the important tribe at the Head of the Lake, having assigned to them a very liberal tract adequate for all their requirements, and including a wide stretch of excellent pasture, for summer grazing, and also the share in pasture of an extensive tract lying between Long Lake and the large lake, where the snow does not lie in winter, and which is to be reserved for winter pasture only."
The removed a settler from his illegally occupied land; it should not have been sold to him as it was clearly a Native village.
Sproat proceeded down the east side of the lake, while Anderson and McKinlay set up camp at Point aux Pacquets, twelve miles down the west side of the lake.
"Selixt-asposem, the chief, accompanied us to our encampment and passed the night there, in the Interpreter's tent.
"On our way down, he invited the Provincial Commissioner and myself into his house at the River Isquasis, as he wished to speak with us privately.
"We acceeded to his request, of course, and through our Interpreter, Gregoire, he went on to speak of the general condition of affairs, both before and since our arrival and at the present time.
"He said that he wished to give us, thus privately, his assurance (already publicly given) that the minds of the people were now tranquil and satisfied.
"That there had existed a very bad feeling in the early part of the summer, which a mere trifle would have sufficed to bring to a climax.
"That the reports from the American side, and the messages they had received from their connexions there, had excited the young men very much.
"This feeling the expectation of the coming of the Commissioners had restrained; and that our patient and kindly treatment of their land claims since had removed whatever bad feeling had previously existed.
"That he and Tsilaxitsa had throughout done their best, and had now sent down messages in advance of us, to prepare the Indians near the line for our coming, and to explain their own satisfaction at our proceedings.
"He said that they had done this because, only two days ago, a messenger from the American side had come expressly with instigations to join them, from the Chiefs on the Columbia River (a branch of the Okinagans), who, on the recently assigned American Reserve, are still dissatisfied and meditate evil.
"He said that the messenger has been sent back at once with the reply that the Indians of this part would have nothing to do in the matter."

Anderson's 97-page journal is found under the name: Finished Journal as Indian Reserve Commissioner, 1877, Canada, Dept. of Indian Affairs, Black Series, RG10, Volume 3659, File 9500, Library and Archives Canada.

Coquihalla Brigade Trail

For those of you who want to hike the Coquihalla brigade trail this summer, it is now open.
You can get more information by googling "Hope Mountain Centre for Outdoor Learning," at http://www.hopemountain.org/.

Go to Trails; click on "HBC Brigade Trail Restoration," and you will see photos of the restored brigade trail there.

One of the group of people that cleared the eastern part of the trail was the Backcountry Horsemen, and that probably means that you can find someone who can take you on horseback over that section of the trail.
(If any Tulameen horsemen read this posting, you can comment to give readers a list of guest ranches who give guided rides over the trail.)
I will eventually hike the trail, and I think I would start from the east end and ride much of the trail on horseback.
As you saw a few postings ago, the west end is occasionally quite steep and more dangerous for the horses.
But for hikers, the Peers Creek end is easily accessible from the Coquihalla Highway, and is only a few miles from Hope, B.C.

The photograph above was taken at Fort Langley and shows the types of tools -- the axes and hoes -- that Natives and fur trade employees used to build the original trails.
I'm sure the men who cleared the modern trail used power saws to buck and fall the larger trees on the trailbed.
As we venture over the modern-day trails we will have to pause to admire and respect the Sto:lo Natives and Metis employees for the hard labour of creating the old brigade trails.

Fort Langley brigade days

Fort Langley is having its brigade days this next weekend; I am planning to be there on Saturday. It's great fun; you will learn a lot about fur trade guns from the Victoria Voltigeurs, and if you are there on Monday you will see the brigade come in. Even if you do not spend your whole day in the fort, Fort Langley is an interesting town to visit, with excellent bookstores, antique shopping, and all sorts of entertainment. See you there!

I am, at last, picking up the outgoing 1840 brigade as it leaves the Thompson River post on the east bank of the North Thompson River, and follows its old trail along the south bank of the South Thompson River toward the place where Monte Creek flows in from the south.

According to James R. Gibson, author of the book, The Lifeline of the Oregon Territory; the Fraser-Columbia Brigade System, 1811-47 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), this was the trail that the fur traders used until 1843.

It took only a few days to make this short trip through Monte Lake to Okanagan Lake.

Normally it took eight or so days for the brigades to make the journey south all the way to the Okanogan post, at the junction of the Okanogan River with the Columbia.

From the map above, you can see that the brigaders crossed the South Thompson River and rode east along its banks to Monte Creek.

The brigaders then waded across Monte Creek and rode along its east bank up the hills toward Monte Lake.

The photograph to the left shows the grassy, open pine woods they rode through.

In mid-summer this was hot and dry country, and even in late spring it would have been warm and sunny most of the times they made this journey south.

The fur traders followed the east bank of Monte Creek all the way to the lake at its head -- today's Monte Lake.


In the photograph to the left and below, we are looking back from the shores of Monte Lake, at the place where the fur traders rode in from the Thompson's River post.

We are looking north, from the east side of the lake where the actual brigade trail ran.

In the photograph below, we are looking south along the shores of Monte Lake, in the direction that the fur traders travelled to reach Okanagan Lake.

Little has changed here. Our view today is the same view the fur traders enjoyed.

The brigaders must have made their first camp on the shores of this lake -- on Anderson's map this was called "Campement du Poulin."
My French dictionary does not tell me what the word 'poulin' means, but it could have referred to grouse or other chicken-like birds found here.

To the left and below is the part of the country that Anderson and other furtraders called "the Grande Prairie." He wrote of this place in later years, saying:

"...I may mention that there are in various portions of British Columbia large tracts of pasture land where the snow never accumulates. These tracts are generally broad valleys lying between high ridges of hills. There is one in particular, near the dividing watershed of the Columbia and the Thompson. It is called the Grande Prairie, and contains several thousands of acres of the most luxuriant pasture. The existence of these open tracts facilitates greatly the raising of large herds in their vicinity; so that in the event of unlooked for severity of the season they can at once be driven to abundant and unembarrassed pasture. I have in vain endeavored to account satisfactorily for this anomaly, and may possibly advert to the fact again before I conclude."

This quote comes from Anderson draft unpublished manuscript, "British Columbia," pp. 25-26, BCA.

Today's "Grande Prairie" surrounds the British Columbia town called Falkland.

A hundred and fifty years ago Anderson and other fur traders called the river that flowed through this valley the Salmon River.

It is known by the same name today -- it is probably the Native name for the river.

Below are two more photos -- one of the flatlands north of Lake Okanagan, and one looking down the length of the lake from the west shore, where the old brigade trail ran.

These are views that every fur trader who rode up and down this trail enjoyed.

In this photo we are probably a little east of the place where the fur traders' trail led.
This is Swan Lake, a smaller lake to the east of the north end of Lake Okanagan.

The fur traders actually rode into the west side of the north end of Lake Okanagan and never saw this country.

But we are looking east, and the hills on the other side of the lake are similar or the same as the hills that the brigaders would have seen.
Below is the view of the fifty mile long Lake Okanagan from its north end, close to the place where the fur traders would have ridden in.

A comment on Blackeye's Trail

A gentleman named Brock has commented on my brigade trail post, telling me that he hiked over the trail I called Blackeye's Trail in 1981 and found it completely overgrown.
It took his party a week of tough slogging over trails that were wet in places, and sometimes very steep.
But he also said that a hiker and writer named Murphy Shewchuk had left blazes on enough trees that they could find the trail.
Murphy Shewchuk is a writer of hiking books; I own at least one of his older books (which I cannot at the moment find) and have borrowed others from the library.
The Shewchuk book that covers the Coquihalla brigade trail is called "Coquihalla Country; A guide to the North Cascade Mountains and the Nicola Valley," (2nd edition, Merritt, B.C.: Sonotek Publishing Ltd., date?).
You can purchase his publications online at www.books-about-bc.com
They are excellent guides to British Columbia trails old and new, and the publications include information on a number of the brigade trails.

Another book you might find in a second hand book-store is Bob Harris' "The Best of B.C.'s Hiking Trails; Twenty Great Hikes by Bob Harris," (Maclean Hunter, 1986).
It, too, contains information on portions of the brigade trails, but not necessarily up-to-date information.

It is true that when these trails are not regularly used and maintained, they quickly disappear.
In order to make these trails suitable for the hundreds of horses of the New Caledonia and Fort Colvile brigades, the fur traders had to build safe fords, or sometimes actual bridges, over the many mudholes, creeks, and rivers they had to cross.
If the ground was too soft, the passage of as many as 400 horses would turn the trail into a quagmire that later horses could not cross.
Gradient was important, but the fur traders could accept a steep slope if the hillside allowed room for switchbacks.
But that meant that employees at the local forts, and Native employees, took hoes and axes and carved trail up and down the steep hills.
In his journal of his 1847 expedition (A/B/40/An3.1, PABC), Upward Journey, Anderson wrote: "Today, not being decided as to the line to be adopted we merely chipped the road, the Indians undertaking to finish it, under the superintendence of Pahallak. Having had proof of their willingness & capacity in this line, I have no hesitation in confiding the matter to them, more especially as the distance to be cut is short, the chief portion lying over bare hills."
Pahallak was Anderson's Native guide, a Sto:lo chief from Chilliwack area, upriver from Fort Langley on the lower Fraser River.
A few days later Anderson wrote: "Settled with the Indians who had assisted us, paying them with ammunition, tobacco, knives, &c. I have lent 3 axes to the chief of Squa-zoum [the village near Boston Bar, B.C.], 3 axes to Pahallak, and 1 axe & 1 hoe to the old man of the Spuzzum [at the mouth of the Spuzzum River north of Yale, BC] for the purpose of making further improvements, where necessary, in the road, for which they are to be compensated upon our passage in the spring."
In these quotes Anderson is speaking of the the Anderson River trail the brigades travelled in 1848.
But the same applied in 1849, when Donald Manson reported to Governor Simpson that he had hired a strong party of Natives to open the new trail over the Coquihalla.

By 1849, Anderson was in charge of Fort Colvile, on the Columbia River.
Because of the American Indian uprising along the Columbia River, the Fort Colvile brigades brought out their furs by the brigade trail over the Coquihalla mountain to Fort Hope.
When Anderson's brigaders rode out of Fort Colvile in June 1850, no one knew whether the new road over the mountains could be crossed with horses so early in the season.
From the base of the Coquihalla at Campement des Femmes, near modern-day Tulameen, the men and horses of the Fort Colvile brigade began their journey up the narrow river valley to the top of the mountains.
Everyone was prepared for the worst.
Their fears were confirmed when they discovered that snow lay everywhere on the rough mountain plateau.
But the snow crust was hard enough to support the loaded horses, and they crossed with little difficulty.

This description of the part of the Coquihalla trail comes from the book, "A Pioneer Gentlewoman in British Columbia; the Recollections of Susan Allison," Edited by Margaret A. Ormsby (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1976) pp. 9-10.
At the time of Susan's recollections, she is a young woman newly arrived at Hope and not yet married to John Fall Allison, early settler in the Similkameen and Princeton area.

"From the doorway of our shack we could see the Hudson's Bay Company's Post and watch the pack trains come in from Colvile, Keremeos and other places. Sometimes there would be a grand stampede and the pack trains would disrupt. Horses and men could be seen through a misty cloud of dust, madly dashing all over the Hope flat, lassos flying, dogs barking, hens flying for safety anywhere. Suddenly the tempest would subside as fast as it had arisen, the pack boys would emerge from the clouds of dust leading the ring leaders in the stampede. Those Hudson's Bay Company horses, though called 'cayooses,' were most of them splendid animals, hardy and enduring, with lots of good horse sense. Mr. McKay told me that they really were descended from the Spanish Barb brought to America over three hundred years ago by the Spaniards and left to run wild had spread all over the continent. It is possibly quite true. They were quick, hardy, and enduring.

"In the early days we had no roads, only rough trails mostly those used by the Hudson's Bay Company and Indians -- with no attempt at grades. In crossing the Hope Mountains the Hudson's Bay Company Brigade always took twice as many horses as were needed and went well armed. The horses were taken to enable them to negotiate "The Slide" on Mansen's [Manson's] Mountain where they invariably lost half their horses. There was no road, the trail ended at the top of the Slide and the horses were driven over the bank and once started had to go on sliding to the bottom. A few of the horses who had been used before had learned to brace themselves and went without being forced to go, and usually came through with accident. Coming back it was easier on them...." [One paragraph omitted].

"I shall never forget my first sight of a Hudson's Bay Company Brigade train coming in from Colvile. I had gone for a stroll on the Hope-Similkameen trail. There were still a few berries and I was getting a "feed" when I heard bells tinkling and looking up saw a light cloud of dust from which emerged a solitary horseman, the most picturesque figure I had ever seen. He rode a superb chestnut horse, satiny and well groomed, untired and full of life in spite of the dust. He himself wore a beautifully embroidered buckskin shirt with tags and fringes, buckskin pants, embroidered leggings and soft cowboy hat. He was as surprised to see me as I was to see him, for he abruptly reined in his horse and stared down at me, while I equally astonished stared at him. Then, as the Bell Boy and other horses rode up, he lifted his hat and passed on. I never met him again, but was told he was a Hudson's Bay officer in charge of the Colvile train and that he said he was never more surprised in his life than to see a white girl on the trail -- he had lived so long without seeing anyone except Indians."

This was in summer, 1860. In the introduction of the book the editor writes that "Susan Moir [her maiden name] never forgot the sight of Chief Factor Angus McDonald, dressed in buckskin garments and beaded leggings, leading the Colvile brigade in 1860 down the last stretch of the trail..."
Angus McDonald was Anderson's clerk while he was in charge of Fort Colvile, and he took over Anderson's position when Anderson retired in 1852.
I will have plenty to say about McDonald when I get to Fort Colvile; he was a well loved character and Anderson's son, James, had plenty to say about him.

As for the Coquihalla brigade trail, it has been re-discovered many times in the years after the fur traders stopped using it.
I have an unsourced note that tells me the last fur brigades came out over their trail in 1863.
There was no need to use a rough trail that damaged valuable horses when perfectly good wagon roads, such as the Dewdney Trail and the Cariboo Road, took people wherever they wanted to go in safety.

Sometime in the 1980's I discovered that old Forest Service maps showed Blackeye's Trail and the brigade trail.
However, when I purchased my own copy of the Hope Princeton sheet in 1993, I found that the trail had been erased from their maps; probably again overgrown.
If you visit the archives you can view (and even request a copy of) a 1939 B.C. Lands and Forests Topographic Map which shows Blackeye's Trail and the Coquihalla Brigade trail, amongst others of historic value.
This map is identified by the number CM/C724, BC Archives.
In the bottom left hand corner it contains the information about the many trails shown on the map -- Blackeye's Trail; Brigade Trails, including Anderson's River and the Coquihalla Trail; the Whatcom Trail [1858-9]; and the Dewdney or Hope Trail built in 1860 and widened to a wagon road in 1861.
Blackeye's Trail is the route by which Anderson crossed the Coquihalla in 1846 and correctly bears the name of Blackeye's Trail.
When Blackeye told Anderson about his trail, he said that it descended the mountain to arrive at the place where the rhododendrons bloomed (Rhododendron Flats, Manning Park).
But when Blackeye's son showed Henry Newsham Peers over the trail I have sometimes (in error) called Blackeye's Trail -- that is, the trail that became the brigade trail over the Coquihalla -- he showed him a trail that crossed Blackeye's trail and descended the mountains to the Coquihalla River to the west, by a creek later named Peers Creek.
Perhaps this trail should be called Blackeye's son's trail.

There still exist a number of articles written in years past about these brigade trails, by men who actually re-explored the trails and wrote about their adventures.
I will list them below; most issues of Okanagan Historical journals can be found in your local library.

In the 1930's: J.C. Goodfellow, "Fur and Gold in Similkameen," British Columbia Historical Quarterly, April 1938, pp. 67-8.
In the 1940's: E.P. Creech, "Similkameen Trails, 1946-61," British Columbia Historical Quarterly, October 1941, pp. 255-267.
In the 1950's: E.P. Creech, "Brigade Trails of B.C.," The Beaver, March 1953, pp. 10-15.

In the 1970's:
Harley R. Hatfield, "Brigade Trail, Fort Hope to Campement des Femmes," 36th Report of Okanagan Historical Society, 1972, pp. 37-48.
Harley R. Hatfield, "Hope-Tulameen Brigade Trail [introduction to following article]," Thirty-sixth report of Okanagan Historical Society, November 1 1972, pp. 14-15.
Lieutenant H. Spencer Palmer, Royal Engineers, "Report of the Country Between Fort Hope and the Similkameen," Thirty-sixth report of Okanagan Historical Society, 1972, pp. 16-25.
"From the Journal of Arthur Thomas Bushby," Thirty-sixth report of Okanagan Historical Society, 1972, pp. 26-29.
"HBC Trek -- July 31 to August 8, 1971; Victor Wilson's Journal," Thirty-sixth report of Okanagan Historical Society, 1972, pp. 29-37.
Harley R. Hatfield, "Brigade Trail Fort Hope to Campement des Femmes," Thirty-sixth Report of Okanagan Historical Society, 1972.
Harley R. Hatfield, "A Report on the Preservation and Exploration of Fur Brigade Trails, May 1972 to May 1973," and "Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail, Summary of Events on and about the Hudsons Bay Brigade Trail, Fort Hope to Campement des Femmes, for 1972 to date," and "A Report, Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail -- Hope to Tulameen," Thirty-seventh Report of Okanagan Historical Society, Nov. 1, 1973, pp. 13-20.
Harley R. Hatfield, "On the Brigade Trail," The Beaver, Summer 1974, pp. 38-43.
R.C. Harris, "Old Trails and Routes in British Columbia; Blackeye's and 1849 HBC Trail," B.C. Historical News, Vol. 12, #1, November 1978, pp. 15-17.
R.C. Harris, "The HBC 1849 Brigade Trail, Fort Hope to Kamloops -- Collins Gulch Section," B.C. Historical News, Vol. 12, #4, Summer 1979, pp. 22-26.

In the 1980's:
Harley R. Hatfield, "The Proposed Cascade Wilderness," Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1980, pp. 9-18, contains a lot of information about the history of the Coquihalla trail.
R.C. Harris, "The Hope-Nicola Trail, 1875-1913," B.C. Historical News, Vol. 14, #1, Fall 1980, pp. 18-24, contains a little about the early history.
R.C. Harris, "A Good Mule Road to Semilkameen; Later known as the Canyon, or Dewdney, Trail," B.C. Historical News, Vol. 14, #3, Spring 1981.
Harley R. Hatfield, "The Brigade Trail; Nicola Lake to Kamloops," B.C. Historical News, Vol. 16, No. 3, Winter 1983, pp. 13-17.
Harley R. Hatfield, "Blackeye's Trail," Okanagan History; 51st Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1987, pp. 99-104.

Many years ago an article about Harley R. Hatfield appeared in our local newspaper, The Daily Colonist, Sunday May 23, 1976.
It was titled "A Pathfinder," and written by Eric Sismey.
It begins with, "About 10 years ago he [Hatfield] began, after enlisting one or two history-minded friends, to trace century old Hudson's Bay Fur Brigade trails; one from Hope to Tulameen, the other through the Okanagan Valley...
"The first 60-mile eight-day hike from Tulameen to Hope was made in 1971 by a troop of Venture Scouts under the leadership of Mr. Hatfield and his trail blazer friend Eric Jacobson of Princeton."
The article went on to tell how Mr. Hatfield was attempting to to press the Provincial Government into extending certain boundaries of Manning Park to include sections of the old trail, preventing logging on the trail.
He was unsuccessful but, in spite of that, Harley Hatfield "made an indelible mark that can never be erased from the history of British Columbia."
Without Hatfield's many articles in various historical journals, I could never have written about the brigade trails with any expertise at all.
Thank you, Mr. Hatfield, and all the other men who tramped these trails with you.

Corrections to Anderson-Seton family tree

Today I am making some corrections to the Anderson Seton family tree page which appears early in this blog.
If you have copied out this tree and are using this as a source, you should re-read.
The new and corrected information does not vary widely from the original, but it does make that page more accurate.
The Anderson-Seton family history tree was posted on July 15, 2009.