I think that by now you will have noticed that I have touched on the North West Company's explorer, David Thompson, a number of times in the last few weeks.
David Thompson is my lead into my next section, when I will speak of our search for our ancestor, who was said to be a voyageur in the North West Company.
This is a different kind of genealogy than you will have done in the past, and I hope that a few of you can discover more about your family after reading these next sections of my blog.
I guess that I am going to dip into genealogy for a while, in spite of stubbornly calling myself a "family historian."
David Thompson first joined the Hudson's Bay Company but, in 1797 quit the company and walked 75 miles to a North West Company post to join them.
In 1804 he was promoted to partner and given the task of establishing new trading posts in the territory occupied by the Kootenais [I am using David Thompson's spelling].
Two voyageurs, La Blanc & La Gasse, had already spent the winter of 1800-1801 amongst the Kootenais people on the west side of the mountains, and returned in the spring with stories of the wealth of furs.
David Thompson failed in his first attempt to cross the mountains that summer, and the project was dropped.
In 1806, opening up the fur trade on the west side of the mountains again became important to the North West Company.
Thompson was appointed to lead an expedition across the mountains, and in preparation for making the journey the following summer, arrived at Rocky Mountain House (near modern-day Rocky Mountain House, Alberta) in October 1806.
In 1807 he made his first crossing of the mountains, and set up his first post on a river he would later come to understand was the northern flowing part of the Columbia River.
The NWC men who accompanied him on this historic journey were: Clerk Finan McDonald, and voyageurs: Beaulieu, Bercier [guide], Boisverd, Boulard and family, Buche, Clement, Le Camble, and Lussier and family.
Note the women -- David Thompson also brought his wife and children across the mountains on his first journey.
Thompson and his men built their first house -- Kootanae House -- on the Columbia River where it flows northward toward Big Bend, or Boat Encampment.
The party spent its first winter at Kootenae House.
More men joined his party in the spring of 1808, and Mousseau was one of the men who explored the new territory with Thompson.
They reached the area around Bonner's Ferry, in modern day Idaho, and Thompson left Beaulieu, "One of my faithful men," behind with trade goods while he took the furs they had collected out over the mountains.
Jaco Finlay, sometimes a member of the party, spent the winter working on the east side of the mountains, in the Bow River Country.
Thompson returned to spend the winter of 1808-1809 at Kootenae House, and brought with him clerk James McMillan and three new voyageurs: Methode, Crepeau, and [Charles?] La Gasse.
In spring 1809 he took out the furs, and then returned to the territory to explore to the south.
He and his men established the post Kullyspel House on Pend-Oreille Lake in late summer, and in October 1809, were in the area where they planned to establish their third trading house.
James McMillan was there, as was Beaulieu, Boulard, Jaco Finlay, and a few other men, including Boisverd and La Gasse.
Their new house was called Saleesh House, built in November 1809, in the vicinity of modern day Thompson Falls, Montana.
In March 1810, Thompson returned to Kullyspell House, and later crossed the mountains to take out the furs.
He returned to the territory by Athabasca Pass in winter of 1810-1811, as mentioned in the last post.
By this time the men who had been left behind in the territory had built Spokane House, on the banks of the Spokane River a few miles from the now southern-flowing Columbia River.
In May 1811, Thompson arrived at Saleesh House and found it empty, but learned from passing Natives and freemen that Finlay had built the new house.
The NWC had determined that it was now time for Thompson to descend the Columbia River to its mouth.
By June 1811 he was at Ilth koy ape or Kettle Falls, on the Columbia.
In July he started his journey downriver.
On July 15 he arrived at the mouth of the Columbia, where John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company had established their headquarters.
In mid-September he had travelled all the way up the Columbia River to what we now call Boat Encampment.
David Thompson crossed Athabasca Pass and left the territory forever.
But he left behind him quite a few of his men, who were now probably "free-traders" -- men who worked for themselves but traded to the company.
As you can see, while I am interested in David Thompson, I am far more interested in the men who accompanied him.
To find out who David Thompson's men are is not a difficult task -- you just have to know where to look.
There are not many North West Company records remaining in the Hudson's Bay Archives, but there are some.
The "Northwest Company Ledgers, 1811-1821," are found on Reels 5M7 and 5M8 in the Hudson's Bay Company Archives.
From this ledger we can determine a few of the records of Thompson's men.
Here we go!
Pierre Bercier
1812 -- Very hard to read but it says "Colum. Bk" and "by Columbia outfit ... for ... Thompson."
1811-1813.
Augustin Boisverd
1811, 1812, 1813, and reads like "Colum. Outfit" -- this is all very hard to read.
Joseph Cotte -- with Thompson in 1881
1812 -- To sundries per Columbia, 1811
1812-1817
Baptiste D'Eau -- with Thompson in 1811, a deserter.
1811 -- appears in the Fort des Prairie records all the way through to 1821; he obviously continued to work in the fur trade.
(Jaco) Jacques Raphael Finlay
1811 -- To balance due since 1809, posted By salary for 1811, 1200
1812 -- To balance By salary this year, 1200; by two canoes for Mr. Thompson, note 200; By F. Macdonald 100 R. Bruguire 60160.
Baptiste Le Tendre (with Thompson in 1811, a deserter.
Jean Bte LeTender, fils -- 1811-1821 appears in the Fort des Prairies book; he too continued to work in the fur trade at Fort des Prairies.
"Lussier" (with Thompson in 1807)
Francois Lussier, 1811-1820 in the Fort des Prairies book, and in a different spot, Lucier.
Francois Lucier, 1818-1821 at Fort des Prairies.
Finan McDonald (Thompson's clerk)
(illegible) Kenneth Mackenzies draft in favour of his father, 1811
1812 To sundries at Columbia (illegible), 1810-1811
1814 To sundried at [Potlid?]
to Columbia outfit, 1813
James McMillan (with Thompson in 1810)
1812, to sundries at Columbia; and 1812 Columbia outfit.
David Thompson
1812 To sundries per Petled [is this Potlid, and what does this word refer to?]
1812 To Sundries per F. Wm. Bk
1814 To Sundries per PotLid
1813 To Sundries Ak Bk [Athabasca Book?] Dld his boy
Rene Vallade
1812 for Columbia Book, 1810-1812
Columbia outfit 1813-1817
Antoine Valle
1812, Columbia outfit, in 1817 F. des Prairies outfit
Augustin Valle
1812-1818, Fort des Prairies outfit.
These are old notes -- as you can see I found quite a few of David Thompson's men in these records, and some that might not have been Thompson's men.
Beaulieu is a bit of a challenge, as there are two in this list, one with an appropriate date and one without.
In folio 95 I found a full page listing of "Bad and Doubtful debts," with a Beaulieu listed amongst the men:
1811, Joseph Beaulieu, 1252.5 (Doubtful)
This sounds as if Beaulieu did not sign another contract and the bookkeepers for the NWC did not know where he was.
For reasons I will explain below, this is the more likely David Thompson man.
The other Beaulieu is below:
Beaulieu, Joseph
1818, to sundries Montreal Book
1819, to sundries F des P eqt book
1820, to sundries Ft... Book
To sundries R.R. Book
David Thompson's Beaulieu was a free trader by about 1811 -- this second man might be David Thompson's man who rejoined the company but it is more likely someone who joined at Montreal, as you can see by the records.
I have only looked up David Thompson's men in these records, but those of you who have ancestors who worked for the North West Company in 1811 and afterward can request these two reels (you need both of them) to find out a little bit about your ancestors.
You will have to read every page, these records are not necessarly in order and some pages list dozens of men who the company can no longer locate.
You do not request these reels from the Hudson's Bay Company -- you either go to your University (if you are a student) or to the main branch of your local library, and request the reel through them.
Possibly your local archives will handle Hudson's Bay company reels.
Our British Columbia archives no longer does this service; and with the Greater Victoria Public Library you can request the reels online.
However, you have to go to the Hudson's Bay Company website and find the number of the reel to order.
To find North West Company reels, go to:
"Hudson's Bay Company Archives," not Manitoba Archives [although you can get to HBCA from Manitoba Archives website];
"Search" on left side of page;
"HBCA Online finding Aid" in middle of page;
Search "Section F -- Records of Related or Subsidiary Companies" in middle of page;
"North West Company (F.1-7) in middle of page;
You should now have the entire listing of what the HBCA owns, and you will want to look first at the Account Books and, maybe, the Servants' Contracts.
The most valuable lists of men is in the reels I already mentioned, 5M7 and 5M8, but you might also find records on the other reels.
You need to know that not everyone is listed in these records -- for example, I did not find my great-great grandfather James Birnie; yet I know he worked in the Company possibly as early as 1816, and he was west of the mountains in 1818.
Good luck in your search.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
David Thompson and the Sasquatch
You now know that fur trader and explorer Alexander Caulfield Anderson was the first white man to see a Sasquatch.
But amongst Sasquatch historians, North West Company explorer and geographer David Thompson is recognized as the first white man to have spotted the footprint of a Sasquatch.
This is how the story happened:
Thompson first entered the territory west of the Rocky Mountains in 1807, by the Blaeberry River.
He and his men set up a number of fur trade forts over the years: Kootenais House, on the headwaters of the Columbia River, in British Columbia, in 1807; Kullyspell House on Pend Oreille Lake, Idaho, in 1809, and Saleesh House in modern-day Montana later the same winter.
In spring 1810 Thompson left the district (not for the first time) and took his furs to Rainy Lake, just north of Fort William on Lake Superior.
He then returned to the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, planning to carry his trade goods into the district on the west side of the mountain range.
But Thompson and his men were being watched by the Piegans, who wanted to block his passage into the district occupied by their enemies, the Kootenays.
The fur trader felt so threatened he decided to avoid the southernmost pass and to cross the Rocky Mountains by Athabasca Pass -- a trail he had only heard of but never seen.
He and his men made the long journey northward to the Athabasca River, and climbed the sloping hills to the pass.
It was the end of December, 1810 -- mid-winter.
On December 30 the party set off on foot and horseback to cross the mountains.
Their guide pointed out the route down the west side of the mountains, and left them to find their own way down to the banks of the Columbia River.
Years later, Thompson wrote of the footprints he and his men saw as they descended the snowy west side of the mountains.
In his book Mapmakers' Eye, Jack Nisbet writes "the surveyor had cut a line of unusually large animal tracks that his hunters insisted had been made by a 'mammoth.'
"In his journal, Thompson had carefully recorded the measurements and dismissed them as the marks of a large grizzly bear, but in the Travels he included his hunters' description of a dry lake bed where the behemoths feasted on sphagnum moss.
"He used the opportunity to reference recent Siberian discoveries of mammoth bones, and recounted a tribal story about a monster very like a mammoth that is similar to a Delaware Indian legend found in Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia.
"Finally after restating his belief that the tracks must belong to a large old grizzly bear and not one of Mr. Jefferson's living mammoths, he wondered what unsolved wonders were yet to be uncovered in the vast reaches of the Rocky Mountains."
Source for the above quotes are from: Jack Nisbet, The Mapmaker's Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau (WSU Press, 2005).
And the Travels mentioned in above quote is The Writings of David Thompson, the Travels -- edited with an Introduction by William E. Moreau, publishers, McGill-Queens University Press and The Champlain Society, in association with the Centre for Rupert's Land Studies at the University of Winnipeg.
Only one volume has been published thus far, with two more volumes of Thompson's writing to come.
David Thompson's travels have been published in various forms in the past, and sometime a few years ago someone who read them realized that the footprints might have belonged to a Sasquatch.
And the story began, and remains, and is recirculated every few years when Sasquatch historians get together.
But did you know that mammoths are real and that they lived in the Rocky Mountains as recently as the early 1800's?
I find that far more interesting than the Sasquatch story.
In his book, Sources of the River, Jack Nisbet writes more about David Thompson and the mammoth:
"The Old Chief told David Thompson a story about a creature who lived up in these woods, an animal that stood eighteen feet tall and could never lie down, but had to lean against trees to catch a nap.
"The Kootenais thought this was because it had no joints in the middle of its legs, but they couldn't say for sure since they had never been able to kill one and examine it."
Even though the two men worked in different fur trades and never knew each other, there were a number of connections between David Thompson and Alexander Caulfield Anderson.
When young spprentice clerk Anderson entered the fur trade at Lachine in 1831, he met then-retired David Thompson at one of the fur trade parties, and described him as decrepit.
That's one of the connections -- a second connection is, of course, the Sasquatch.
There are more connections, but the most interesting thread that ties the two men together is, perhaps, the mammoth.
Next week I will tell you the story of Alexander Caulfield Anderson and the Mammoth!
But amongst Sasquatch historians, North West Company explorer and geographer David Thompson is recognized as the first white man to have spotted the footprint of a Sasquatch.
This is how the story happened:
Thompson first entered the territory west of the Rocky Mountains in 1807, by the Blaeberry River.
He and his men set up a number of fur trade forts over the years: Kootenais House, on the headwaters of the Columbia River, in British Columbia, in 1807; Kullyspell House on Pend Oreille Lake, Idaho, in 1809, and Saleesh House in modern-day Montana later the same winter.
In spring 1810 Thompson left the district (not for the first time) and took his furs to Rainy Lake, just north of Fort William on Lake Superior.
He then returned to the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, planning to carry his trade goods into the district on the west side of the mountain range.
But Thompson and his men were being watched by the Piegans, who wanted to block his passage into the district occupied by their enemies, the Kootenays.
The fur trader felt so threatened he decided to avoid the southernmost pass and to cross the Rocky Mountains by Athabasca Pass -- a trail he had only heard of but never seen.
He and his men made the long journey northward to the Athabasca River, and climbed the sloping hills to the pass.
It was the end of December, 1810 -- mid-winter.
On December 30 the party set off on foot and horseback to cross the mountains.
Their guide pointed out the route down the west side of the mountains, and left them to find their own way down to the banks of the Columbia River.
Years later, Thompson wrote of the footprints he and his men saw as they descended the snowy west side of the mountains.
In his book Mapmakers' Eye, Jack Nisbet writes "the surveyor had cut a line of unusually large animal tracks that his hunters insisted had been made by a 'mammoth.'
"In his journal, Thompson had carefully recorded the measurements and dismissed them as the marks of a large grizzly bear, but in the Travels he included his hunters' description of a dry lake bed where the behemoths feasted on sphagnum moss.
"He used the opportunity to reference recent Siberian discoveries of mammoth bones, and recounted a tribal story about a monster very like a mammoth that is similar to a Delaware Indian legend found in Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia.
"Finally after restating his belief that the tracks must belong to a large old grizzly bear and not one of Mr. Jefferson's living mammoths, he wondered what unsolved wonders were yet to be uncovered in the vast reaches of the Rocky Mountains."
Source for the above quotes are from: Jack Nisbet, The Mapmaker's Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau (WSU Press, 2005).
And the Travels mentioned in above quote is The Writings of David Thompson, the Travels -- edited with an Introduction by William E. Moreau, publishers, McGill-Queens University Press and The Champlain Society, in association with the Centre for Rupert's Land Studies at the University of Winnipeg.
Only one volume has been published thus far, with two more volumes of Thompson's writing to come.
David Thompson's travels have been published in various forms in the past, and sometime a few years ago someone who read them realized that the footprints might have belonged to a Sasquatch.
And the story began, and remains, and is recirculated every few years when Sasquatch historians get together.
But did you know that mammoths are real and that they lived in the Rocky Mountains as recently as the early 1800's?
I find that far more interesting than the Sasquatch story.
In his book, Sources of the River, Jack Nisbet writes more about David Thompson and the mammoth:
"The Old Chief told David Thompson a story about a creature who lived up in these woods, an animal that stood eighteen feet tall and could never lie down, but had to lean against trees to catch a nap.
"The Kootenais thought this was because it had no joints in the middle of its legs, but they couldn't say for sure since they had never been able to kill one and examine it."
Even though the two men worked in different fur trades and never knew each other, there were a number of connections between David Thompson and Alexander Caulfield Anderson.
When young spprentice clerk Anderson entered the fur trade at Lachine in 1831, he met then-retired David Thompson at one of the fur trade parties, and described him as decrepit.
That's one of the connections -- a second connection is, of course, the Sasquatch.
There are more connections, but the most interesting thread that ties the two men together is, perhaps, the mammoth.
Next week I will tell you the story of Alexander Caulfield Anderson and the Mammoth!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
I call myself a family historian ....
... and, in truth, I am less interested in the genealogy than in the stories of the people -- some who are members of my large Anderson-Seton family, and some who are not.
In spite of that, my blog is being picked up by a number of genealogists.
Most recently the blog has been mentioned in a genealogical/archival research blog which you will find at blog.familyhistorysearches.com
The mention is on date January 21, 2011.
I do not know if the author wants to keep his/her name private so I will not mention the name of the person who wrote the note to me -- the blog is listed under Blair Archival Research with no profile information given.
The blog's author has listed ten genealogical blogs and other resources, with Fur Trade Family History at number 4.
I am honored by the mention and thank the owner of the blog.
But I noted with interest that one of these sites was a New Zealand genealogical blog, and as we know, many of Alexander Caulfield Anderson's descendents live in New Zealand.
Those of you who are genealogists might want to check out Blair Archival Research's list of blogs on blog.familyhistorysearches.com to see if you can find anything of interest to you.
One of the things I like most about this blog is that my readers (not all of whom are listed) are so willing to share their family stories with me.
Some of the people I have talked to are descended from fur traders or Natives who will be major characters in my next book.
Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories.
In spite of that, my blog is being picked up by a number of genealogists.
Most recently the blog has been mentioned in a genealogical/archival research blog which you will find at blog.familyhistorysearches.com
The mention is on date January 21, 2011.
I do not know if the author wants to keep his/her name private so I will not mention the name of the person who wrote the note to me -- the blog is listed under Blair Archival Research with no profile information given.
The blog's author has listed ten genealogical blogs and other resources, with Fur Trade Family History at number 4.
I am honored by the mention and thank the owner of the blog.
But I noted with interest that one of these sites was a New Zealand genealogical blog, and as we know, many of Alexander Caulfield Anderson's descendents live in New Zealand.
Those of you who are genealogists might want to check out Blair Archival Research's list of blogs on blog.familyhistorysearches.com to see if you can find anything of interest to you.
One of the things I like most about this blog is that my readers (not all of whom are listed) are so willing to share their family stories with me.
Some of the people I have talked to are descended from fur traders or Natives who will be major characters in my next book.
Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
A short break for illustrations
Out of necessity, I am taking a short break from this blog.
Firstly, the postings I have promised to make will require me to dip into information that I researched five or more years ago.
I have forgotten much of what I learned and it will take time to put it all together again.
But more important than that .... I must create the illustrations that are to be placed in the finished book, and that takes time I do not have readily available.
Most photographs are already submitted to the publisher, but the last few illustrations will take more time.
At the same time I am drawing the last few important maps, I am applying for permissions to various archives, for use of photographs in their collections.
Fortunately for me, most of the illustrations and maps came from the British Columbia archives.
It's an expensive business -- it cost me some $2000 to order copies of all of Anderson's important maps.
It will cost me a further $2,000 to use all the illustrations and portions of the maps I am applying for.
But these maps and photographs are important, and will make for a great book.
This is a very personal project for me -- it is a memorial to a great man history has ignored.
I have an interesting story attached to one of the most innocent appearing illustrations -- that of Anderson's Latin Bible preserved in the Royal British Columbia Museum collection.
Anderson purchased the Bible at Fort Vancouver in 1840, as he passed through on the way to Cowlitz Farm and Fort Nisqually.
When I took my photographs, the Bible fell open at a page that held a collection of dried leaves, and I photographed that page.
Because that page said something about Anderson's interest in natural history, I chose that photograph to place in the book.
It wasn't important to me to identify the leaves, but I sent the photo off to a friend who has an interest in natural history.
He suggest "elm," and sent the photo to another friend, who forwarded it to someone else, who identified the leaves as "maybe a rhododendron."
The identification of this plant meant nothing to the naturalists who suggested rhododendron, but it meant a great deal to me.
As you know from an earlier posting on this blog, in 1846 Anderson walked through the grove of California rhododendrons that still grow at Rhododendron Flats, Manning Park.
He must have carried his Latin Bible with him on that exploration, and slipped a few California rhododendron leaves betweeen the pages of the book.
What an interesting caption that will make!
But we haven't really identified these leaves yet.
The Royal British Columbia Museum botanist will look at the dried leaves when he returns from his Christmas break.
He may even do a DNA test to establish the true identify of these plants.
We have to wait for his answer before I can write the caption.
But doesn't that say something very interesting about the character of Alexander Caulfield Anderson?
Firstly, the postings I have promised to make will require me to dip into information that I researched five or more years ago.
I have forgotten much of what I learned and it will take time to put it all together again.
But more important than that .... I must create the illustrations that are to be placed in the finished book, and that takes time I do not have readily available.
Most photographs are already submitted to the publisher, but the last few illustrations will take more time.
At the same time I am drawing the last few important maps, I am applying for permissions to various archives, for use of photographs in their collections.
Fortunately for me, most of the illustrations and maps came from the British Columbia archives.
It's an expensive business -- it cost me some $2000 to order copies of all of Anderson's important maps.
It will cost me a further $2,000 to use all the illustrations and portions of the maps I am applying for.
But these maps and photographs are important, and will make for a great book.
This is a very personal project for me -- it is a memorial to a great man history has ignored.
I have an interesting story attached to one of the most innocent appearing illustrations -- that of Anderson's Latin Bible preserved in the Royal British Columbia Museum collection.
Anderson purchased the Bible at Fort Vancouver in 1840, as he passed through on the way to Cowlitz Farm and Fort Nisqually.
When I took my photographs, the Bible fell open at a page that held a collection of dried leaves, and I photographed that page.
Because that page said something about Anderson's interest in natural history, I chose that photograph to place in the book.
It wasn't important to me to identify the leaves, but I sent the photo off to a friend who has an interest in natural history.
He suggest "elm," and sent the photo to another friend, who forwarded it to someone else, who identified the leaves as "maybe a rhododendron."
The identification of this plant meant nothing to the naturalists who suggested rhododendron, but it meant a great deal to me.
As you know from an earlier posting on this blog, in 1846 Anderson walked through the grove of California rhododendrons that still grow at Rhododendron Flats, Manning Park.
He must have carried his Latin Bible with him on that exploration, and slipped a few California rhododendron leaves betweeen the pages of the book.
What an interesting caption that will make!
But we haven't really identified these leaves yet.
The Royal British Columbia Museum botanist will look at the dried leaves when he returns from his Christmas break.
He may even do a DNA test to establish the true identify of these plants.
We have to wait for his answer before I can write the caption.
But doesn't that say something very interesting about the character of Alexander Caulfield Anderson?
Sunday, January 9, 2011
If you are on Twitter, I am, too.
I don't know yet how it works, but I have signed up to receive a bunch of writing tweets so I can learn how to use it.
My twitter address is furtradefamily -- should be easy for you to remember.
I described myself as a sleep deprived writer telling the story of Alexander Caulfield Anderson's journey through British Columbia's history -- true enough!
We'll see how it works -- hope to see you there.
I don't know yet how it works, but I have signed up to receive a bunch of writing tweets so I can learn how to use it.
My twitter address is furtradefamily -- should be easy for you to remember.
I described myself as a sleep deprived writer telling the story of Alexander Caulfield Anderson's journey through British Columbia's history -- true enough!
We'll see how it works -- hope to see you there.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Sasquatch Story
J.W. Burns, a schoolteacher who lived on the Chehalis Reserve near Harrison Hot Springs, was the first man to write stories about the Sasquatch.
As early as 1927 a major magazine published one of Burns' stories, and the Sasquatch became a household word in British Columbia.
These ape-like humanoids are reported to stand between six and eleven feet tall and vary in weight from 700 pounds to over a ton.
They walk erect, have monkey-like features, and are covered in dark, rich auburn or black hair.
Their easily located footprints -- spotted much more often than the creatures themselves -- are fourteen to eighteen inches long and seven inches in width.
[Source of description: David G. Gordon, Field Guide to the Sasquatch (Seattle, Sasquatch Books, 1992)
Although Sasquatch are reported all over the North American continent, most have been found in the Coast Ranges of British Columbia, in exactly the area that Alexander Anderson and his party passed through in the early summer of 1846.
In fact, if you have done any research on the subject of Sasquatch, you know that Alexander Caulfield Anderson is often listed as the first white man to have ever seen one.
Most writers report that Anderson heard the story of the Sasquatch at the Footstone, north of the Lillooet River.
But some reserachers say that Anderson and his men were stoned by a family of Sasquatch entrenched behind rocks on a mountainside as the men wound their way through the narrow Fraser Canyon.
Some Sasquatch historians even mention Anderson's letters to the Board of Management as references -- but no one has found his report in the Hudson's Bay Company archives.
Nor is there any mention of such a creature in Anderson's other writings, though he described every animal from the hummingbird to the mountain caribou.
Nor did Anderson mention this human-like creature in his descriptions of the Natives of the territory.
It is fairly easy to discover the beginning of the Sasquatch story and Anderson's connection to it.
The story involves many interesting and well-known persons, including newspapermen Bruce "Pinky" McKelvie, H.H.C. "Torchy" Anderson, and a reporter named John Green.
McKelvie was born in Vancouver in 1889 and joined the Province newspaper in 1912, where he was a police reporter and covered City Hall affairs.
"Torchy" Anderson was Alexander Caulfield Anderson's grandson, born in Calgary in 1894 -- he came to the Province newspaper in 1928 and worked with McKelvie.
John Green was a reporter from Vancouver who worked with Bruce McKelvie and probably with Torchy Anderson.
Torchy Anderson owned a copy of his uncle's memoirs, which contained a copy of Alexander Caulfield Anderson's 1846 journals.
Bruce McKelvie, a Sasquatch research and history writer, would have had little trouble in connecting the "Footstone" story with the Sasquatch -- especially as a Lil'Wat storyteller named Charlie Mack had already made the connection.
And in 1954, Green purchased the Agassiz Harrison Advance, a community newspaper that served the area at the head of the Fraser Valley.
At the time Green took ownership, the editor was running a series of articles on the "Sasquatch Indians."
"Sceptics may scoff at the stories told of the Harrison Sasquatch Indians, people of the mountains, of immense stature, between seven and eight feet tall, ape-like creatures with shaggy hair covering most of their bodies," the editor had written.
"Most of the local Indians and some white people have no doubt at all of the existence of the Sasquatch, in fact according to some Indians the Sasquatch were the only race of people on earth at one time.
He finished the story with, "The true Indians are not likely to invent stories to deceive their white brothers."
Green was reportedly dumbfounded when he read the story, but he soon became an avid collector of Sasquatch lore, according to Daphne Sleigh in The People of the Harrison (Abbotsford: Abbotsford Printing, 1990).
For example, on Friday, April 1, 1955, Green reported a Sasquatch seized a woman from the front lawn of the Harrison Hot Springs Hotel and ran off with her into the bush.
In June 1956, Sasquatch hunter Rene Dahinden arrived in Harrison Hot Springs, eager to prove the existence of this creature.
Dahinden was an immigrant from Switzerland, a farm worker in Alberta who had developed an interest in the Sasquatch.
The newspaper headlines read, "Two Men going into Bush in Search of Sasquatch."
After an unsuccessful search, Dahinden emerged from the bush and left Harrison Lake, supposedly to raise more funds for another expedition.
Although Sasquatch stories continued to appear in the newspaper at regular intervals, no one appeared willing to contribute funds for the search.
Green's July 1, 1957 editorial complained that "Most of our readers will have noticed by this time that the Harrison Sasquatch Expedition (under Rene Dahinden) appears to exist only in the newspapers."
The problem, Green explained, was that no one outside Harrison Hot Springs had contributed money to the fund, and if local business people wanted the publicity that this expedition would bring to their area, they would have to pay for it themselves.
Finally, Harrison Hot Springs Council convinced itself of the marketing potential of the Sasquatch, and contributed $1,000 towards the Expedition's supposed expenses -- money which probably went toward erecting a welcome sign graced by an enormous neon Sasquatch on the outskirts of Harrison Hot Springs.
Just as tourist season kicked off, Green reprinted an old story about a humming Sasquatch that attempted to hypnotize a local woman.
He followed that story up with others, and the stories were more unbelievable every week.
But other newspapers picked up the stories and the tourists flooded into Harrison Lake Hotsprings.
Sasquatch hunters came to Harrison Hot Springs, too.
Naturalist Ivan T. Sanderson arrived at Harrison Hot Springs, and writer Marion Templeton Place reported in her book, On the Track of the Bigfoot (sorry, I guess I didn't note the publisher) that John Green met with Sanderson.
"'Sasquatch,' Green repeated slowly," she wrote.
Place continued this imaginary conversation:
"Sasquatch was the English version of words meaning 'wild man of the woods,' used by several Indian tribes to describe the hairy two-legged creatures long encountered in the mountains of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.....
"Green added that if he remembered correctly, the earliest known sighting between white man and the creatures took place in 1864 when an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company traveled through the Fraser River country, in present-day British Columbia.
"This man, Alexander Caulfield Anderson, had come west to explore and establish the most practical route for fur brigades to travel between the Company's posts on the coast, up the river and over the mountains into the interior."
Except for the date error -- 1864 instead of 1846 -- this story is fairly correct so far.
But, Place's story continues:
"In his journal the fur trader reported that 'hairy humanoids' had hurled rocks down on his party as it worked through the awesome canyon of the Fraser River.
"Sanderson interrupted to ask if Anderson had included a physical description of the creature in his journal.
"'Unfortunately not,' Green answered. However, he added, his eyes twinkling, if the scientists and his friends wanted to learn more about Sasquatch, particularly about the one captured long ago --
"Captured?
"Green chuckled. Yes, captured. And then there was the story about one who had kidnapped a prospector --
"Kidnapped!
"Kidnapped, the newspaper publisher declared seriously. In his files he had both the story written by the prospector and an affidavit attesting to its truth..."
I checked out Marian Templeton Place in Something about the Author: Facts and Pictures about Contempory Authors & Illustrators of Books for Young People, (Detroit: Gale Research, 1972) vol. 3, p.160.
[You might find this encyclopedia in your local library youth section].
Marian Templeton Place was a children's writer who enjoyed penning stories of the old west.
However, every once in a while she took a break from gold rush and gunfighter stories to write about monsters.
Her Sasquatch books might be found in the youth non-fiction section of the local library, filed alongside books about the Loch Ness Monster and UFOs.
But even though Marian Templeton Place is known to be a writer of youth fiction, her Sasquatch books, including "Bigfoot All over the Country," are regularly cited as reliable sources in many books and articles about the Sasquatch.
There's lots of information about the Sasquatch around, and some of the most interesting information is contained in a book by Greg Long, The Making of Bigfoot: the Inside Story (New York: Prometheus Books, 2004).
John Green is a character in this book, as is the above mentioned zoologist Ivan Sanderson.
It appears they exerted a lot of effort in their search for the Sasquatch, but failed to find solid evidence it actually existed.
A long time ago, I addressed a short query to a Bigfoot website, no longer on the internet.
I inquired about the source of the information contained in its pages.
John Green -- and I presume it was the above named John Green -- quickly responded.
He wrote:
"In the 46 years since I first heard that A.C. Anderson was supposed to have written of a Sasquatch sighting I have yet to encounter any indication that he actually did so, in 1864 or any other year.
"I have read in the original his account of exploring the Harrison Lillooet route bypassing the Fraser Canyon, which is where such a report was supposedly to be found, but there is none."
But Alexander Caulfield Anderson is not the only fur trader that is connected with the Sasquatch.
An earlier fur trader is said to have been the first man to see a Sasquatch footprint.
My next story will tell you about David Thompson's experience with the finding of a Sasquatch footprint.
It will also bring us back from our geneological and historical jaunt to British Columbia's west coast, and return us to the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
As early as 1927 a major magazine published one of Burns' stories, and the Sasquatch became a household word in British Columbia.
These ape-like humanoids are reported to stand between six and eleven feet tall and vary in weight from 700 pounds to over a ton.
They walk erect, have monkey-like features, and are covered in dark, rich auburn or black hair.
Their easily located footprints -- spotted much more often than the creatures themselves -- are fourteen to eighteen inches long and seven inches in width.
[Source of description: David G. Gordon, Field Guide to the Sasquatch (Seattle, Sasquatch Books, 1992)
Although Sasquatch are reported all over the North American continent, most have been found in the Coast Ranges of British Columbia, in exactly the area that Alexander Anderson and his party passed through in the early summer of 1846.
In fact, if you have done any research on the subject of Sasquatch, you know that Alexander Caulfield Anderson is often listed as the first white man to have ever seen one.
Most writers report that Anderson heard the story of the Sasquatch at the Footstone, north of the Lillooet River.
But some reserachers say that Anderson and his men were stoned by a family of Sasquatch entrenched behind rocks on a mountainside as the men wound their way through the narrow Fraser Canyon.
Some Sasquatch historians even mention Anderson's letters to the Board of Management as references -- but no one has found his report in the Hudson's Bay Company archives.
Nor is there any mention of such a creature in Anderson's other writings, though he described every animal from the hummingbird to the mountain caribou.
Nor did Anderson mention this human-like creature in his descriptions of the Natives of the territory.
It is fairly easy to discover the beginning of the Sasquatch story and Anderson's connection to it.
The story involves many interesting and well-known persons, including newspapermen Bruce "Pinky" McKelvie, H.H.C. "Torchy" Anderson, and a reporter named John Green.
McKelvie was born in Vancouver in 1889 and joined the Province newspaper in 1912, where he was a police reporter and covered City Hall affairs.
"Torchy" Anderson was Alexander Caulfield Anderson's grandson, born in Calgary in 1894 -- he came to the Province newspaper in 1928 and worked with McKelvie.
John Green was a reporter from Vancouver who worked with Bruce McKelvie and probably with Torchy Anderson.
Torchy Anderson owned a copy of his uncle's memoirs, which contained a copy of Alexander Caulfield Anderson's 1846 journals.
Bruce McKelvie, a Sasquatch research and history writer, would have had little trouble in connecting the "Footstone" story with the Sasquatch -- especially as a Lil'Wat storyteller named Charlie Mack had already made the connection.
And in 1954, Green purchased the Agassiz Harrison Advance, a community newspaper that served the area at the head of the Fraser Valley.
At the time Green took ownership, the editor was running a series of articles on the "Sasquatch Indians."
"Sceptics may scoff at the stories told of the Harrison Sasquatch Indians, people of the mountains, of immense stature, between seven and eight feet tall, ape-like creatures with shaggy hair covering most of their bodies," the editor had written.
"Most of the local Indians and some white people have no doubt at all of the existence of the Sasquatch, in fact according to some Indians the Sasquatch were the only race of people on earth at one time.
He finished the story with, "The true Indians are not likely to invent stories to deceive their white brothers."
Green was reportedly dumbfounded when he read the story, but he soon became an avid collector of Sasquatch lore, according to Daphne Sleigh in The People of the Harrison (Abbotsford: Abbotsford Printing, 1990).
For example, on Friday, April 1, 1955, Green reported a Sasquatch seized a woman from the front lawn of the Harrison Hot Springs Hotel and ran off with her into the bush.
In June 1956, Sasquatch hunter Rene Dahinden arrived in Harrison Hot Springs, eager to prove the existence of this creature.
Dahinden was an immigrant from Switzerland, a farm worker in Alberta who had developed an interest in the Sasquatch.
The newspaper headlines read, "Two Men going into Bush in Search of Sasquatch."
After an unsuccessful search, Dahinden emerged from the bush and left Harrison Lake, supposedly to raise more funds for another expedition.
Although Sasquatch stories continued to appear in the newspaper at regular intervals, no one appeared willing to contribute funds for the search.
Green's July 1, 1957 editorial complained that "Most of our readers will have noticed by this time that the Harrison Sasquatch Expedition (under Rene Dahinden) appears to exist only in the newspapers."
The problem, Green explained, was that no one outside Harrison Hot Springs had contributed money to the fund, and if local business people wanted the publicity that this expedition would bring to their area, they would have to pay for it themselves.
Finally, Harrison Hot Springs Council convinced itself of the marketing potential of the Sasquatch, and contributed $1,000 towards the Expedition's supposed expenses -- money which probably went toward erecting a welcome sign graced by an enormous neon Sasquatch on the outskirts of Harrison Hot Springs.
Just as tourist season kicked off, Green reprinted an old story about a humming Sasquatch that attempted to hypnotize a local woman.
He followed that story up with others, and the stories were more unbelievable every week.
But other newspapers picked up the stories and the tourists flooded into Harrison Lake Hotsprings.
Sasquatch hunters came to Harrison Hot Springs, too.
Naturalist Ivan T. Sanderson arrived at Harrison Hot Springs, and writer Marion Templeton Place reported in her book, On the Track of the Bigfoot (sorry, I guess I didn't note the publisher) that John Green met with Sanderson.
"'Sasquatch,' Green repeated slowly," she wrote.
Place continued this imaginary conversation:
"Sasquatch was the English version of words meaning 'wild man of the woods,' used by several Indian tribes to describe the hairy two-legged creatures long encountered in the mountains of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.....
"Green added that if he remembered correctly, the earliest known sighting between white man and the creatures took place in 1864 when an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company traveled through the Fraser River country, in present-day British Columbia.
"This man, Alexander Caulfield Anderson, had come west to explore and establish the most practical route for fur brigades to travel between the Company's posts on the coast, up the river and over the mountains into the interior."
Except for the date error -- 1864 instead of 1846 -- this story is fairly correct so far.
But, Place's story continues:
"In his journal the fur trader reported that 'hairy humanoids' had hurled rocks down on his party as it worked through the awesome canyon of the Fraser River.
"Sanderson interrupted to ask if Anderson had included a physical description of the creature in his journal.
"'Unfortunately not,' Green answered. However, he added, his eyes twinkling, if the scientists and his friends wanted to learn more about Sasquatch, particularly about the one captured long ago --
"Captured?
"Green chuckled. Yes, captured. And then there was the story about one who had kidnapped a prospector --
"Kidnapped!
"Kidnapped, the newspaper publisher declared seriously. In his files he had both the story written by the prospector and an affidavit attesting to its truth..."
I checked out Marian Templeton Place in Something about the Author: Facts and Pictures about Contempory Authors & Illustrators of Books for Young People, (Detroit: Gale Research, 1972) vol. 3, p.160.
[You might find this encyclopedia in your local library youth section].
Marian Templeton Place was a children's writer who enjoyed penning stories of the old west.
However, every once in a while she took a break from gold rush and gunfighter stories to write about monsters.
Her Sasquatch books might be found in the youth non-fiction section of the local library, filed alongside books about the Loch Ness Monster and UFOs.
But even though Marian Templeton Place is known to be a writer of youth fiction, her Sasquatch books, including "Bigfoot All over the Country," are regularly cited as reliable sources in many books and articles about the Sasquatch.
There's lots of information about the Sasquatch around, and some of the most interesting information is contained in a book by Greg Long, The Making of Bigfoot: the Inside Story (New York: Prometheus Books, 2004).
John Green is a character in this book, as is the above mentioned zoologist Ivan Sanderson.
It appears they exerted a lot of effort in their search for the Sasquatch, but failed to find solid evidence it actually existed.
A long time ago, I addressed a short query to a Bigfoot website, no longer on the internet.
I inquired about the source of the information contained in its pages.
John Green -- and I presume it was the above named John Green -- quickly responded.
He wrote:
"In the 46 years since I first heard that A.C. Anderson was supposed to have written of a Sasquatch sighting I have yet to encounter any indication that he actually did so, in 1864 or any other year.
"I have read in the original his account of exploring the Harrison Lillooet route bypassing the Fraser Canyon, which is where such a report was supposedly to be found, but there is none."
But Alexander Caulfield Anderson is not the only fur trader that is connected with the Sasquatch.
An earlier fur trader is said to have been the first man to see a Sasquatch footprint.
My next story will tell you about David Thompson's experience with the finding of a Sasquatch footprint.
It will also bring us back from our geneological and historical jaunt to British Columbia's west coast, and return us to the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Pelka'mulox and Nkwala
Nkwala's father, Pelka'mulox, was the third chief in the lineage of Okanagan chiefs to bear that name, which was by linguistic origin Spokan.
The name Pelka'mulox means "Rolls-Over-The-Earth."
The first Pelka'mulox was apparently born c. 1675-1680; the second born 1705-1710.
Our fur trade records appeared to show that the third man we know as Pelka'mulox died in November 1822.
He did not.
The third Pelka'mulox had a brother named Kwali'la, who assumed the joint Thompson-Shuswap Country chieftaincy at Kamloops at Pelka'mulox's death.
In years past, Kwali'la had supported young Pelka'mulox in wars against the Secwepemc [Shuswap], Nlaka'pamux [Thompson's River], and the Kutenai.
Kwali'la had also helped Pelka'mulox establish the Okanagan people around Nicola Lake, which had been Secwepemc territory until that time.
Nkwala was one of four children and heir of Pekla'mulox -- his eldest boy if not his eldest child.
With his dying breath, Pelk'mulox entrusted Kwali'la with his children's upbringing, and ordered that Nkwala be raised to avenge his death.
And so we must adjust the date of Pekla'mulox's death -- he may have died some eight or nine years before 1822, when Nkwala was still a boy.
From information contained below, we know it was sometime after the winter of 1809-1810.
The argument that resulted in Pelka'mulox's death was caused when a Lil'wat chief from Lillooet Lake denounced Pelka'mulox, who had returned to the area after meeting North West Company traders Lagace and MacDonald at David Thompson's Saleesh House, in what is now Montana.
The Lil'wat chief called Pelka'mulox a liar because he did not believe Pelka'mulox's descriptions of the North West Company men at Saleesh House.
And with this story, we are suddenly part of a David Thompson story -- John Work descendents will also perk up!
One of two Legace men were with David Thompson at Saleesh House; Jack Nisbet, author of "The Mapmaker's Eye," says it was Charles Legace.
MacDonald was Thompson's clerk, Finan MacDonald.
David Thompson's men built Saleesh House east of Kullyspell House in 1809.
This story has so far led us from David Thompson's Saleesh House, to Pelka'mulox's murder at the Fountain, on the Fraser River north of Fountain Ridge.
It is going to lead us westward down the Lillooet River to Harrison Lake and Fort Langley some forty years later.
The Lil'wat people remained isolated from the fur trade for many years, though they probably eventually traded at Fort Langley, established on the Fraser River in the 1820's.
In 1827, Francis Ermatinger and another man partially explored the Lillywit River, hoping to find a route to coastal Fort Langley.
In 1846, Alexander Caulfield Anderson set out on the same exploration, with the same goal in mind.
From Kamloops, he crossed rain-swollen rivers and followed Hat Creek to Marble Canyon.
He trailed the Pavillon [now Pavillion] River to the banks of the Fraser.
A few miles downriver was the fishing village called the Fountain, where thirty-five years earlier Peka'mulox had lost his life.
Anderson sent his horses back to Kamloops and crossed the Fraser River, walking down the west banks of the river to the mouth of Seton River.
He and his men walked the sloping north shores of two mountain lakes [later named Seton and Anderson], and crossed a height of land.
The party followed a stream until they reached a village at the north end of a lake Anderson called Lillooet Lake.
The Lil'wat people who lived here had no food to spare, but they possessed "some good cedar canoes, made after the model of those seen on the coast.
"After some parlaying I succeeded in hiring a couple of these, together with the necessary conductors."
The combined parties paddled past the rapids that blocked the lower end of Lillooet Lake and reached the lake Anderson's Native guides called Little Lil'wat Lake.
At a second Lil'wat village Anderson hired another canoe and men to paddle them downriver, and the party made camp that night at the head of a violent rapid.
The river on the other side of the portage was rough and filled with rapids.
"At this stage of the water it is a perfect torrent; and at a higher stage .. must afford a very precarious navigation," Anderson wrote in his journal.
"In fact, but for the expertness of our Indian boutes, who are thoroughly versed in the intricacies of the river, we should, I fear, have much difficulty in getting through."
On the second day of river travel the two canoes floated into a large lake, called by the Fort Langley men "Harrison's Lake."
The next day they travelled through heavy rain to Harrison's River, and three hours later Anderson's Lil'wat paddlers brought the fur traders into the Fraser River south of its barrier of rapids and falls.
That evening, Anderson's party arrived at Fort Langley.
On this journey through Anderson and Seton Lake and over the hills to the streams that fell into the Lillooet Lakes, Anderson's Native guides showed him a "Large isolated block of granite, bearing the impression closely resembling that of a human foot.
"The Indians call it the Foot-stone, and have, of course, a marvelous tradition connected with it."
He heard the story of the Transformers, a magical group of people who transformed the lives of all the people who lived here -- but modern day researchers have transformed the story.
This is where Anderson supposedly heard about the Sasquatch.
And I will tell that story in my next posting...
The name Pelka'mulox means "Rolls-Over-The-Earth."
The first Pelka'mulox was apparently born c. 1675-1680; the second born 1705-1710.
Our fur trade records appeared to show that the third man we know as Pelka'mulox died in November 1822.
He did not.
The third Pelka'mulox had a brother named Kwali'la, who assumed the joint Thompson-Shuswap Country chieftaincy at Kamloops at Pelka'mulox's death.
In years past, Kwali'la had supported young Pelka'mulox in wars against the Secwepemc [Shuswap], Nlaka'pamux [Thompson's River], and the Kutenai.
Kwali'la had also helped Pelka'mulox establish the Okanagan people around Nicola Lake, which had been Secwepemc territory until that time.
Nkwala was one of four children and heir of Pekla'mulox -- his eldest boy if not his eldest child.
With his dying breath, Pelk'mulox entrusted Kwali'la with his children's upbringing, and ordered that Nkwala be raised to avenge his death.
And so we must adjust the date of Pekla'mulox's death -- he may have died some eight or nine years before 1822, when Nkwala was still a boy.
From information contained below, we know it was sometime after the winter of 1809-1810.
The argument that resulted in Pelka'mulox's death was caused when a Lil'wat chief from Lillooet Lake denounced Pelka'mulox, who had returned to the area after meeting North West Company traders Lagace and MacDonald at David Thompson's Saleesh House, in what is now Montana.
The Lil'wat chief called Pelka'mulox a liar because he did not believe Pelka'mulox's descriptions of the North West Company men at Saleesh House.
And with this story, we are suddenly part of a David Thompson story -- John Work descendents will also perk up!
One of two Legace men were with David Thompson at Saleesh House; Jack Nisbet, author of "The Mapmaker's Eye," says it was Charles Legace.
MacDonald was Thompson's clerk, Finan MacDonald.
David Thompson's men built Saleesh House east of Kullyspell House in 1809.
This story has so far led us from David Thompson's Saleesh House, to Pelka'mulox's murder at the Fountain, on the Fraser River north of Fountain Ridge.
It is going to lead us westward down the Lillooet River to Harrison Lake and Fort Langley some forty years later.
The Lil'wat people remained isolated from the fur trade for many years, though they probably eventually traded at Fort Langley, established on the Fraser River in the 1820's.
In 1827, Francis Ermatinger and another man partially explored the Lillywit River, hoping to find a route to coastal Fort Langley.
In 1846, Alexander Caulfield Anderson set out on the same exploration, with the same goal in mind.
From Kamloops, he crossed rain-swollen rivers and followed Hat Creek to Marble Canyon.
He trailed the Pavillon [now Pavillion] River to the banks of the Fraser.
A few miles downriver was the fishing village called the Fountain, where thirty-five years earlier Peka'mulox had lost his life.
Anderson sent his horses back to Kamloops and crossed the Fraser River, walking down the west banks of the river to the mouth of Seton River.
He and his men walked the sloping north shores of two mountain lakes [later named Seton and Anderson], and crossed a height of land.
The party followed a stream until they reached a village at the north end of a lake Anderson called Lillooet Lake.
The Lil'wat people who lived here had no food to spare, but they possessed "some good cedar canoes, made after the model of those seen on the coast.
"After some parlaying I succeeded in hiring a couple of these, together with the necessary conductors."
The combined parties paddled past the rapids that blocked the lower end of Lillooet Lake and reached the lake Anderson's Native guides called Little Lil'wat Lake.
At a second Lil'wat village Anderson hired another canoe and men to paddle them downriver, and the party made camp that night at the head of a violent rapid.
The river on the other side of the portage was rough and filled with rapids.
"At this stage of the water it is a perfect torrent; and at a higher stage .. must afford a very precarious navigation," Anderson wrote in his journal.
"In fact, but for the expertness of our Indian boutes, who are thoroughly versed in the intricacies of the river, we should, I fear, have much difficulty in getting through."
On the second day of river travel the two canoes floated into a large lake, called by the Fort Langley men "Harrison's Lake."
The next day they travelled through heavy rain to Harrison's River, and three hours later Anderson's Lil'wat paddlers brought the fur traders into the Fraser River south of its barrier of rapids and falls.
That evening, Anderson's party arrived at Fort Langley.
On this journey through Anderson and Seton Lake and over the hills to the streams that fell into the Lillooet Lakes, Anderson's Native guides showed him a "Large isolated block of granite, bearing the impression closely resembling that of a human foot.
"The Indians call it the Foot-stone, and have, of course, a marvelous tradition connected with it."
He heard the story of the Transformers, a magical group of people who transformed the lives of all the people who lived here -- but modern day researchers have transformed the story.
This is where Anderson supposedly heard about the Sasquatch.
And I will tell that story in my next posting...
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