In September or October when the water is low go to John Walters house by the Kinsmen field house and walk down the river. It will be along there a few yards out.

What had happened was the water dropped and the riverboat got stuck. It couldn't be freed. Some of it was dismantled. (The oak floor was put in one of the dance halls on jasper ave.) The rest of the boat got destroyed by flood and ice. Just the hull remained stuck in the silt.

I had a different version. Earlier.

There is a "Rocky Mountain Ranger" infantry unit in the Canadian Military. The original Rocky Mountain Rangers were not associated with today's military unit.

The Rocky Mountain Rangers only existed officially for a little more than three months in the late 1880's. They were also called the "North West Rebellion Cowboy Calvary".

I miss GreyLynx too.

Just outside of Cowley there is Massacre Butte. A wagon train of explorers/settlers up from (I think) Missouri by way of Montana (about 40 people in all) were surprise attacked by a rebound Blackfoot Warrior and his crew. Some reports say only one survivor was left, others report total casualties. The butte was supposedly a frequent lookout point used when the natives would camp along the flats by the Crowsnest River.

*** more famously... It is also the site where I heroically and relentlessly pursued the largest mulie in the local herd known that year as the 'Magnificent Seven' bout 10 years ago...

I took the 177 buck at very last light laying down , with a million mile an hour wind, open sights 176 paces... With my 303Enfield. He took 10 steps and dropped(More famously in my mind at least.... ;) )

Cool, thanks that's really interesting I will try to spot it once the river settles out.

Carcajou is almost as old.

Did you know that Wop May, Canada's most famous bush pilot is credited with putting Fort Vermilion on the map when he flew a shipment of diphtheria vaccine to Fort Vermilion on January 2 1929.

I think both Fort Chipewyan and Fort Vermillion were started in 1778 by the northwest company.

An interesting note...
In 1790 Fort Chipewyan boasted the largest library in Rupert's land. It had over 2000 books to be available to anyone that could read pretty much.

There were Paddle wheelers on the Peace River till around 1960, I'm not sure of the actual date the last one was retired.
That boat was named the D A Thomas and it's steam engine is currently on display at Alberta Museum in Edmonton.

The D A Thomas burned wood in her boiler and there were fuel stops every thirty miles along the river. Local trappers were employed to stockpile cut wood at these locations. Many such locations were also freight stops, like the ones at Carcajou and Fort Vermilion.

Most of the trade in the area was supported by river traffic. Besides the paddle wheelers there was a privately owned paddle wheeler called the Russian Navy that hauled grain from Fort Vermilion at communities along the route, to the rail head at Peace River.

The Russian Navy was owned by Ted Stigson and his business partner.
Ted also ran the trading post at Carcajou and his son still lives in Carcajou.

The D A hauled passengers and freight, including farm machinery.

And it was issued to RedFrog :)

Great thread!

Gadsby lake area new Bashaw was named after Long Haired Jim Gadsby who rode with the James gang.
He's buried in the Lamerton on cemetery on Hiway 21.
I've knew one one his pallbearers.

Keg... it amazes me how many paddle wheelers there were around in the early years. There were 4 or 5 running the Saskatchewan river system. A few running the Athabasca/Clearwater/Slave system. They were on some lakes too. Would have been an interesting way to travel and get to the line.

That's neat. I'm sure there were a few famous american outlaws that crossed the line to safety.

My dad was an old time horse trader/collector and he had acquired an original Jesse James Wanted poster. It was sold to another collector recently.

I wonder how many know that at one time one had to have a tag for Beaver.

There were strict quotas and very restrictive rules as to where a trapper could make sets. For example, sets could not be made close to the lodge.

It was also common practice to trap Fox late in the summer and keep them in pens until the pelts were prime.
Most often sets were made along water courses, preferably in sand. For that reason the practice was often referred to as sand trapping.

There were old Fox pens in the bush behind our house, left by the gentleman who built the house. The first I remember of those pens, they were mostly complete but by 1965 there was little left of them.

The fellow who built the house and the pens was a native trapper by the name of John Cardinal. The house was a two story log house with a sod roof. John was a master log builder and is credited with building most of the log buildings in the community. Some of his buildings are still standing.

The first car in Peace River was a Ford Model T belonging to a Doctor.

It was brought in on the D A Thomas and it fell overboard during unloading and was never recovered.

Carcajou was noted as Wolverine Point on David Thompson's map in 1814 so it was there before then.

The stagecoach didn't run after 1891 as the C&E railway was operational. The stage left Edmonton on a Monday and Arrived in Calgary on a Thursday...weather permitting.

Very interesting thread for sure?

Anyone know the story of 12 foot Davis? I'm pretty sure he was in the Peace River country.


BW

I think his gold claim was only 12 ft X 12 ft and he struck it rich.

I found it interesting that before what we call Alberta today was part of the North WestTerritories . Have some old family photos that are stamped from the studio. Wetaskiwin NWT.

In Edmonton ....
Saskatchewan drive on the south side for bearing.. 106A street passes under Sask Drive. 106A street, also known as Fort Hill road back then, is the original trail that led south from the fort after fording the river. The ford/crossing was just upstream of the high level.

On this Fort Hill trail in the 1860's 13 stoney indians were leaving the fort after trading. 7 of the 13 were massacred on this trail on the slope by a rival tribe. The 6 remaining people did make it to safe ground some distance south.

The last actual (pardon the term) 'indian wars' in the 'northwest territories', as Alberta was then known, was in the year 1869.
~~~~~~~~
Across the road from the 'old timers cabin' on 99 street on the south side of the river is an interesting spot. In the first years Ft. Edm. was on the Rossdale flats on the north side of the river right on the north side of the low level bridge. FN people with muskets would shoot across the river at the fort and boat yard area then retreat to the flat across the road from the old timers cabin. Up until a few years ago you could see the dips from the pits (foxholes) the FN made and used. The FN would use the Mill Creek ravine to travel south.

The stage ran for 2 years after the train arrived.

In 1890 a fellow named Harry Longabough got out of jail in Wyoming. He had a buddy who worked as a wrangler at the bar U Ranch up in Canada (located on Hwy 22 about 6 miles south of Longview. Harry came up to visit his buddy and ended up getting a job as a wrangler himself on the Bar U. Harry stayed with the Bar U for a year then went to work at the Cochrane Ranch just west of Calgary.

Harry decided to change vocations and went into a partnership in a bar at the Grand Central Hotel in Calgary. The hotel was located on the NW corner of 9th Ave and 1st SE or now kitty corner from the Calgary Tower. The hotel is now gone of course. Harry and his partner had an argument over wages and Harry pulled a gun. The Calgary Police were called (Calgary had a fledgling police force then).

Harry decide to get out of Canada and he returned to the U.S. In Colorado he met up with an old acquaintance by the name of Robert Leroy Parker. Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longabough went on to become Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Harry or now the Sundance Kid was in Alberta from 1890 to 1892.

Sources: High river Times, Calgary Sun, Calgary Police archives, Glenbow foundation.

Waterways was a thriving community before Fort McMurray was , and had a salt mine and a fish plant .
Cat

12 foot Davis came to mine in the Barkerville area in 1849 and it was there that he got the 12 foot claim that was missed by other miners when they put in their claim posts.
He did take out considerable gold ... about 15K's worth. His passion was the peace river and he was a trader on the upper Peace and then traded out of Fort Vermilion from the 1860's up until his death in 1900. pic He is buried overlooking the Peace river near the city of Peace River. He was born Henry Fuller Davis in Vermont in 1818.

What's a felt mine? Seriously.

BW

Thanks for that. I recall seeing something about him while passing through Peace River in the past.

BW

When the C&E railway was laying track from Calgary to Edmonton in 1890 they decided that there would be a station every 18 miles with a siding halfway between (these distances are rail miles). Railways hated land speculators and when the speculators were selling land where Bowden was to be located, they changed its location. A school and various businesses sprung up at what was to be Bowden's location before track reached that point. The C&E bypassed the allotted location and moved the station further north. A new town sprung up at the new location and eventually the school and other buildings from the original site moved up to the new Bowden location.

This is why Bowden today is closer to Innisfail than to Olds. It is the only town/village that is out of sequence milage wise between Calgary and Edmonton.

I need to apologize and correct myself. I meant Walterdale bridge instead of the low level bridge. So between John Walters house and the James Mac bridge.

Just wondering if it's possible to visit his Fort Vermillion trading post?

Salt mine.

The Peace River got it's name from a peace treaty between the Beaver and Cree Indians in 1781 settling a longstanding war between the two nations. the Peace was known at that time as Unjegah meaning large river. Beaver stayed north of the peace and the Cree stayed south.