Jasper and Mt. Robson - History
The Railway Survey
Era
By Jeff Waugh
In 1865, Dr. John Rae, sponsored by the Hudson's Bay Company, the Imperial and Canadian
governments, and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, made a trip through Yellowhead Pass. He
surveyed the pass for the possibility of a railway, wagon road and telegraph line going
through to connect the new colonies in British Columbia with the rest of Canada.
The possibility of a railway through the Yellowhead spurred further interest, but it
wasn't until 1871 that the next railway survey began. Walter Moberly, the brother of H.J.
Moberly, took charge of a survey party under the direction of Sir Sandford Fleming, the
newly appointed (by Sir John A MacDonald) engineer-in-charge of the transcontinental
railway (Canadian Pacific Railway).
Moberly, working on the upper reaches of the Columbia River, sent Roderick McLennan to
survey the area of the North Thompson across Albreda Pass to Tete Jaune Cache and up the
Yellowhead. A.R.C. Selwyn, of the Geological Survey of Canada, travelled with McLennan and
made detailed observations of the area. In April of 1872 Sandford Fleming ordered Moberly
to direct all survey efforts on the Yellowhead Pass. Fleming organized an expedition and
set out to follow his chosen railway route from Halifax to Victoria.
Amongst the men of Fleming's expedition was the Reverend George M. Grant who accurately
recorded the journey in his diary. "At the summit, Moberly welcomed us into British
Columbia, for we were at length out of 'No-man's-land' and had entered the western
province of our Dominion. Round the rivulet running west the party gathered, and drank
from its waters to the Queen and the Dominion".
The survey for the railroad proceeded along the north side of the pass as the bluffs
were not as steep as those on the south side. At Moose Lake the surveyors considered there
to be no formidable barriers to the construction of a railway through the Yellowhead Pass.
But as Grant prophetically recorded, "Still the work that the surveyors are engaged
on requires a patience and forethought that few who ride in Pullman cars on the road in
after years will ever appreciate". As they continued down through the Yellowhead they
were extremely impressed by the "first canyon" of the Fraser.
Eventually Flemings party reached Tete Jaune Cache, ascended the McLennan River and
began the descent of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers to Vancouver and on to Victoria.
| "We have not sustained any loss
of life nor had any accidents, not a single pound of the supplies has been lost in
transit, and out of nearly two hundred and fifty pack animals employed, only seven have
died in all, nearly all the pack animals on this route travelled back and forth last
season about twenty-seven hundred miles, and almost invariably averaged loads of three
hundred pounds each... Not a single quarrel has arisen, not a single article has been
stolen, and without exception the most friendly feeling is now existing. The Indians have
rendered us much and valuable assistance. Walter Moberly, 1872 |
After the exploratory surveys between 1871 and 1880 the Yellowhead Pass was found to be
the most acceptable pass. However, in 1881, something happened to change this. The C.P.R.
unexpectedly (and with much controversy) abandoned its proposed route through the
Yellowhead for a more southerly route through the Kicking Horse Pass.Activity in the
Yellowhead slowed to a snails pace. Between 1881 and the turn of the century the
Yellowhead Pass experienced little activity.
In 1898, James McEvoy, a geologist, travelled through the pass and made first mention
of Yuh-hai-has-kun (The Mountain of the Spiral Road), the Shuswap name for Mt. Robson. On
his way from the Grand Forks down the Fraser he reported that "fire had desecrated
the valley". Soon after mcEvoy left the area a small group of miners struck gold at
the confluence of Swiftcurrent Creek and the Fraser. Several small, well provisioned
parties began to flock into the area, but, unable to make any profit, they gradually
drifted away.
In 1899, Swiftcurrent Creek made headlines again, this time under unfortunate
circumstances: a murder in the Yellowhead. A dispute between two fur traders resulted in
death.
 By 1900 the Grand Trunk
Pacific, then one of Canada's major railway corporations, began talking about a second
transcontinental railway. Thirty-six years earlier Dr. John Rae had made a speedy survey
of the Yellowhead Pass for the Grand Trunk and, once again, more interest was shown in
this route for a possible railway line. Not only did the Grand Trunk Pacific railway begin
to show interest, but another railway, the Canadian Northern, began to send surveyors and
pack trains through the pass. Once again the Yellowhead Pass was showing more promise as a
bustling transportation route.
Early Climbers, Tourists and Settlements |
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