Two Canoes: John Work comes down the Columbia River
So in the last John Work journal, he and Peter Skene Ogden had reached Boat Encampment, having come down the Big Hill from Athabasca Pass. The year is 1823 —…
Read moreAn addition to the Cannibalism post
This will be a shorter-than-my-normal post, and it is part of the Cannibalism post of a few weeks ago. But this story is interesting: it is Paul Kane’s story of…
Read moreSnowshoeing
The HBC’s “Rupertsland” was a land of winter, and for the HBC men snow-shoes were essential. At some point in their lives, every man who worked for the HBC (and…
Read moreSecond book: The York Factory Express
My so-far unpublished manuscript, “The York Factory Express,” tells the stories of the York Factory Express, and of the Saskatchewan brigades. These stories are told in the words of…
Read moreYork Factory Express: Crossing of the Continental Divide to the West
In this nineteenth leg of the long journey to Hudson Bay and return, I am going to post James Douglas’s 1835 journal. For me it is the most interesting, as…
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