Paul Kane leaves Edmonton House
“We remained at Edmonton till the morning of the 6th [October],” Paul Kane wrote, “preparing for the arduous journey which now lay before us.” Paul Kane was travelling west with…
Read moreThomas Lowe and the York Factory Express
Thomas Lowe worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1842 to his retirement in 1849, and he kept journals of his experiences in the Columbia district the entire time he…
Read moreAlexis Bellanger
This is a British Columbia story that many have heard — a story of multiple deaths and murders. The first murder (that of Bellanger) happened on the Fraser River just…
Read moreThe fur trade “Harangue”
In Alexander Caulfield Anderson’s journal of exploration, 1847, the explorer writes about a fur trade harangue. He doesn’t call it that, of course. But he harangued the Natives who accompanied…
Read moreNative Bridges in the Fraser Canyon
At Fort Alexandria, the first days of April 1847 came in pleasant and warm, though snow still lay on the ground. On April 23, Montrose McGillivray arrived at the fort…
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