Fort Alexandria Flood

A view of old Fort Alexandria which is across the Fraser River from the second location of the post.

Today I am going to talk about the Fort Alexandria Flood. I just spent a week up in Williams Lake, with Ordell Steen showing my friend and me around Dairy Fields just outside Williams Lake. I mentioned him at the very end of my newly-published book, The HBC Brigades: Culture, Conflict, and Perilous Journeys of the Fur Trade, so you can figure out for yourself why I got in touch with him when I could. We had a wonderful time, and I learned a lot about a region I haven’t visited since the summer of 2009, when I was writing my first book, The Pathfinder. At that time, I only needed a general “impression” of the region my great grandfather worked in. Now, in my second book that covers the Brigades which travelled through the grasslands that later became the town of Williams Lake, I needed answers to a few new questions.

One of the things we did while we were up there was to search for the locations of the old Fort Alexandria, built in 1821 by an HBC employee, and run by George McDougall (yes, the same George McDougall who is a major character in my book, The York Factory Express). We were also looking for the location of the second fort. As we all know, the second Fort Alexandria was built on the east bank of the Fraser River, directly across the river from the first fort, which was moved and rebuilt by A. C. Anderson in the 1840s. On the other hand, maybe you don’t know that! So I will explain to you why I think I know when it was moved, and why.

Part of the confusion that I had been suffering from, in regards to the location of the first post, is that in his 3-volume book, Lives Lived West of the Divide, Bruce McIntyre Watson says that in 1821, the fort was built on the east bank of the river. (Are we beginning another “Duelling Historians” post?) The image of the church that he has in his book is of the church located on the east bank of the river, directly across from the first location of the fort.

So, you can see why I have been confused by the information I had from various sources. I had thought that Fort Alexandria was built on the west bank, as many historians wrote that that is where it was located. But now, the first Fort Alexandria has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada, and it is, as I thought, on the west bank of the Fraser River. It was registered on the Canadian Register  in September 2010, and the Description of the Historic Place, on https://HistoricPlaces.ca (search for Fort Alexandria), says this:

Fort Alexandria National Historic Site of Canada is located on the west side of the Fraser River near the community of Alexandria in the Cariboo District of British Columbia. There are no known above ground remains of the fort, which was established as a trading post by the North West Company in 1821. Official recognition refers to the site, measuring 100 metres in radius, identified by archaeological survey in the late 1990s.

Not only that, but on my road-map (yes, I still use road-maps) — a recently purchased Cariboo Chilcotin Map (from International Travel Maps) –I found the location of the first Fort Alexandria clearly marked as a National Historic Site. That site stood on the west bank of the Fraser River. As it is on Indian Reserve land you can’t just drive in and find it: you must ask permission from the Band office in Quesnel. Nevertheless, it is important that we all know where the old Fort Alexandria stood, and it is important that it is actually memorialized on current maps.

So that is the first location of Fort Alexandria. It is hard to tell, from the HBCA’s Fort Alexandria post journals exactly when the fort was moved. Nor is it made clear where the fort was moved from. There is also no information about why it was moved, other than it was flooded, and its not even clear that that is why it was moved.

James Robert Anderson, son of A.C. Anderson, remembers the fort being flooded, and he has this to say of it:

Fort Alexandria, as I first have a dim recollection of it, was situated on the flat or bench nearest the Fraser, this is firmly impressed on my memory by the fact that during a summer freshet (or was it on the occasion of a landslide of which I will speak later), that the water rose to such a height, that the fort yard was inundated and therefore in case of further cases of the kind, and which might result in loss of life and property, the fort was removed to the upper bench, and well I remember getting hold of an axe of proceeding to demolish the apology for a mantelpiece in one of the rooms, in the belief that I was assisting in the general removal… [“Memoirs of James Robert Anderson,” BCA]

Young James was born in 1841, and so still a three or four year-old boy when the fort was supposedly flooded. Firstly, that tells you that the flood was not very deep, if a four year old kid was wading through the water in one of the houses. Naturally he doesn’t remember when Fort Alexandria was flooded, and what flooded it: whether freshets, or landslide, or an ice dam that backed up the river, as ice blockages tend to do. It also sounds as if, in young James’s memory, the fort was not moved across the river, but only back from the river, from the first bench to the second. So it’s all still clear as mud. Was he in the old fort on the west bank of the river when it flooded, or was he in the first location of the second fort, which was then moved to a higher bench along the river?

So what does A.C. Anderson say? First, he tells of two landslides along the Fraser River, and this following information appears in one of his letters to Rupert Jones, Professor of Geology, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, written December 10, 1870, from Anderson’s home at Rosebank, in North Saanich.

But there is perhaps no part of the world where the grand natural changes constantly operating through very simple causes are better exemplified than in some parts of the Upper Fraser, in British Columbia. Flowing for a long distance through deep woody banks of deluvial origin, beneath which in places, there is exposed a thin stratum of lignite, the river bursts, about twenty miles below Alexandria… through a chasm in a lofty volcanic barrier….Along the banks, for more than 100 miles above this point, land-slides of greater or less magnitude are constantly occurring. The fall of one of these I had the good fortune — if to have narrowly escaped destruction with the whole of my command may be termed — to witness when in charge of Alexandria in 1845. Another upon a still grander scale I had examined shortly after it fell, some time before. In this last case, with a vertiical depth approaching 500 feet at the time of rupture and an area of perhaps a thousand acres or more, the surface exibited a complete bouleversement like an ill-ploughed field gigantically magnified…

So, two landslides: one in 1845, and one some time before. Anderson arrived at Fort Alexandria in December 1842, on the return of the incoming York Factory Express. He still doesn’t say whether or not one of these landslides flooded the fort, so maybe it was the freshet, or an ice dam. But freshets and ice dams happen at certain times in the year, so if the chaos occurred at a different time, we can then blame one of the landslides that Anderson speaks of. Is that fair?

In August 1845, Pere Nobili was at Fort Alexandria with the incoming brigade, shortly after a landslide had occurred (He baptized A.C. Anderson’s two sons at the time, and the baptism certificate that is signed by Nobili is in the BC Archives.).  Both Nobili and James Anderson (son of A.C.) told the story of the First Nations child that was found hanging from a branch of a tree sometime after the slide occurred. Young James said the baby survived, but Nobili said it did not. Here is the landslide story, from James Anderson’s Memoirs:

The land slide whereof mention is made, occurred below the fort where the bank was carried bodily into the river, completely blocking its course and flooding all the lands adjacent to the river. So sudden was the occurrence that an Indian village was swept away entirely. My recollection is that it occurred at night as I remember my father coming into my room in the early morning wet and his coat, a cotton one, torn beyond recognition, he having torn bandages from it to bind up the wounds of those natives most badly hurt. I do not remember that there was any great loss of life, one or two only, I think, but I do remember the story told by my father to the effect that a child who was missing was found after the subsidence of the water, suspended by its clothes in a tree, safe and sound. These land slides, called by the French Canadians Les Eboulis, were not infrequent on the high banks of the Fraser, but luckily not often of such a serious nature as that I have recorded.

And so, it is highly likely that this is the landslide that blocked the Fraser River and flooded the fort. Let’s look at what the Fort Alexandria journals tell us. In August 1843, the incoming brigades had passed through the fort and taken to the boats on their way upriver to Fort St James. With horses now available, the HBC men at Fort Alexandria swam some of them across the river to the Fort. That they did this clearly indicates that Fort Alexandria was still on the west bank of the river, as the men later took twenty packhorses to the barrier on Chilcotin River to trade for salmon. The barriers were probably in Farwell Canyon, by the way, and if you followed recent British Columbia news you will know that only a month or so ago a massive landslide occurred, that completely blocked the Chilcotin River at Farwell Canyon, creating an enormous lake behind the dam. The dam eventually broke, releasing those flood waters, which then caused some damage down the Fraser River all the way to the Fraser Valley. So, landslides on the Fraser are nothing new, and they still happen on a fairly regular basis.

There are gaps in the Fort Alexandria journals, for example from September 1843 to April 1844, but it appears Fort Alexandria still stands on the west side of the river (although when the records return they are building new palisades for the fort. It could actually have been moved across the river sometime during those missing months). The records are complete for 1844, and in March 1845 the men crossed the plough horses from the Guard to the other side of the river on the ice of the then-frozen river. I think it’s clear that Fort Alexandria still stands on the west bank of the river, especially as the horse guard appeared to be at White Earth Lake (McLeese Lake) at this time.

Then, on Tuesday 20th June, there is a missing page or two. On June 1, (B.5/a/6, folio 25b) the journal begins with “and is still rising. Today it broke in from below, up the coulee that intersects the wheat field & all that portion of the field is now inundated. The Indians agreed in stating that the water never yet to their knowledge attained its present height.”

Monday 2nd June. Thunder showers occasionally. The water attained its height last night, & today has been falling rapidly. About 3 acres of our wheat have been inundated, but if the water withdraws soon we shall perhaps still save the crop of that portion. Certainly the water has risen higher than many years past, having reached within 3 feet of the fort gate.

So, a false alarm. The water fell and did not invade the fort, and the journal continues uninterrupted. However, the journal entries for August 1845 are missing, and B.5/a/7 begins in September 1845, in the middle of a sentence. The brigade has already passed through the fort, leaving the horses behind. Michel Ogden sets out for the Chilcotin post without crossing the horses (as far as I can see), which means the horses and men are still on the west bank of the river.

Did the flood occur in the days covered by the missing records? Possibly so. In early February, 1846, Alexander Caulfield Anderson writes that the men are laying the foundation for a new dwelling house. A week or so later they are plastering the inside of the new kitchen. On Thursday 19th, Anderson writes that the men “took down my private room and transported part of it up the hill — meanwhile I take up my quarters for present in the old house.” The next day, the men “Put up the small house transported yesterday & today. Linneard preparing for the chimney, with Davis & others.” On the 21st they roofed the house and commenced the chimney. In March the men “dragged the soles of stable to their places on top of hill and set them, ready for putting the posts & on Monday.” Finally, on March 28th, 1846:

I took possession of my house on top of the hill; the furs & trading goods are likewise removed to a temporary store there — the packs having been pressed last week. The kitchen is occupied by the cook, but all the others remain below.

As you see, it is not clear whether they moved Fort Alexandria from the low bench on the west side of the river, or whether they moved it up from a lower bench on the same side of the river. The men took down the shop, ready for transporting up the hill, on April 6th, and on the 8th they moved it to its new location. On the 21st of the month, the men “return to the barn & commence cross ploughing the new patch broken up last autumn.” Only a few days later, Anderson set out on his first expedition to Fort Langley and return.

Sigh! They may have just moved the fort to a higher bench on the west side of the river (but I am sure they didn’t). In October 1846, Anderson tells us that on the 15th the “river rose very high today,” and that the “river was too high to cross here.” On the 16th, the “river has risen to a few feet from the gate of the fort.” On the 17th, “The river rose about 2 feet during [the day], but I am happy to say it’s beginning to fall.” And then, on the 19th, “the river is now falling rapidly, having previously risen higher than I ever before witnessed it at any season. It was several inches above the mark of the high water of two years ago (in summer) which was then considered extraordinary.”

I think the river did not flood the fort on this occasion, although it certainly approached the fort gates. The fort is definitely on a bench that is higher above ground than when the fort was threatened by high water two years earlier. But which side of the river? The ONLY clue I have is that in April 1847, the Poplars were beginning to display their leaves, and that “the green leaves began to be visible hence, upon the Poplars at the foot of the mountain on the opposite side of the River.” Which side of the river? There are what could be called mountains on both sides of the river, so that is not any help at all!

Finally, in September 1847, Anderson tells us that his men were “shearing and carting wheat at old farm.” The work on the old farm continues: they must have been working farms on both sides of the river, and the newer farm would be on the east side, while the old farm was on the west where the old fort stood. A tiny clue, but perhaps the only clue that we have.

I am still confident that Fort Alexandria was not just moved to a higher bench on the same side of the river, but that it was moved to the east bank of the river. It is the best I can do.

Updated: Just so you know, I wrote a new Fort Alexandria post which corrects all the misunderstandings and mistakes made in this one. In it I figure out (I think correctly, but I might change my mind on that) where all the Fort Alexandria locations were over the years between 1821 and 1860. There are actually five locations, and the first location was NOT on the west bank of the Fraser River, as I say here. Here it is: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/fort-alexandria-locations/

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved.

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