Harrison Lillooet Trail
A scene of modern day Harrison Lake, looking down the length of the lake from the place where the Harrison River leaves it.
There is one more trail I have to mention, that I barely spoke of in my book, The HBC Brigades: Culture, Conflict, and Perilous Journeys of the Fur Trade. The trail is named the Harrison Lillooet Trail. This is the same trail that Alexander Caulfield Anderson explored in 1846, on his way from Kamloops to Fort Langley. It is also the same river route travelled by Francis Ermatinger in 1827, on his journey from the Thompson’s River post to the Fraser River.
Both of the HBC men (Anderson and Ermatinger) came down the Lillooet River to Harrison’s Lake, travelling from east to west. The men I will speak of in his series on the Harrison Lillooet Trail, all travelled from west to east, into the goldfields that at this time drew hundreds of miners into the Upper Fraser River. This might be a little confusing, but I will attempt to keep it organized so that you can follow along these stories: 1) Anderson. 2) Goldminers. 3) Lieutenant Palmer. Ermatinger’s report existed but did not survive to reach the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives.
So, who were the people that made their way up the Harrison Lillooet trail? The first batch of men were the goldminers who built the trail itself in 1858, so that they could access the goldfields. The second of these adventurous groups of men is an old friend: Lieutenant Henry Spencer Palmer, the Royal Engineer who travelled over the Tulameen Plateau with Chief Trader Angus McDonald of Fort Colvile in September 1859, and who described it so well. This journey over the plateau was his second venture into the interior: the Harrison Lillooet trail was his first!
So, let’s introduce the cast of characters. Henry Spencer Palmer is the first character, of course. The steamship, Umatilla, is the second of these characters. She was an American ship previously named the Venture, built on the Columbia River where she was badly damaged in the rapids above the Dalles in, perhaps, 1857. Now she was on the Fraser River under new owners, and carrying the gold miners to the head of Harrison Lake, to the place where the Harrison Lillooet trail would begin, when built. Her captain was Captain John Ainsworth; and the seaman who was soon to take Ainsworth’s place as Captain of the Umatilla was Mr. T. Gladwell, from the Columbia River. The Gazette newspaper says that the Umatilla was a ship “of light draught, and has a powerful engine, which eminently fit her for the trade on which she is about to enter.”
The gold-miners will introduce themselves, as we move through the story. Some of them are quite intelligent, and all have very interesting descriptions of the route. The Correspondents the Victoria Gazette Newspaper employed to tell the story were also very good writers, if a little over-descriptive of the places they saw. There may be other characters I have forgotten to describe, but I will tell you their stories when I reach them.
So, as I said above, The Umatilla carried the goldminers to the head of Harrison Lake, “where the Harrison Lillooet trail would begin, when built.” The gold miners actually volunteered to build the trail, as you will see below.
The July 24 newspaper reported that Governor James Douglas had addressed the crowd of miners in Victoria. “On Monday, July 19th, as the British Boundary Commission [that is, the first of the Royal Engineers] was being received at the fort by Gov. Douglas, the procession of officials was detained for a moment by the firing of a salute, when the Governor was addressed by one of the large body of miners, who earnestly requested him to advise them about their future movements.” Thinking of the lower Fraser River, Douglas advised the miners to not go above Fort Yale, as the river was very dangerous. He also told them to not use the brigade trail behind Fort Hope, as they could not carry enough provisions to make it across the mountains. Then he said, “the route by Harrisons river is, I think, the best, and we are now preparing to get a road opened that way; in fact I expect to see tents and wagons on the twenty mile portage that divides that river from Anderson’s Lake, before many months are over. That is a safe and accessible route at all seasons to Upper Frasers River.”
In the meantime, he had sent the Umatilla up the Fraser River to explore Harrison’s Lake, to see how accessible it was to steamers. Captain Ainsworth returned from this expedition on July 27, and the Victoria Gazette reported that he had accomplished the object of the trip, and proceeded further to say “the government has already dispatched a party over the route with a view to open a wagon communication through the region to the Upper Fraser river; adding that the Hudsons Bay Company had long known of this line of lakes and rivers, its agents having frequently passed over them, and their former Chief Trader, Mr. Anderson, having made a correct map of the same.” He then told the gold miners that the government was searching for contractors who would built the road.
It is important to note that every HBC man who had travelled over this route told the Governor of the HBC that the route was not feasible as a brigade trail. And so far as I know, only two groups of men travelled the route: Francis Ermatinger’s, and A.C. Anderson’s. So would it work for gold miners when it did not work for fur traders? Obviously Anderson believed so, and so too did James Douglas. In fact, I think it was Anderson who reminded James Douglas of this route when he arrived at Fort Victoria in early 1858.
Anyway, the contractors that Douglas looked for were not needed: On July 31, the newspaper reported that “a body of miners have made a proposition to Gov. Douglas, upon conditions to cut a good road through from Lillooet Lake to the Upper Fraser river. They offer to labor on the road from four to six weeks, or longer if necessary, upon condition that the government buy and furnish them with provisions during the time they are so employed, at Victoria prices — each miner deposits $25 with the government, to be used by it in purchasing the supplies, as a guarantee on the part of the miners to do the work. At the end of the route and the work the miners are to receive provisions to the amount of $25 each…”
James Douglas considered the offer, and accepted it, and the miners paid in their money. By August 4, 1858, “The full complement of five hundred men to assist in opening the Harrison River Route to the Upper Fraser, upon the terms stated in yesterdays Gazette, has been obtained. It is therefore useless for miners to make any further application for enlistment. All day yesterday, certificates of deposit for the $25 were being issued, and a great crowd besiged the Collectors office. On Thursday morning, the first detachment [of miners] started for the scence of their labours, on board the steamer Otter.” The Otter was a larger steamship; as you will see, she would drop off the miners she carried at Point Roberts, and the Umatilla would pick them up and take them the rest of the way to Harrison Lake.
So, here is the beginning of Lieutenant Henry Spencer Palmer’s journal of his expedition over the Harrison Lillooet trail in early summer, 1859. [Queensborough was the then capital of British Columbia, or it is at least the place where all the steamers seemed to begin their journey].
Lieutenant Palmer to Col. R. S. Moody, R.E., F.R.G.S., &c., May 1859
Sir. As the existing route from Queen[s]borough [New Westminster] to [Port] Douglas can be performed throughout by steamers, at certain seasons of the year, I deem it unnecessary to describe it in detail, dwelling only on those points where engineering work will be necessary to establish it as a permanent route for river steamers at all times.
The Harrison Lake runs into the Fraser from the northward, at about 35 miles by water above Fort Langley. At the mouth the river is broad and deep, and the current by no means swift, the water of the Harrison being backed up by that of the Fraser in this season.” It is May when Palmer reaches the mouth of the Harrison: the season of the Fraser River freshets, and the water in the Fraser ran high and fast. “About 3 miles from the mouth, however, it is extremely shallow and rapid, and although a channel does exist, which will admit of batteaux drawing 1 foot or 18 inches of water being towed through at the lowest stages of the water, it is a great deal too tortuous, narrow, and shallow, to admit of the passage of steamers of the class at present running on the Fraser, except at high stages of the water.”
And yet, the Umatilla seemed to have no problem with this shallow river. (Perhaps she is no longer on the Fraser River). This is what the gold miners say of their journey up the Fraser from Point Roberts, where they transferred from the Otter to the Umatilla, as reported in the Gazette of August 14, 1858:
On Saturday morning, August 7th, the companies built their fires on the bank in sight of Fort Langley, and we cooked our own breakfasts with Fraser River water, making our first bivouac together. After this, we started up river, with a gleam of sunshine smiling occasionally on the lovely banks of the stream, the scene being enlivened from time to time by canoes full of miners or Indians going swiftly down. It was 9 1/2 am when we got off, having two of the H.B. Co.’s barges in tow, taking with them some of the Co’s Indians and men.
At 5 1/4 pm we entered the clear water of Harrison River, at the entrance to which we noticed an Indian burying place adorned with, apparently, full sized figures of the departed braves, sculptured in wood or highly colored. The whole had a very picturesque appearance together with many points of superlative attractions to be met with on this interesting route. WDW.
The Victoria Gazette of July 18, 1858, says this of the mouth of the Harrison River:
Harrison River discharges into the Fraser from the Northward, its mouth being about thirty five miles above Fort Langley. The steamer was a little over six hours from the Fort to the mouth of the river. Fraser River widens at this place, and makes a series of shoals and bars. As you enter the river, the contrast between the turbid and rapid waters of the Fraser and the clear, green appearance of the Harrison is quite remarkable. Where the two streams meet, a distinct line, as if drawn by art, is apparent. From stemming laboriously against a strong current, we shot into a perfectly calm body of water with no more current than would be noticed in an inland pond. Two or three Indian rancherias or villages, seemingly newly built. stand on the opposite bank of the Fraser, which besides being wide, is here shallow, except in the channel, and is clogged in many places with logs and trunks of trees that have lodged on the shoal spots.
Several boats full of upward-bound miners were ahead of us, and they, passing the mouth of Harrison River on their way to Fort Hope, looking back to see us follow as they supposed. They were considerably astonished to see us shoot out of Fraer into the unexplored Harrison, and thinking we had mistaken the channel, waved and shouted to us, pointing up the main stream, but we steamed steadily onwards, and were soon out of sight and hearing.
Soon after entering Harrison’s River, scenery of the most stupendous character presented itself. The river flows without bend or crook for about half a mile, and then turning suddenly to the right, opens into a beautiful clear lake, which is, in fact, the widening of the river. Three mountain peaks averaging not less than four thousand feet each, and standng about a mile apart, their summits piercing the clouds, which borne by the increasing afternoon breeze sail slowly about their airy home, or taken by some giddy blast go whirling down the lofty granite precipices that make the head dizzy to contemplate. The lake into which we had steamed almost imperceptibly is of a circular form, about two miles across, and of unknown depth. Captain Ainsworth ordered the lead to be thrown, but the utmost length of the line found no bottom. This basin seems to be formed by the descending granite foundations of the surrounding mountains, whose giant forms are dimly reflected in its placid water. We were never weary of admiring the curious formations about us. The cliffs seemed the more impending from their perpendicular height without break, and only indented here and there with great fissures in the rock, or bearded with solemn cedars and firs, which at their giddy distance above us, dwindled into shrubs. We could detect no current, though we well know that Harrison Lake above is charged into it, and is the only outlet for the waters of the lake.
The description of this river continues: clearly it is a beautiful spot, and the writer is enraptured. Just a little way up this same river is Harrison Lake and the resort of Harrison Hot Springs, with its stories of young beautiful women being snatched off the beach by a sasquatch — told with great relish every April Fools’ Day. My family is part of this story: when A.C. Anderson passed over the long portage (which will appear in a later piece of this series), the First Nations men who guided him brought him to a rock that was, apparently, stamped with a human footprint. They did not tell them it was the sign of a sasquatch (it wasn’t that to them): but later historians have made it part of their sasquatch history, and so did Harrison Hot Springs resort! The sasquatch story made Harrison Hot Springs famous: what an amazing marketing plan they had! And the marketing of the resort was aided, of course, by a newspaperman named John Green, who owned the local newspaper in Abbotsford, and who was a good friend of “Pinky” Bruce McKelvie, historian and newspaperman, and of “Torchy” H.H.C. Anderson, A.C. Anderson’s grandson. Both of these men were interested in the Sasquatch stories that abound in the region — and part of the reason for their interest was because Torchy owned one of the few copies of J. R. Anderson’s memoirs, which carried a transcript of his father’s journal. At no point in Anderson’s writing is there mention of a sasquatch. Nevertheless, he is known everywhere as “the first white man to have seen a sasquatch,” and in some stories he is “stoned by them” as he walks along the banks of the Fraser River. This is part of our family history.
This story is not going to be easy to write: there are so many small stories that make up the big one — and so many people talking! Nevertheless, its an important story and it connects with The HBC Brigades, and so I am eager to put it together. When it is continued, it will appear here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/harrison-river/
Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved.
Very Interesting read Thanks !!!