The Orkney Islands
“It is the lot and duty of every man to seek a profession,” Augustus Richard Peers wrote from Peel’s River House [later Fort McPherson] in the early 1850’s. “Some there…
Read moreKamloops to Campement a la Carabine, Copper Creek
From November 1842 to April 1848, Alexander Caulfield Anderson was in charge of Fort Alexandria, on the upper Fraser River, north of Soda Creek and south of Quesnel. In the…
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 moreJohn Cole
John Cole: Who the heck is he? John Cole was never employed in the fur trade West of the Rocky Mountains — and yet he played a role in its…
Read moreJohn Lee Lewes, the fop of the fur trade
In 1848, Alexander Caulfield Anderson left Fort Alexandria forever, and took over the supervision of Fort Colvile, on the Columbia River just south of the 49th parallel. The man in…
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