Dugald Mactavish
Who was Dugald Mactavish, who took over Fort Vancouver after Peter Skene Ogden’s death in 1854? Bruce McIntyre Watson, in his book “Lives Lived,” tells us he was born in…
Read moreCharles John Griffin
I first ran into Charles John Griffin in the York Factory Express journals of 1849, when he came into the country West of the Rocky Mountains with John Charles’s incoming…
Read moreProvisioning the York Factory Express
I am writing about the York Factory Express — the annual journey the traders from the West side of the Rocky Mountains made to the HBC headquarters on Hudson Bay…
Read moreYork Factory Express, Carlton, Cumberland and Norway Houses
In this post, the York Factory Express men are on their way to Norway House, their next destination. In 1847, Fort Vancouver’s clerk Thomas Lowe began his journey from Carlton…
Read moreAnderson’s Tree
In 1846, the British and American governments negotiated the placement of the new Boundary line through Hudson’s Bay Company lands west of the Rocky Mountains. The HBC’s governor, George Simpson,…
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