Boat Encampment
The year is 1824, and Governor George Simpson is coming to visit the Columbia district for the first time. His next stop will be at Boat Encampment, on the Big…
Read moreFort Assiniboine
Governor Simpson has just reached Fort Assiniboine in his journey west from York Factory in 1824. In his journal of a year earlier, clerk John Work described this post, which…
Read morePaul Kane’s Rocky Mountains
In late 1847, the artist, Paul Kane begins his hike across the Rocky Mountains from Boat Encampment to Edmonton House. This is not the time of year I would enjoy…
Read moreWarre and Vavasour
Captain Henry James Warre, a British officer, and Lieutenant Mervin Vavasour, of the Royal Engineers, visited Forts Vancouver and Victoria in 1845 and 1846. Both Warre and Vavasour presented themselves…
Read moreDavid Douglas’s Athabasca River
In 1827, botanist David Douglas travelled with the outgoing York Factory Express down the Athabasca River to Jasper’s House. From the height of the Rocky Mountains, as shown above, the…
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