CHAPTER IV.
GOLDEN AND THE COUNTRY OF THE UPPER COLUMBIA.
GOLDEN.
Golden, originally the "Golden City," is a little town of nearly 1,000 inhabitant.s well laid out among the trees at the mouth of the Kicking Horse Valley, 1½ miles from the junction of its river with the great Columbia. It is thus at the frontier of the Upper Columbia Valley. Its altitude is 2,560 feet, the highway of the railway having, since leaving the summit at Stephen (5,329 feet) 45 miles east, dropped 2,769 feet. The chief industry is lumbering, the Columbia River uumber Company operating large mills there and employing mostly Asiatic labour. There are five churches, two public schools, a high school, a court house, and a weekly paper; also several good stores, a large business being conduted by the member of the B.C. Legislature who carries supplies for sportsmen. Tourists may like to know that camera and kodak supplies are sold by J. A. Buckham. There are several hotels, the best being the "Columbia"' ($3 to $4 a day) and the "Queen's" ($2 to $4 a day.)
Golden has the only hospital on the railway between Banff and Kevelstoke. Supported by a provincial grant and private beneficence, it is a well equipped and attractive looking institution set in a tenacre park. The future of the town is bound up with the progress of the Upper Columbia and with the mining developments in the mineralized mountains surrounding it. The completed railway from the Crow's Nest Pass to Golden will mean the beginning of a large and prosperous town. A bridge across the Columbia is greatly needed to connect with the western side of the Columbia Valley and with the numerous trails penetrating the valleys and passes of the Dogtooth and Spillimacheen Mountains. Excellent roads and trails run in all directions, and up the mountains. Ponies may be taken up the nearer mountains for some distance, and the old Indian foot-paths can be follow-ed to the summits. There are no high mountains near the town.
Golden has an asset in its pure dry air and the steady cold of its winters, and is recommended as a place of healing for incipient tuberculosis. Cures have, been effected after a few years residence there.
Places of Interest near Golden and Beyond:
Excursions on foot; Hospital Creek Falls, 2 miles; Kicking Horse Canyon, 1 mile: Phantom Lake, ½ mile: Race-Course, 14 mile; Junction of the Kicking Horse and Columbia Rivers, 1 mile.
Points reached by saddle-trail in one day: On the first "bench" of the Rockies. Hospital Falls and trail above Kicking Horse Canyon; Mt. Moberly; Canyon Creek in the Selkirks across the Columbia, 8 miles by trail.
Short Drives:' to Moberly 8 miles north; to Hadden's "Roadhouse," 13 miles south.
Long excursions on the stage road by carriage or motor; to Cranbrook, 180 miles south. "Stopping places" and distances from Golden: Hadden's, 13 miles; Johnson's, 18 miles; McKeeman's, 29 miles; Spillimacheen, 41 miles: Dolan's, 54 miles: Windermere, 82 miles; Fairmont Springs, 93 miles; Sante's, 106 miles; Wolf Creek, Hanson's. 151 miles; Fort Steele, 160 miles; Cranbrook, 180 miles.
A loop-line for automobiles is made by crossing the bridge at Athalmer to Wilmer, driving to Number 3 Creek, the South Fork of Salmon Arm, Spillimacheen Ferry and Golden, the round journey covering 165 miles. On this excursion, side trips can be made from Wilmer: to Invermere, Paradise Mine, and Mountain Valley Ranch.
Tariff rates for carriage and saddle horses at Livery (A. C. Hamilton)—Carriages, seating two, four or six persons, $1.50. $2.00 and $3.00 per first hour; 50c., $1.00 and $2.00 for every additional hour (without driver for two, with driver for four or six persons). One horse and carriage per day with driver, $6; without $5. Carriages for four persons $8 per day; for six persons $10—in each case with driver.
Excursions by water: for Passenger Steam Klahowya, see the Waterway of the Upper Columbia.
By canoe, rowboat or launch: To Phantom Lake, Cedar Lake and small lakes and channels on either side of the Columbia River; also up the River to the Kootenay. Boats to hire, 15 minutes' walk from town; canoes to rent from J. A. Buckham at $1 a day; launch with engineer from J. Gould for $5 an hour.
Upper Columbia River, Evening
ALONG THE COLUMBIA RIVER BETWEEN GOLDEN AND BEAVERMOUTH ARE SEVERAL POINTS OF INTEREST.
Beavermouth—Name: By the C.P.R. Company with reference to the Beaver and Columbia Rivers about one and a half miles below the station. Altitude: 2,435 feet. Here is a forsaken village. At one time a lumber mill gave employment to a considerable community. Now decaying cabins and a skeleton mill remain to tell the tale, The big mogul engines used to push the trains up the steep grades of the Beaver River Valley to the summit of Rogers Pass are kept at Beavermouth. The grade is cut along the west side of the valley and climbs nearly 1,000 feet in sixteen miles. To appreciate the difficulties of so remarkable engineering, a position should be taken on the edge of the Prairie Hills bounding the Beaver Valley on the east, from where the road-bed shows a white line against the dark background of the western slopes. With a field-grass as many as twenty bridges can be counted crossing the racing torrents. Some of these bridges are beautiful structures of steel, making one wonder how such slender combinations can support the weight of heavy trains.
At Beavermouth. Quartz Creek from the northern interior of the Dogtooth Mountains joins the Columbia River. It has been pointed out in the monograph on the Dogtooth Mountains, that a trail might be made up Quartz Valley to connect with the Canyon Creek trail from Colden. For many years placer gold mining was carried on not far from the mouth of the stream, but with no great profits. And it may be going on still, but in a very small way.
Blaeberry Crossing—Name: With reference to the Blaeberry River so called from the quantities of huckleberries (Vaccinium) found on the slopes of its valley.. Its source is in a glacier lying on the south slope of the Great Divide many miles back in the Rockies north-easterly from its mouth. The glaciers on the opposite side of the Divide are those which supply the headwaters of the Saskatchewan river, and the pass leading over it is the historic Howse Pass, a low one, 4,500 feet in altitude. The Blaeberry River has associations with the old fur-traders and explorers, both the North-West Fur Company and the Hudson's Bay Company making it a highway of trade. The route lay over Howse Pass and down the Blaeberry to the Columbia Valley which it traversed by road or river as far as Beavermouth. there following the great Columbia northward round the Big Bend.
Donald—Name: By the C.P.R. Company. Presumably after Sir Donald A. Smith (now Lord Strathcona and Mt. Royal) a director of the Company. Altitude: 2,580 feet. Location: A "siding" on the railway, twelve miles easterly from Beavermouth on the Columbia River. Donald, once a Divisional Point on the railway and a flourishing village beautiful for its situation between the grey Rockies and the dark Selkirks, is now not only a deserted village but an abandoned site. Except the old station and one or two buildings, the town has been removed piecemeal; and a scene of railway and mining industry has reverted to almost primeval wilderness, its streets overgrown with rank vegetation. It has had its "scenes, its joys, its crimes"—and its characters. Sheriff R, to wit, was the peer of Baron Munchausen. He told his tales to humble and eminent alike, with a quaint and whimsical innocence, and his auditors were wont to say that the Sheriff came to believe them himself. They ought to have gone into black and white, and so into the literature of the country. Many of them are still retold, but only the Sheriff could have presented them in dramatic shape to the reading public. A human type of another sort was "Father Pat," a gentle Anglican Cleryman with a roving missionary commission whom navvy and miner worshipped as preacher and man, and whose tragic death occurred many years after in Montreal. No typical town of the far West contained richer material for literature than Donald, but it vanished like many nomadic settlements of the eighties and early nineties.
About one and a half miles west of Donald the railway crosses the Columbia which presently enters one of those picturesque savage gorges peculiar to the mountains. The canyon is long and narrow, confining the river by steep rock-bluff's with many a buttress capped by stately conifers, extending into the torrent and disputing it« passage. The railway track follows the curves of the river and pro vides a delightful excursion on foot.
Redgrave—Name: By the C.P.R. Company, after Sheriff Red grave of local fame as a modern Munchausen. Altitude: 2,540 feet. Location: A "siding" on the railway, seven miles from Beavermouth, where the gorge is very narrow, and close to steep overhanging cliffs. A watchman is stationed here to guard the track from falling rocks. A short distance below are two wildly foaming rapids worth a visit. Not far below the second one, the canyon widens out into wooded levels as far as Beavermouth, and the river resumes its gentler flow.
Smoking Room, Club House
THE UPPER COLUMBIA.
Whittier's familiar couplet might have been written of this mighty river that encompasses the Selkirks and winds the length of its long chain well-nigh 1,400 miles to the sea. Watching its tumultuous yellow waves from the railway train, the traveller may not know that for fully 20 miles from its fountain-head in the Columbia Lake, 100 miles south, its waters are clear as crystal. The Columbia is a famous river in a Province of famous rivers. It is the largest and longest of the great waterways in North America emptying into the Pacific Ocean, half of its sinuous length being in Canada. It drains an area of 298,000 square miles. The tourist who makes the inland voyage, by steamer or canoe, from C4olden at its confluence with the Kicking Horse to Windermere, companies with only a small portion of the old River. Nevertheless, this portion which flows through a rich and lovely valley must once have been many miles wide—as wide as the distance between the Selkirks and the Rockies stretching on either side. For you may watch the [1]River carrying down soil. The grade here is less than a foot to a mile, and its continuous abrupt winding for 40 miles and more south gives the voyager an impression of sailing over a long series of lagoons. In places the valley is 10 miles wide, and its fine white soil is exceedingly rich, requiring only water to produce anything that will grow in the temperate zone.
Although there is an excellent picturesque road that often rises to skirt the foothills, the happiest way of travel to the Windermere is by the River. The passenger boat, Klahowya, leaves Golden, during the summer, at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The summer weather is always clear and sunny, once you are well within the southern reaches of the valley. Then, ever on the west side, the richly wooded ranges of the Selkirks softly fold and unfold; ever on the east, the treeless upper parts of the Rockies take on in strong sunshine, indescribable hues, between crystal and pale sapphire. No definite words, compact of colour, as rose or purple, can give any concrete and accurate idea of their appearance of bright morning of sunlight. Under a sky of deep cerulean blue, the sun seems to touch the rock with the transparency of a faint blue gem. In the afternoon and evening, their colours are definite rose and violet, all their sharp configuration softening as the day wanes, while the recesses of the Selkirks fill with an intense and melancholy blue.
Very few of the peaks are named and those named are not likely submitted to the Geographic Board. Mt. Manitoba, named for his own province by Sir John Schultz, stands up conspicuously in the Rockies; and, in the Selkirks, Mt. Ethelbert, named by Captain Armstrong for the first nun to ascent the River. She died on board the Captain's boat. Ptarmigan, and was buried as Sister Ethelbert. The Government map marks a mountain in the Selkirks about forty miles from Golden by the River, as Jubilee Mountain, probably named in the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
The valley itself is now lowland, colloquially "riverbottom"' covered with low-growing shrubbery and deciduous trees; and now high "benches" studded with large firs, naturally terraced parks— receding to the base of the mountains. (Occasionally a farm slopes to the River's margin, but mostly the cultivated farms lie unseen from the steamer. On a bench 150 feet high that borders the River, is a flagstaff erected by a farmer who first unfurled the Union Jack for the victory of Mafeking. It is one of the River's landmarks.
This part of the great River is now a comparatively idle waterway, but in a few years it will not be so, though its craft will be employed in pleasure rather than in pure commerce. For the speedier railway, soon to connect the Kicking Horse and Crow's Nest Passes, will carry the ore and the cattle and all the merchandise of trade created by a people who will live in comfort or wealth and die in the valley. Though the bottles of heaven are stopped for two months and more in summer, irrigation will make the dry benches and inter vals "rejoice and blossom as the rose." An occasional motor-boat is now seen where fleets of this modern pleasure craft will soon be familiar. And always as hitherto the River will be the happy waterway of the canoeist.
It is from glacial Toby Creek just below the Lake called Windermere that the River receives its first soiling. Windermere is as limped water as flows in Canada, and shallow along its margin making safe and excellent bathing. No one has yet been drowned in its waters.
Canterbury Point on the western shore of the Lake whose name is now changed to Invermere, has been often pointed out as the sight of Thompson's Fort (1807-11), there being wooden ruins attesting some old habitation. But Thompson's Fort called "Kootenae House" was imdoubtedly situated north of Toby Creek near its mouth where it is marked on his remarkable map made two years later. The warehouse, says Thompson's biographer, was built on the low land by the Columbia Pviver and the dwelling house was farther back on the higher terrace. This would settle any controversy. Elsewhere in this book reference has been made to Thompson's associations with the Columbia River and how he happened to paddle south to its source. His biography—now in preparation by Mr. J. B. Tyrrell for the Champlain Society—will be a distinct gain to Canadian History and a longdelayed appreciation of the greatest geographer Canada has ever known.
Thus, before 1807, the history of the Upper Columbia and Kootenay regions belongs to the Indian; and comes down in legends of intertribal wars. A great battle fought centuries ago between the Kootenays and the Blackfeet is recorded in aboriginal hieroglyphics of red pigment on an outstanding rock near the shore of the Columbia Lake, twenty miles south of Thompson's fort. An ancient footpath, the Spirit Trail of the Indians, leads beyond this and kindred pictured rocks, three miles away Near the trail are mounds built up of leaf mould and twigs, altars where to this day, the Indian passing along, lays a tiny branch, his offering to the Great Spirit. And he would be an unwise and unworthy christian who tried to dissuade him from the reverent and truly religious custom.
From 1807 to 1811. the year of Thompson's last visit, the white man lightly touches the history of this country. It reverts to the Indian again until 1864 when Dr. Toby came, and gave his name to the wild canyon whose repute has travelled far. After Dr. Toby came miners, whiskey pedlars, the N. W. Mounted Police, and a few ranchers. Windermere was built on a terrace overlooking the lake, for many years the considerable village of the district and a stoppingplace for travel between Golden and Cranbrook. Thirteen miles south at Fairmont was Brewer's, the most comfortable wayside inn of the Upper Columbia Valley which in time came to be called by some who lived in it. the "Happy Valley." Behind Brewers, a hot sulphur spring was and is to this day used gratis by travellers.
The Upper Columbia is literally a "Happy Valley;" rich agriculture along the River, angling in the creeks, shooting in the foothills, mining in the mountain-sides and mountaineering among the glaciers over the summits. Could diversity further go? The only limitation and nuisance to visitors there is the white dust which in summer drought rises from its roads with every puff of wind and every step of man and beast. But dwellers there and lovers of that fascinating country are gaily impervious to its discomfort. Besides, it is absolutely free from microbes. It is rare to die in the "Happy Valley," save from old age or accident. Obviously there is no dust to speak of in the upper parts of the tributary valleys.
Once the railway is completed that unites the Kicking Horse Pass and the Crow's Nest Pass, the country will be settled by an agrarian population. Some 45,000 acres are owned by the Columbia Valley Irrigated Fruit Lands Company which is also a colonizing company selling its lands direct to the settler. This company has expended large sums in irrigation canals and is the first colonizing agency in the upper country of the great River. An International movement is now on foot looking to commercial navigation from its source to the confluence with the Pacific Ocean. Indeed, this was the dream of those who carried on trade between Montana and the Columbia Valley in the latter part of the last century, transportation being by pack-train on land and by canoe or boat on the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers. It is here that the geographical phenomenon occurs of the Kootenay flowing south and parallel to the Columbia flowing north. So close do the two rivers come in one place that a canal scarcely a mile long was once built connecting them, with the object of making a short commercial watercourse across the International Boundary. But for some reason it was shortly abandoned.
There is a trail around the Upper Columbia Lake which is 10 miles long and lies in the midst of park-land characteristic of the valley. But you may ride at random through the trees after leaving the main road. Any knowing reliable pony will carry you over the "benches" to the high margin of Columbia Lake.
Who would not like to read the record of Thompson's emotions when he saw this lake, and knew he had found the source of the River? Did he then realize the length and great turnings of the mighty waterway whose first white companion he was from its fountain-head to its confluence with the ocean? If you read the history of the River and company with it by sun and stars for scarcely one hundred miles, you have strange feelings not unmingled with wonder and melancholy, when you come to its source. Dwellers in the Happy Valley strike their roots deep and love their River and Mountains as they love the flag.
Tributaries to the Columbia.
Among the streams tributary to the Columbia River between Golden and Columbia Lake and having their sources in the Selkirks, counting north and south, are: Canyon Creek, Spillimacheen River, Bugaboo Creek, Salmon River, No. 3 Creek, No. 2 Creek, Horse Thief Creek, Toby Creek, and Dutch Creek. The next creek south is Findlay Creek always associated with the Upper Columbia; the upper part of its valley lies west of Columbia Lake, but its confluence is with the Kootenay River below "Canal Flats."
Notable streams flowing from the Rockies are Vermillion and Sinclair Creeks.
Athalmer is a village on the western side of the Columbia near its confluence with Toby Creek and where it leaves Lake Windermere The population is about 100. There is a livery, a hotel and two stores. On the western shore of the northern extremity of the lake, Captain Armstrong's houseboat, the Isabel, is moored for the summer months and accommodates some twenty guests; rates $2.50 and $3.00 per day. Rowboats, canoes, carriage and saddle horses can be obtained at regular rates. A telephone connects with Mountain Valley Ranch on Dutch Creek.
Carbonate Landing—Name: With reference to mines in the vicinity. Location: A steamboat landing on the Columbia River some 20 miles south-easterly from Golden where considerable ore was once shipped from the mines. Practically no ore is taken out now. This landing is chiefly important as an ingress to a miner's trail leading across the south-east extremity of the Dogtooth Mountains to another trail up the North Branch of the Spillimacheen River giving access to mining properties at the head of the valley and at the head of the tributary valley to McMurdo Creek. It is a thoroughly alpine route and would make a splendid summer outing, with ponies to carry the camp "outfit."
Route: Take the steamer from Golden to Carbonate Landing; follow the trail to the head of the North Branch of the Spillimacheen and descend the West Branch of Grizzly Creek, and follow on to Bear Creek Station at the mouth of Rogers Pass, or else cross Bald Mountain and follow the Beaver Valley trail to the same point.
Columbia Lake is 20 miles south of Lake Windermere. Both were called the Kootenae Lakes by their discoverer. About halfway between them is a small body of water named Mud Lake. Just south of Columbia Lake is the old canal uniting its waters with the Kootenay River, fallen into disuse shortly after its construction. The vicinity is called Canal Flats. Columbia Lake is 9 or 10 miles long. From the high "bench" studded with great firs abutting its northern margin, the appearance of this beautiful water is as of an arm of the sea sweeping around a wooded cape. Herds of cattle graze on the dry though nourishing "bench-grass" on the surrounding benches. Horses can be ridden anywhere through the trees. The (government map shows a road extending around the lake. There is a picturesque bridle-path, probably an old Indian trail, along the eastern shore. The place is of extreme natural and archaeological interest. Here are the aboriginal hieroglyphics indelibly marked on the faces of precipitous rocks awaiting interpretation by the archaeologist. Fairmont is the nearest base for an excursion to Columbia Lake.
Dutch Creek is the most southerly of the more important valleys running up into the hills from the Columbia. It is given over to the rancher, the hunter and the angler. A well-known horse-ranch, owned and operated by Captain Thorold, is situated some eight miles from the road leading up the valley, half this distance having a waggonroad and the remainder a bridle trail, thus keeping intact a certain romantic remoteness. Dutch Creek runs through one of the best deer forests in that upper country and provides excellent fishing in season.
Fairmont: North of Windermere, the best known spot on the Rocky Mountains side of the Columbia is Fairmont Hotel Springs, long known locally and to the world outside as Brewer's StoppingPlace, a wayside inn where the traveller was served in homely fashion and with the old-fashioned sense of obligation. Many a motley group has foregathered around the long supper table in Brewer's hospitable kitchen. Right by the door a clear cold pebbly stream runs singing from the mountains. Half a mile by trail up the mountain-side is the hot sulphur spring where baths may be had for the mere taking. A primitive shelter of spruce branches is over the pool protecting the bather. The inn has changed hands and is now owned by a young Englishman who has accommodation for a limited number of guests at $2.00 a day. Persons seeking accommodation for a week or more should write to Mr. A. Hankey, Fairmont, B.C.
Fairmont is 40 miles by the road from Fort Steele south, and 13 miles from Windermere north—in the dry season 13 dusty miles—through picturesque farming lands. The inn, a commodious log house, is situated in a fair ground, the fairest in all the main valley of the Upper Columbia. It is likely to develop into a '"Hydro" for the baths. Here is an ideal situation for the country seat of a nobleman with an agrarian tenantry, with house-parties for the hunting and fishing. In the recesses of the Rockies immediately behind the house are the deer and the goat and the big-horn and the grouse; and the Selkirks with more game are across the river. The fish are in nearly all the streams. Everywhere, in the valley and on the edge of the foothills, there is grazing for the cattle. Here too, the nearer mountains rise more abruptly and to a higher altitude, providing first-rate rock-climbing for one-day's outing. Some of the peaks are, at a venture, placed at 10,000 feet.
Findlay Creek figures conspicuously in the eighties for its mining properties. About that time an English lady, who afterwards put her experiences in a book, "Impressions of a Tenderfoot," spent some time there in a cabin with a companion while her husband was shooting in the neighbourhood. Going up the Columbia she was the only lady among the group of miners, prospectors and surveyors on the steamer. She tells how four men each had washed out $14,000 worth of gold in three months; and how another made $250,000 in seven weeks and proceeded to San Francisco to dissipate it as speedily as possible. Now, as then, there is good fishing in the creek; now, as then, deer are running in the forests; but the mining places are given over mainly to horse-ranching. Findlay Creek got its name from a Scottish "free-trader" who once lived in the neighbourhood and gathered furs for barter with the big Fur Companies.
Mt. Hammond received its present name in honour of a Mr. Hammond, of Toronto. It is doubtless the high mountain named Mt. Nelson by Thompson the first white man to see it. The altitude by aneroid barometer is given as 12,125 feet. From the ridge above Paradise Mine, it is seen an isolated mountain with precipitous sides. a small hanging glacier, and a split summit.
First ascent: By C. D. Ellis a rancher in the hills, in September, 1910. The first attempt was made by Professor H. C. Parker, of New York, in 1909. Mr. E. W. Harnden. of Boston, climbed with Ellis to an altitude of 11,000 feet when they discovered they had taken a wrong route. Not being in proper climbing fettle, Mr. Harnden reluctantly relinquished the virgin summit to his companion. An account of the climb, which was made from a camp at Paradise Mine, appeared in "The Mountaineer"
(Seattle) November, 1910. No actual "times" are given. From this point (11,000) we may follow Mr. Harnden's account as published:
"Taking a course a little west of north, Ellis continued until he found himself overlooking Boulder Creek (a tributary of Horse Thief Creek) and immediately under the crown of the summit at an elevation of 12,000 feet. Here a bastion of hard limestone blocked the ascent. Following east and south for some 50 feet, he came to a fissure which proved impossible on account of ice and water and a huge wedged-in rock; then to a dry fissure impossible for its smoothness; and finally to one of rotten rock but with footholds and hand holds, by which he gained the top about the middle of the afternoon, where he built a cairn and deposited his record." The party left camp early in the morning and returned late at night. It was a difficult and dangerous climb and may be counted the inauguration of the sport in the Windermere region where Swiss guides will doubtless be stationed ere long.
The double summit of Mt. Hammond, of which the southern is the highest by a few feet, is owing to disintegration and the whole crown would have fallen away long ago but for the solid limestone bastion mentioned. The crown is covered with fragments of "green lime shale tinged with red iron stain."
Horse Thief Creek: Its name is suggestive of the lawless days before the coming of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, those Red Riders that established British law and order in the West. If this unbeautiful name is to remain, we wish it were in the Indian synonym. Horse Thief Creek flows north of Toby Creek and be tween them is that group of glacier-bearing mountains mostly un named of which Mt. Hammond is one. The Creek rises far back in the mountains in Starbird Glacier named for its discoverer. This glacier, which has an interesting medial moraine, offers attraction in glacier research to the geologist. About midway up the valley McDonald Creek flows from its source in McDonald Glacier at 7,500 of altitude where are silver mines to which a waggon-road runs. Hard by stands Mt. Farnham, a giant of some possible 12.000 feet. The glacier joins the Tilbury Glacier at the head of the Little North Fork of Toby Creek. Here is exercise on both ice and rock for those seeking new peaks and passes to conquer. The col itself is said to
be over 10,000 feet high. An attractive aspect to "the general" is their accessibility by an excellent road.
On Horse Thief creek, just where it emerges from the mountains, is Mountain Valley Ranch, a holiday resort in keeping with the country, owned and managed by Thomas Starbird. The farmhouse has developed into a large and comfortable inn with modern conveniences, where guests are welcome in all seasons. Fishing, riding, shooting and mountain climbing are the chief sports. Guests who prefer it, may live in cottages or tents on the premises. The good driving roads will enhance the attractions of this place for elderly people.
Mountain Valley Ranch is reached by a mountain road 13 miles from Wilmer. Tourists travelling by steamer may communicate with the proprietor by telephone from the houseboat Isabel at the mouth of Lake Windermere. A wide trail made by the proprietor leads by the upper reaches of Horse Thief River to Starbird Glacier. For about a mile from the ice-tongue, the river runs through an alpine meadow which is both park and garden for the beauty of its trees and flowers; then it plunges over a precipice falling some hundreds of feet in a typical cataract. All along the upper valley, cascades are falling from high sources in cliff-glaciers unseen from the 10 miles of trail below.
There are other tributary glens north where ranching and the noble sports are friendly rivals. It is, too, a country of lakes, which is a new story in the topography of the Selkirks. From a peak in that region Mr. Ellis counted 27 lakes.
Number Three Creek is called a good fishing place with its Fish Lakes about 12 miles north by a good road from Wilmer. In "No. (illegible text) Country" the game warden found a colony of beaver of some hundreds. John Hurst, the oldest resident on the creek, provides entertainment for hunters and fishermen, and is a reliable guide.
Sinclair Pass, Falls, and Hot Springs, may be mentioned as germane to the Selkirks. Sinclair Pass is near the head of Sinclair Creek in the Rockies. It is the lowest pass (4,662 ft.) between the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers. A trail leads up and over the pass and across the Kootenay to White Man"s Pass below Mt. Assiniboine, a branch trail leading to Banff. A motor road is now being built over this route from the Windermere road to Banff.
Sinclair Hot Springs have not been exploited for the general public; but for years miners and settlers suffering from rheumatism and other afflictions have found their medicinal properties effectual. The springs are near ledges of rich mineral deposits, oxide of iron, copper and galena—ledges extending along the range and showing from the steamer, red and yellow stains on the mountains for nearly 50 miles.
Spillimacheen River: An important tributary of the Columbia flowing down from the Spillimacheen fountains and joining the River at Spillimacheen Landing some 40 miles from Golden. Toby Creek, rising in Toby Glacier and flowing some 40 miles to its confluence with the Columbia River at Athalmer, received its name from Dr. Toby, who came into that country in 1864, the fir.st white man to follow Thompson, though over half a century later. It is a wild and beautiful canyon. the most famous for beauty of forest and stream and white alpine landscape among the southern tributaries of the Columbia. This valley, too, has had its scenes of prospecting and mining and is rich in minerals; but all mining activities have ceased, awaiting the branch railway for the transportation of ore. One desperate scene is now impressed upon a mountain side where a large tract of the dark, softly even, luxuriant forest is blasted from the upper tree-line to the rocky margin of the beautiful little river below; where every serried trunk stands summit behind summit black and naked and dead. It marks the rage of a disap- pointed prospector whose only regret was that the fire stopped and that he "had not burnt the whole valley to" (these are words with which the mountain-pilgrim has no concern). When civilization advances sufficiently, we shall electrocute such criminals. This is the only blight on that richly beautiful alpine valley, a valley that Wordsworth, and Coleridge and Shelley and all the poets of mountain-landscape had rejoiced to see; and seeing, had rendered into song.
There is a good driving-road for 30 miles to Earl Grey's camp whence a saddle-trail leads across Earl Grey Pass (7,500 feet) to Hamil Creek and down towards the Kootenay Valley. At the head of Toby Creek Valley the visitor is in a truly alpine country. Toby Glacier itself is worthy the Selkirks as the accompanying illustrations show.
Mr. E. W. Harnden, to whose courtesy the illustrations are owing, compares the view from Earl Grey Pass to the "Monte Rosa- Lyksamm-Breithorn view from the Corner Grat, and of the Jungfrau group from the Scheidegg. To the east is the broad expanse of the Toby Glacier, to the south-east the towering peaks from which the glacier sweeps, and to the south one of the noblest mountains bear- ing some of the most beautiful and pure glaciers that I have ever seen." And this strategic place for mountaineering is, we are to note, very comfortable of access. Scarcely any of the mountains are named. Two minor peaks overlooking His Excellency's camp were named by Earl Grey "The Pharaohs" from a fancied resemblance. Toby Glacier is one of a number of the larger glaciers in the vicinity, and the immediate mountains unmeasured and imnamed are lofty ice-clad peaks estimated tentatively to be over 11,000 feet of altitude. The seracs of Toby Glacier here illustrated show its im- portance as an ice-river.
Toby Creek has two important tributaries: .Spring Creek, and Little North Fork which in turn has its own tributary, Delphine Creek.
Spring Creek: Following the road up Toby Creek, at the 12-mile post is a clearing with a cluster of frame cottages and log cabins called Pinehurst, just where Spring Creek empties into Toby Creek. The buildings, once occupied by persons connected with Paradise Mine and now vacant, would comfortably shelter a number of families seeking holidays and health. The dark evergreen forest is all about, yet there is ample open space and breadth of sky and a view of the high glaciers beyond; the wild torrent is just below and across the canyon the wooded mountain rises steeply. The only blemish on this lovely wilderness is the burnt tract described under Toby Creek.
Starbird Glacier (note its medial moraine)
View of Toby Glacier and Toby Mountain, from Earl Grey Pass
Here at Pinehurst the road branches, ascending the tributary valley to Paradise Mine 8,000 feet above sea. In letters though perhaps not in science, you might call it a hanging valley of lavish living forests and flowers. A lonely glen high in the depression of high hills, the road, wide enough for motors to pass, climbs for 10 miles with changing views of distant mountains at its every sharp curve or round corner. There is no dust: and it leads to the edge of a turfy meadow where the brave larches grow—the most lovable of all beautiful trees growing in high altitudes—and where lie snowbanks that are the fountain-head of Spring Creek. A ridge, perhaps 1,000 feet above the meadows, commands an outlook far-reaching—a confusion of glaciers and rock-summits, every grey peak in strong sunlight transmuted to faint sapphire among the white, white snows. It is quite true that the secret and most potent charm of mountaineering lies in the sights to be seen as one climbs from height to height. Knowing ones can from this ridge discern Mts. Assiniboine, Temple, Lefroy, Goodsir and many a separate peak in the Rockies; and, in the nearer Selkirks, Mts. Dawson, Sir Donald and others of the well-climbed districts. Immediately opposite the ridge stands Mt. Hammond first climbed by Mr. C. D. Ellis in 1910. This is no doubt the high mountain which Thompson named Nelson, the outstanding summit in its vicinity.
Little North Fork: Six miles beyond Pinehurst at the 18-mile post, Toby Creek receives this creek six miles long, which has a good driving road. A bridle-trail leads up its tributary, Delphine Creek, to its source in Tilbury Glacier over 9,000 feet above sea. Tilbury is the only glacier named among seven flowing from mountains which form a fine cirque at the head of Little North Fork Valley. There are altogether eight conspicuous peaks in the range which is shaped like a horseshoe. The appellation to suit is obvious, a nail for each peak. In this valley are the "Elysian Soda Springs" which prophesy a flourishing Hydropathic when the fame of the country spreads abroad.
Wilmer is a village back on the park-land, by road 2 miles from the steam-boat landing. It is north of Lake Windermere, the first of the three villages to be reached on the voyage up the River; and is the headquarters of the Columbia Irrigation Company. Its population is about 100 persons. Wilmer was founded by Mr. R. R. Bruce as a base for supplies for Paradise Mine on the mountain at the head of Spring Creek, 22 miles away by an excellent road. It is a centre for excursions The site of the North-West Fur Company's Fort built by David Thompson in 1807 near the mouth of Toby Creek, is about 1¼ miles from Wilmer. The excursions to the head of Toby Creek Canyon, to Paradise Mine near the base of Mt. Hammond, to Ptarmigan Mine opposite Mt. Farnham. to the Fish Lakes in Number 3 Creek, and to Mountain Valley Ranch up Horse Thief Creek are among the excursions best made from Wilmer. A shallow lake about 1½ miles long contiguous to the village will provide boating in summer, and skating, hockey and curling in winter.
About 4 miles from Wilmer on the Toby Creek road are two pretty green lakes set in tenuous forest of darker green, with thickly wooded hills behind rolling upward to mountains culminating in a high grey cone with white patches near the summit. The peak is Mt. Hammond many miles away, and the largest of the two lakes was once known locally as Toby Lake.
Windermere is a scattered village built on the eastern terraces of the Lake, and was once the only settlement between Golden and Cranbrook. It is the centre of a considerable ranching district running along the foothills of the Rockies. About four miles back, two miles of road and two of trail, stands Mt. Swansea, said to rise 3,000 ft. above the valley, commanding a wide view including 30 miles of the Columbia River. The village is half a mile from the steamboat landing. Where there is irrigation on the natural terrace, fruit trees are flourishing and the grass grows as radiantly green as in the humid atmosphere of the coast. One little nest of a place in the hollow of the terrace shows what wonders water will do in that arid-looking land. A small ditch makes a ribbon of green across the common. The water is taken from Windermere Creek, a stream supplying the little canals in various ranches on that side of the lake.
The village has two churches, a hotel, a livery and a store which keeps a stock of campers' supplies. The population is about 100, and if the ranching district of 10 miles extent is included, it reaches considerably over 300 (1911). Windermere Lake was named Kootenae Lake by David Thompson who discovered it in 1807. The origin of its present name is obvious. Windermere, in the geography of the English Lakes, is the Lake as the root of the word implies (mere: a lake, a sea); but in the nomenclature of the Upper Columbia, the added "Lake" is not considered a redundancy. Therefore, we follow the custom of the country.
An expansion of the Columbia 80 miles from Golden, Windermere is a lovely low-lying lake about 8 miles long and of irregular width—in places one and a half miles. Its greatest depth is 16 feet, and its average not more than 8 feet. The water is limped and the bottom sandy. In winter the ice is clear and hard and easily swept for curling, making a curler's paradise in the open. To be alive on Lake Windermere in the winter is a curler's very heaven—or a skater's. When the hundred persons living in the village were dependent in winter up.;n the stage coach for communication with the outside world reachable by railway north at Golden or south at Cranbrook, much was made of the lake during the frost-bound months. Skiing. too, is a sport in the vicinity. The place has all the natural resources of winter sports for a fashionable resort, including winter-climbing, snowshoeing and tobogganing. But this is to look into the future.
Invermere: Old Canterbury point, surveyed for a townsite in 1899, has been acquired by the Columbia Valley Irrigation Fruit Lands Company and renamed Invermere. A hotel has been built with ample accommodation for the tourist travel, and is now open to the public. The whole point which runs southward into the lake on the Selkirks side, has been divided into spacious lots to be sold directly to persons proposing to erect country residences. The lots vary in size from a ¼ to 1½ acres. The British Columbia Club of New York has purchased land near by for a club house.
TRAVEL BY WATERWAY ON THE UPPER COLUMBIA.
The Steamer "Klahowya," leaves Golden at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving at Wilmer and Athalmer the same night. Returning the following days, the steamer leaves Winder mere at 7 a.m. Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, reaching Golden about 3 p.m. Landings are made convenient to Wilmer, Athalmer. Invermere, Windermere. At Wilmer Landing, a conveyance is waitinj; for passengers. The time-table is arranged to give passengers the benefit of daylight for the fine scenery of the route. Single fare $5.00; round trip, $7,50. Meals, 50c. A specialty is made of good, plain cooking with butter, eggs, milk, fruit and vegetables obtained from farmers along the route. The steamer will accommodate 75 persons only. Intending visitors are advised to secure their passage in advance by letter or telegram to Captain F. P. Armstrong, Man ager of the Upper Columbia Transportation Co.. Golden, B.C.
The Company has also a freight steamer, Nowitka, which makes two trips a week, leaving Golden Sunday and Wednesday at 7 a.m. An excursion of unusual charm on the Upper Columbia River itone by canoe from Golden through to the Kootenay River, South of Columbia Lake, returning by the Arrow Lakes to Revelstoke Owing to the low grade and even flow of the Columbia south of Golden, it is especially adapted to canoeing and to sailing by motor boat. Canoes can be rented in Golden for $1.00 per day from J. A. Buckham; a launch from J. Gould, at $5 per hour, engineer included Doubtless a much lower rate may be obtained for long trips. Mr. H. E. Forster, whose beautiful home, Firlands, is one of the agri cultural sights of the valley back on the "benches" some 8 miles from the River, has fitted up a motor-boat for carrying freight.
Roads and Trails of the Upper Columbia Valley.
Reference has been made to the roads leading into the mountains. A main road runs from Golden on the east side of the River passing beyond Columbia Lake towards Cranbrook on the Crow's Nest Pass Railway a distance of nearly 180 miles. Another runs from Spillimacheen to Dutch Creek on the west side: also, branch roads lead up Horse Thief Creek, Toby Creek, Dutch Creek, with shorter roads tributary to these. All the roads leading into the mountains are recommended for motoring. They lead to high altitudes at tim ber line and were mostly built for the mines, notably the road up Toby and Spring Creeks to Paradise Mine (8,000 feet) near Mt Hammond; and the road up Horse Thief and Macdonald Creeks to Ptarmigan Mine (7,500 feet) at the base of Mt. Farnham. There are many trails following hard by the roads and branching from them to zigzag upward above timber-line among some interesting and noble mountains. These trails lead over the passes down into the Kootenay Valley. On the benches of the Columbia Valley itself, one can ride anywhere among the beautiful shapely living firs. It is rare to find a lifeless tree standing.
Liveries, Outfitters, and Sportsman's Guides.
The tariff's average the same at all places from Golden to Winder mere. Automobiles may be engaged with chauffeur at either Cran brook or Golden for $50 per day. Waggons with driver and "team" of horses cost $8.00 or $10.00 per day; saddle horses from $1 to $2; packhorses $1; packers and guides from $3 to $4 per day. Manuel Dainard, sportsman's guide and outfitter, of Golden, who has had considerable experience, makes a flat rate of $15 a day for one huntsman or $12.50 for two or more, the figures including everything in the expedition. Guides and "outfits" may be obtained at points on either side of the River.
T. R. Hadden (McMurdo, P.O.) keeps a "Road House" or stopping place, 13 miles from Golden, with five guest rooms. Outfitting: 3 saddle horses, 8 pack horses, two packers and two guides. Game in the vicinity: duck, goose, grouse, deer. Game on Manitoba Mt. 4 miles off: goat, bear, bighorn (sheep); on Prairie Mt., 36 miles off: bear, deer, caribou.
John Hurst, an old-timer in Number 3 Creek Valley is recommended as an excellent guide and outfitter; also J. Barbour, of Toby Creek. Thomas Starbird, proprietor of Mountain Valley Ranch on Dutch Creek, provides "outfits" and guides for persons staying at his resort. Also, there are recommended J. Tenasse, P. McIvor, W. W. Taynton and J. A. Taggart in the Wilmer region. H. G. Low (address Galena) keeps saddle horses, packhorses, guides and packers rented at the usual rates. In his constituency there are bear, goat, sheep (bighorn), moose, deer, grouse, geese, duck, and good trout-fishing; each sport in its season. Galena is about 45 miles south from Golden by the River. Another outfitter is named Barrow. These names are mentioned in the hope that they may be some guide to sportsmen looking for horses and men in the Columbia Valley. It is advised that all sportsmen and campers bring their own bedding.
Mt. Hammond
- ↑ Note- No river in the world is more worthy the capital.