Frances Shelley Wees, in a wonderful prose-poem called A Geography Lesson, described the Rockies:
They are like giants sleeping under a ragged green blanket piled with snow. Some day, you think, watching them crowd up against the sky, some day they will wake, or turn in their dreaming, and shatter the world.”
Occasionally the Rockies have turned in their dreaming, or perhaps just shuddered a little, and results have been devastating. On May 22, 1902, the little mining town of Coal Creek, near Fernie, experienced disaster when a tremor cause the cave-in of a coal mine and 128 men were killed.
After the Coal Creek disaster, a police officer, Constable Stevens, in town said openly that he wished a few hundred more men had been killed. The miners who were left held a court-martial and were ready to hang him. Calmer heads prevailed. They stripped him of his uniform and hustled him through all the mining towns of Alberta, showing him off. The police officer never came back.
Life was exciting in the foothills of the Rockies in those days. There was danger from nature, Indians, wild animals and rustlers from the north and south. During the Klondike gold rush, the Northwest Mounted Police chased out as many of the gamblers, swindlers and suspected murderers as they could. Many of them went to the mining towns like Fernie. The gamblers would wait for the
Boys move coal cars at the entrance to the Knoxville Iron Company’s mine near Coal Creek (now Lake City) in the U.S. state of Tennessee. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
of the miners and railway construction workers, and take their money from them. There were thirteen hotels in the Crowsnest Pass, running wide open and the gamblers would get most of the workers’ money between Saturday and Monday.
The only doctor in the area, Saul Bonnell, worked for the C.P.R. He spent most of his time patching broken heads and stitching up wounds from knife fights. During 1898, when the Crowsnest Pass was under construction, there was a typhoid epidemic. Dr. Bonnell would have as many as sixty patients lying on the straw.
Red River ox cart at railway station (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One of the most amazing stories in Canadian history came from the gold rush to the Cariboo in 1862. It began with an advertisement in London, England, newspapers:
“The British Columbia Transit Company will punctually despatch on May 21 at 12 noon from Glasgow, a party of first and second class passengers for Quebec, Canada, and over the Grand Trunk Railway to Chicago and St. Paul and via the Red River settlements, in covered wagons to British Columbia. This is the speediest, safest and most economical route to the gold diggings. The land transit is through a lovely country unequalled for its beauty and salubrity of climate.”
The adventures of the “Overlanders” as they came to be known, began when they arrived at Fort Garry, after coming down the Red River on a steamboat. They were greeted by the cannons of the Hudson Bay fort, and treated to dinners and dancing. All that remained for them now was to buy Red River carts and journey to the Cariboo.
One of the largest groups started with 150 people, including Mrs. August Schubert, who had three children with her and was expecting her fourth. There was a great deal of rain that summer, carts bogged down to their wheel hubs while the oxen sank to their bellies in “muskeg.”
Muskeg: Muskeg is an acidic soil type common in Arctic and boreal areas, although it is found in other northern climates as well.
Members of the party who had never handled axes had to build bridges across the swollen rivers. By July 21, they had finally reached Edmonton. Now they only had to cross the Rockies!
The Hudson’s Bay men at Edmonton persuaded them to exchange their Red River carts for pack horses. They pressed on, and by August 2 had reached Cowdung Lake (now Yellowhead Lake), the Great Divide, where the water began to flow to the west. By this time, they had eaten practically all their food and were living on skunks and porcupines, and even horses. Occasionally they got salmon from the Indians. The fish had come 700 miles from the Pacific and were half-rotten.
It was October 13 before one party reached Fort Kamloops. Many had died through drowning or other accidents. Among the survivors were Mrs. Schubert and her three children. The new baby was born the following day, the first white girl born in the interior of British Columbia.
Few, if any, of the “Overlanders” found gold.
The “Overlanders” certainly fought hard for their dream. If you want to learn more, I have two places to suggest: first there is the Harold B. Lee Library with interesting documents and second is Richard T. Wright’s Blog.
Someone should write a drama called, “The Trent Affair” starring James (Neville) Mason perhaps (yeah, I know he is no longer with us), because there was a “Trent Affair” and James Mason was a real character in it. Canada became involved to such an extent that the Macdonald-Cartier government was defeated on May 20, 1862.
During the American Civil War a British ship, the Trent, sailed from the United States. James Mason and John Slidell, southerners on their way to take up ambassadorial posts for the Confederates in Europe, were on board. A Northern warship stopped the Trent on the high seas and took them off. Britain was so angry there might have been war if the Prince Consort had not toned down a note sent to Washington by Prime Minister Palmerston.
In the event of war, Canada would have been attacked by the Northern armies. Fortunately, President Lincoln felt that they had all they could do to defeat the South, and Mason and Slidell were freed.
Meanwhile, Britain had rushed 14,000 troops to British North America. They landed in winter, and marched to Quebec on snowshoes. It must have been a comical sight — British soldiers trying to wade through Canadian drifts on snowshoes!
In the midst of the excitement, a bugaboo of many years raised its ugly head: conscription! The Macdonald-Cartier government called out the militia of 40,000 men. Many of them were farmers from Canada west (Ontario) and turned out with shotguns and pitchforks, confident that any Canadian could lick seven Americans!
The government proposed a militia bill providing for compulsory military service to raise an extra 30,000 men. Feelings ran high in French Canada. Why should they fight Britain’s wars? In any case the danger was over.
When the militia bill came up for the vote on May 20, 1862, a bloc of French-Canadian members of the Macdonald-Cartier party voted against it. A new government was formed under John Sandfield Macdonald and Louis Victor Sicotte. It lasted for only one year, then Macdonald-Cartier were returned. Strangely enough, Cartier died in London, England, on May 20, exactly ten years after the defeat of the militia bill.
To learn more about the militia bill and Macdonald-Cartier, I’ve found a few places for you to read. There’s the Canadian Encyclopedia, and for a treat, go to the New York Times for an article
James Mason (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
reprint from May 29, 1862. You may also like to learn about Sir Geoge-Étienne Cartier at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
The White Rock pier at White Rock, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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On Friday May 17, 2013, I came across this story in the newspaper (see link below). It was such an incredible story, I just had to share it with you.
Picture this: 25-year old Jordan Remple, of Langley, British Columbia, wanted the perfect marriage proposal. He decided on the site: the pier in White Rock, B.C. He was nervous. His heart beat faster, his hands getting clammy, maybe even a little tremble present. He bent down on one knee in front of the love of his life, 22-year old Jodi Hodge. Perfect surprise, he thought.
Then, “I hear this clink,” he said. The ring went through the boards and ended up in the sea!
Jodi didn’t get upset. It was the thought that counts and she was happy. It was an accident after all.
Remple, though, was devastated. He had to find a way to get the $3,000 ring back.
There were many failed attempts to get the ring out of the water. Finally the father of Remple’s friend, Robert MacDonald, found the ring!
Remple got on one knee, proposed, and Jodi said, “Yes!”
Incredible story? Oh, there’s much more to this story! To get the full story, you’ll just have to go to Vancouver‘s The Province!
Did you know that on May 19, 1780, at around noon, the sky became as dark as night? No, it wasn’t a solar nor lunar eclipse. And it didn’t just last a few minutes, either. ”Normal” did not return until the middle of the next night! This unusual darkening of the sky was experienced in Eastern Canada and the New England states.
There are witnesses’ reports. Here are a few:
“The birds having sung their evening song disappeared and became silent. . .The fowls retired to roost. … Objects could not be distinguished but at a very little distance; and every thing bore the appearance and gloom of night.” – Samuel Williams, Harvard professor
“I am against adjournment. The day of judgement is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.” – Abraham Davenport, Connecticut Legislature
Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs
The crater’s sides from the red hell below.
Birds ceased to sing, and all the barn-yard fowls
Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars
Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings
Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died;
Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp
To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter. . . .”
The religious were convinced it was the Day of Judgement:
Matthew 24:29: ”… the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky…” (Signs preceding the return of Christ).
The day was pitch-black and people panicked. Candles were required and lit everywhere ….
It was a mystery for many years. It is now believed that the likely cause was a combination of smoke from forest fires, a thick fog and dense cloud cover.
When a fire doesn’t kill a tree, and that tree later grows, scar marks are left in the growth rings. This makes it possible to approximate the date of a past fire. Researchers examining the scar damage in Ontario, Canada, attribute the “Dark Day” to a large fire in the area that is today occupied by Algonquin Provincial Park.
I’ve given you just a few bits and pieces. I know many of you will want to read some more about this amazing event. So I’ve chosen a few sites for you. Let’s start with Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, then there is WikiQuotes; and then Celebrate Boston (the date is wrong, but I’m going to assume the text is correct). Those are good places to start.
Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On May 19, 1697, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville was resting at Placentia Harbor, Newfoundland. Iberville and his men had marched across the Avalon Peninsula the preceding November, through swamps and icy waters to rendezvous with another French force under Governor Brouillon, who was jealous of Iberville. In fact, after they met at Ferryland, Brouillon and Iberville drew swords because the French Governor went back on an agreement he had made about division of the spoils. The fight was prevented but Iberville lost the argument and had to give Brouillon a bigger share.
They besieged St. John’s on November 26 but it was bravely defended by Governor Miners who tried to hang on because he knew reinforcements were coming from Britain. Iberville knew it too and devised a trick (or what would be called a propaganda move today) to make Miners give in.
Sorry, but this paragraph may be too graphic for some readers; just this paragraph though. He captured a settler, William Drew, and had the Native Indians cut all around his scalp and then strip the skin from the forehead to the crown.
He then sent Drew into St. John’s with a message to Miners saying that unless St. John’s was surrendered immediately, all its inhabitants would get the same treatment. Miners gave in.
There was a good deal more fighting and devastation elsewhere, but by May 19 Iberville had returned to Placentia. Now he planned to rest his troops, capture the rest of Newfoundland and then organize a campaign to drive the English from the New England states. He was going to capture Boston and perhaps even New York!
Iberville’s hopes and plans were dashed on May 19, when five ships of war sailed into Placentia Harbor. His brother Joseph de Sérigny was on board one of them, bringing a message from King Louis XIV. Iberville was to give up the Newfoundland campaign and once again drive the English from Hudson Bay. The tragedy from his point of view was that the Newfoundland campaign had been a waste and the plan to capture Boston would never be carried out.
Canadian history. Canadian trivia. Brevity ... bite-sized. Proud to be Canadian (most of the time). Colourful past, interesting people and places -- can I tell you about it?
I stopped blogging, but will now spend more time commenting on others blogs. So be prepared to have my opinion thrown at you he-he, and TONS of fun ;-)
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