South Peace Historical Society

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  • Table of Contents

    • Part 1: First Nations of the Peace River Region
    • Part 2: The Fur Trade Era
    • Part 3: Transportation and Communication
    • Part 4: Old Timers and the Price of Land
    • Part 5: Dawson Creek: The Story of the Community
    • Part 6: Mysteries, Adventures and Indian Legends
    • Part 7: Arts, Crafts and Recreation
    • Part 8: Agriculture
    • Part 9: Church Histories
    • Part 10: Schools
    • Part 11: Health Care
    • Part 12: Industries and Enterprises
    • Part 13: Policing the Peace
    • Part 14: Pouce Coupe, Rolla, and Other South Peace Communities
    • Part 15: Chetwynd and the Fort St. John Area
    • Part 16: The Alberta Peace
    • Part 17: Natural History of the Peace River Region
    • Part 18: Interviews with Old Timers
    • Part 19: Remembering Our Veterans

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03-005: Big Development Projects Planned by D.S. Thomas

Mr. D. A. Thomas, in Liverpool Interview, Outlines Vast
Possibilities of Northern Country. 
The Liverpool Journal of Commerce under date of May 26 published an interesting interview with the British coal baron, Mr. D. A. Thomas.

After dealing with other projects in which Mr. Thomas is interested, The Journal had the following regarding his Canadian prospective enterprises.

“With regard to railway and other projects in Canada, my associates and myself have completed several important and definite arrangements. We have secured a franchise charter for the Pacific, Peace River and Athabasca Railway and also for the Peace River Tramway and Navigating Company. The former will be capitalized to the extent of $3,200,000, with bonding privileges of $10,000 per mile. The latter concern will be capitalized at $300,000, with bonding privileges of $7,000 per mile. We have organized and equipped half a dozen parties of engineers and others, who are about to proceed on a reconnaissance and track surveying in order to locate the coal lands, minerals, etc. This work will occupy them three or four months. Adequate financial provision has been made for the necessary work during the coming twelve months. These projects will ultimately cost very large sums. I expect to be able to proceed with the Peace River Tramway next year. I may say that this project also provides for the construction of several shallow draft river and lake steamers. The railway will traverse a country lavishly endowed both agriculturally and minerally — millions of acres of land growing the finest wheat in the world, with large areas of coal lands and minerals and indications of various kinds of natural gas and oil. As oil is going to be one of the chief requisites of the navy, the discovery of oil in Canada will be highly important. It is possible, if not probable, that these projects will develop thousands of square miles and stimulate immigration.”

MR. THOMAS SATISFIED
Welsh Colliery Magnate on Return to London Speaks of His Western Canadian Projects
LONDON, May 26. – D. A. Thomas, president of the Cambrian Colliery Trust Co., who returned from Canada yesterday, speaks with satisfaction at having secured the franchise for the Pacific, Peace River and Athabasca Railway, also for the Peace River Street Railway. Adequate financial provision has been made for the next month’s work on the railway, and he hopes to proceed with the street railway next year.

“As oil is going to be one of the chief requisites of the navy,” said Mr. Thomas, “the discovery of oil in Canada will be highly important. It is possible that the projects mentioned also will develop thousands of square miles of oil fields. Scientific investigations already made show that the oil fields we are about to tap will be undoubtedly be the richest in the Empire.

ROUTE OF THOMAS LINE TO BE LOCATED
Party Goes Out This Week to
Survey Farthest North Railway 
Reconnaissance parties will be sent out this week to locate a route for the proposed Pacific, Peace River and Athabasca railway, for which a charter was recently obtained at Ottawa by D. A. Thomas, the Welsh coal magnate, and his associates. Announcement to this effect was made Saturday by Charles F. Law, a Vancouver broker, who has just returned to Vancouver after spending some time in New York with Mr. Thomas and in London and Paris consulting with capitalists with reference to the railway and to other development schemes.

Mr. Law has been appointed the Canadian representative of the railway and the other Thomas interests, and intends to leave Victoria this week for Athabasca Landing with a party of twenty men to conduct an exploration of the hinterland of British Columbia north of the Peace River, with a view of ascertaining the oil and other natural resources of that vast region.

The promoters of the big railway and development schemes which it is said will involve an ultimate expenditure in excess of $75,000,000 plan to build the Pacific coast portion of their line first in order to tap the Groundhog coal fields. The company has been given two years by the Dominion government to start active operations.

ROUTE OF THE LINE
The Pacific, Peace River and Athabasca railway has received a charter for the construction of a road from the mouth of the Nass River to Prince Albert via Hogem Pass, Fort St. John, Peace River Landing, Fort Vermilion, Point Providence, and Fort McMurray. The proposed line is the farthest north of any railway yet projected, and is expected to open up vast tracts of country believed to be rich in mineral, forest, and agricultural resources.

The route as outlined in the plans accompanying the application for a charter follows the course of the Nass River in an easterly and northerly direction for the first 225 miles, thence across the watershed between the Nass and Skeena River, down Currier Creek to the Skeena and on to the Bear River; thence up the Bear River to Bear Lake, and then south and east across the divide to the Driftwood River.

The route then proceeds through Hogem Pass to the Omineca River along to the Finlay branch of the Peace River in an easterly and northerly direction to Vermilion Rapids in Alberta. At this point the road will cross the Peace River and continue north and east along the north bank to Point Providence, thence to the mouth of the Athabasca, south to Fort McMurray, and thence in a general south easterly direction to Prince Albert.

« 03-004: Mileposts in Early Railroad Construction

03-006: The Choice of Terminal for the National Alberta Railway »

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