By Dorthea Calverley (1973) The railways into the Peace had reached the three towns of Dawson Creek, Spirit River and Hines Creek by 1931 but showed no sign of going any further. A period of local disillusionment, added to the despair of the worldwide depression of the 1930s, settled over the whole Alberta and B.C. Peace… Read More

By Dorthea CalverleyUntil 1982 the discovery of the Monkman Pass was usually credited in publications to a Metis, Alex Monkman. The original settlers at Kelly Lake have always disputed this view and their claim has now been recognized in the publication, The Monkman Pass and Trail: a Brief History by Mike Robinson and Dave Hocking… Read More

© G.R. Clare, 1998 Wherever the climate was suitable and the chief trader interested, small kitchen gardens became an important source of food for the trading posts scattered across the north. The forts in the Athabaska District, in which the Peace River lay, were no exception. In fact, conditions along the Peace River were very… Read More

  Soars, Norman, “A Derelict Fort in Northern British Columbia”. Museum and Art Notes, Vol.2 No.2, The Art, Historical and Scientific Association: Vancouver, 1952. While Fort McLeod can claim the distinction of being the first trading post established west of the Rockies and the oldest continuously operated post in British Columbia, nevertheless, Rocky Mountain Fort,… Read More

March 19, 1999 By Allen Berge In 1937, three men were trapping in the Doig River area, north of Clear Prairie, Alberta — “Oregon Jack” Cheshire, Ed Lund and Wesley Morgan. Wes Morgan’s mother and his sister Ruth Lund (Ed’s wife) ran the cafe in the Dawson Hotel in Dawson Creek. The three men decided… Read More