By Dorthea CalverleyTen years before the river craft became inglorious hulks on the banks of northern rivers, aircraft flew into the Peace River Country. By the time the grand old D. A. Thomas died on the rapids near Vermilion, the planes had made steamers obsolete. Air mail-freight and passenger runs were becoming commonplace into the Arctic as… Read More

by Gerry Clare (1997) As we set out for Prince George, giving ourselves five hours for a leisurely journey through the mountains, it’s hard to appreciate the problems the first European explorers had in crossing the Rockies through the Pine Pass. So, as the miles of smooth pavement and easy grades slip by outside your car… Read More

by Dorthea H. Calverley (1973) Dan Yaeger was the Peace River Country’s own daring, and often foolhardy, bush pilot. During his brief flying career he was altogether opposite to the disciplined Armed Forces and Commercial pilots of today. Alone, he flew and serviced his own small planes over a merciless land, under the worst possible… Read More

by Dorthea Calverley In 1879 two kinds of surveys were undertaken to assess the feasibility of running the mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway from the Prairies to the Coast through the Pine Pass. Dr. George Dawson headed a large party which entered from the west through the Pine Valley as far as East Pine…. Read More

Mr. D. A. Thomas, in Liverpool Interview, Outlines VastPossibilities 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…. Read More

by Dorthea Calverley (1983) Stories differ about the bypassing of the already existing village of Pouce Coupe by the Northern Alberta Railway in favour of the present site of Dawson Creek. But nearly all the stories attribute the final choice to the Pouce Coupe pioneer Tom Jamieson’s dispute with the railroad’s purchasing agents. In 1916… Read More

Saturday afternoon, May 14, 1960 under overcast skies, the last steam engine to puff into Dawson Creek pulled slowly from the station and chugged down the tracks on its last run in this district. The old steam engines, which once opened up the west and formed the link uniting the provinces into a dominion, are… Read More

by Harry Giles It is not my intention to get into a controversy over the merits of the Peace and Pine Passes for the extension of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway to the Peace River District. I do think, though, that the advantages of the Pine Pass route should be placed before the readers of… Read More

by George Robinson I came to the Peace River country on railroad construction and arrived at the end of steel on the E.D. & B.C. Railway in early June 1915. This was somewhere in the vicinity of Culp and it may have been the Culp siding where we unloaded the outfit. Culp, by the way,… Read More

(formerly the Pacific Great Eastern Railway) The P.G.E. as it was originally known, arrived officially on April 8th, 1958 in Little Prairie (now Chetwynd). The Railway station was built in 1959 and Chetwynd became a divisional point for the railroad. Mr. N.A. McPherson was Superintendent of Construction up to March 1959, then Mr. Harry Nichols, and… Read More