Monthly Archives: March 2014

Haan Road

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Feature type: road
Province: British Columbia
Location: Intersects Hwy 16 E of Dunster
Latitude: 53.14440 N
Longitude: 119.8095 W
Google Maps

1963 portrait of Robert P. Haan, who was the chairman of the McBride and District Hospital Board of Directors.

1963 portrait of Robert P. Haan, who was the chairman of the McBride and District Hospital Board of Directors.
Valley Museum & Archives Society

Robert Phillip Haan (1901–1976) and Leola (Rankin) arrived in Dunster from Alberta in 1943, along with their son Robert Desmond Haan (1928–1980) and four brothers and sisters. Robert Desmond Haan was born on the family farm near Provost, Alberta. With his English-born wife Betty (Sargent) (b. 1932) and their children, he operated a beef farm in Dunster. When Bob was killed in a tractor accident, the farm was sold and his family moved to Kelowna. Bob was active in the Dunster Farmers’ Institute, the Dunster 4-H Club, the Community Hall Association, square dancing, and sports.

His mother Leola Haan writes, “Now little is left of his years of work. Even the beautiful house he built himself for his family is sold and moved away. Sagging fences, weedy field corners, a few farm out-buildings, and neglected fruit trees aren’t much of a memento for over thirty-two years of hard work and endeavor. But there still remains a memory no one can subdue, a memory of a busy, happy, progressive, ambitious family who once lived at the end of this road.”

References:

  • Wheeler, Marilyn. The Robson Valley Story. McBride, B.C.: Robson Valley Story Group, 1979

Gunboat Mountain

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British Columbia. Mountain
Premier Range, S of Tête Creek
52.8128 N 119.6306 W — Map 083D13 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1924
Name officially adopted in 1962
Official in BC – Topo map from Canadian Geographical Names
This mountain appears on:
W. A. D. Munday’s map Cariboos 1925 [as Gunboat Ridge]

In July 1925, Walter Alfred Don Munday [1890–1950] and Phyllis Munday [1894–1990] made an expedition into the Cariboo Range. Two parties of climbers had preceded them: Edward Willet Dorland Holway [1853–1923] and Andrew James Gilmour [1871–1941] in 1916; and Allen Carpé [1894–1932] and Rollin Thomas Chamberlin [1881–1948] in 1924.

The latter party made two major climbs, the first ascents of Mt. Titan (11,850 ft.) and Mt. Challenger (10,900 ft.). They also climbed three minor mountains: Gunboat (10,000 ft.); a shoulder of Mt. Titan which they called Bivouac Peak (10,150 ft.) and a triple summit (10,250 ft.), which Mr. Munday refers to as Holway’s Peak, he having made the first ascent of its northerly summit. (The elevation and other names are Mr. Carpé’s.)

— Munday
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References:

  • Munday, Walter Alfred Don [1890–1950]. “In the Cariboo Range – Mt. David Thompson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 15 (1925):130-136

Guilford station

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British Columbia. Railway Point
On Canadian National Railway, NE of junction ofSlim Creek and Fraser River
53.8167 N 121.2 W — Map 93H/14 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (GTP map)
Name officially adopted in 1958
Not currently an official name
154 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 66 in Fraser Subdivision (McBride to Prince George as of 1977)
This railway point appears on:
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway map [ca. 1912]
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway timetable 1914
Pre-emptor’s map Fort George 1G 1916
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway map ca. 1918
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway map 1919
Canadian National Railway map 1925

Established as a flag station on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway four
miles east of Penny.

No agent or local residents in 1918, according to Wrigley’s.

Although the Grand Trunk Pacific had built a station at Guilford, the community of Guilford evolved two miles west of the station. That location was where the river and the railroad tracks met, both being vital transportation links. The name was quite possibly chosen from the Josiah Wedgwood list of names. Guilford is the name of a village in the county of Surrey, England, which is now spelt Guildford.

— Olson, p. 92

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wagner left for Edmonton, the community of Guilford lost its last resident and another ghost town was created. Everything has been shipped out of the once thriving sawmill village.

— Prince George Citizen, November 1956 (quoted in Olson)

According to the BC Geographical Names office, the name Guilford was suggested by Mr. Smithers (OBF 0047). Adopted in 1958. confirmed in 1983, and rescinded in 1984.

References:

  • Wrigley Directories, Limited. Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory. Vancouver: 1918. Internet Archive
  • CN (Canadian National Railway). Transportation planning branch, Edmonton, and historical office, Montréal. 2000
  • Olson, Raymond W. Ghost Towns on the East Line. Prince George, B.C.: Raymond W. Olson, 2017
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Guilford
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Groeneveld trail

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Feature type: trail
Province: British Columbia
Location: Holliday Creek

Henry (born 1916) and Min (born 1921) Groeneveld and two children moved to Dunster from Holland in 1949. After working for two years for their sponsor, McBride postmaster George Long, they bought a farm in Dunster and started a dairy, which they operated until their retirement in 1975. They were the first in Dunster to ship fluid milk to Prince George, in 1950. Henry remembers spending thousands of hours in the Dunster station, waiting for the train.

References:

  • Personal correspondence.

Grasdal Road

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Feature type: road
Province: British Columbia
Location: Forks S off Highway 16 E of Dunster
Latitude: 53.1239 N
Longitude: 119.7672 W
Google Maps

Vern (born 1929) and Mona (born 1929) Grasdal purchased property near Dunster in 1970. In 1975 they moved from Edmonton to their property, where they operated a dairy farm.

References:

  • Wheeler, Marilyn. The Robson Valley Story. McBride, B.C.: Robson Valley Story Group, 1979

Grant Brook

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British Columbia. Brook: Fraser River drainage
Flows S into Fraser, SE of Moose Lake
52.9 N 118.75 W — Map 83D/15 — Google — GeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1900 (McEvoy)
Name officially adopted in 1924
Official in BC – Canada
This brook appears on:
McEvoy’s map Yellowhead Pass 1900
Collie’s map Yellowhead Pass 1912
Wheeler’s map Mount Robson 1912
Jobe’s map Jarvis Pass to Yellowhead 1915
Rev. G. M. Grant, Principal of Queen’s College, Kingston

Rev. G. M. Grant, Principal of Queen’s College, Kingston
Wikipedia

George Monro Grant [1835–1902] was secretary to Sandford Fleming [1827–1915] during the engineer’s survey of the route for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1872. Born in Nova Scotia, Grant was ordained as a minister in the Church of Scotland in 1860, and was made moderator of the Presbyterian Church in 1899. He was a charter member of the Royal Society of Canada, founded in 1882, and was president of that society in 1901.

When British Columbia entered the Dominion of Canada in 1871, preliminary surveys for the promised transcontinental railroad began from east and west. After reading the preliminary reports, chief engineer Fleming decided to travel overland to see the main features of the country with his own eyes. He took along his lifelong friend George Munro Grant. During this journey, which took him on horseback across the prairies and over the Rocky Mountains by way of Yellowhead Pass, Grant kept a diary, which he published as Ocean to Ocean (London, 1873). He does not make mention of a brook being named in his honour.

Our three ranges are the Rocky Mountains proper; the Selkirk and Gold, which may be considered one and the coast range or Cascades. The passage from the east through the first range, is up the valley of the Athabasca and the Myette, and we have seen how easy it is, especially for a Railway. The average height of the mountains above the sea, is nine thousand feet but the Yellow Head Pass is only three thousand seven hundred feet. On each side of the valley are mountains that act as natural snow-sheds.

The next question is, are there similar valleys and passes through the other two ranges ? Yes, but not so direct and broad, and there are many obstacles to be overcome. How to get through the second range has always been considered the great difficulty.

First, we have to get to it from Yellow Head Pass. This is done by following the Fraser, as we did to day to Moose Lake, and as we shall to-morrow, to Tête Jaune Cache. There we expect to see the Gold range stretching in unbroken line before us, forcing the Fraser far to the north, and us somewhat to the south east and then the south. Oh for a direct cut through to the Cariboo gold fields like that which the Athabasca cleaves the Rocky Mountains with !

— Grant (p. 253), September 17, 1872

“Grant Brook” appears on McEvoy’s 1900 map of Yellowhead Pass. From his report, “Fourteen miles from the pass, a large stream called Grant Brook flows in from the north. It is about fifty feet wide and very swift.”

References:

  • Grant, George Monro [1835–1902]. Ocean to Ocean: Sandford Fleming’s Expedition through Canada in 1872. Being a Diary Kept During a Journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the Expedition of the Engineer-in-Chief of the Canadian Pacific and Intercolonial Railways. Toronto: James Campbell and Son, 1873. Google Books
  • McEvoy, James [1862–1935]. Report on the geology and natural resources of the country traversed by the Yellowhead Pass route from Edmonton to Tête Jaune Cache comprising portions of Alberta and British Columbia. Ottawa: Geological Survey of Canada, 1900. Natural Resources Canada
  • Story, Norah. The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1967
  • Wikipedia. George Monro Grant
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