Origin of the name unknown.
“Leather Pass” was an old name of Yellowhead Pass.
The name “Leather Pass” appears to have been first used on the 1859 Arrowsmith map of British Columbia, the source of the name likely being the Royal Engineers, who were then conducting surveys in other parts of the colony. This name was frequently used in the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s.
This pass, known by the several names of the Leather, Jasper House, Cowdung Lake, and Yellow Head Pass, had been formerly used by the voyageurs of the Hudson’s Bay Company as a portage from the Athabasca to the Fraser, but had long been abandoned on account of the numerous casualties which attended the navigation of the latter river.
— Milton and Cheadle, 1865 (1)
From 1826 to 1853, the Hudson’s Bay Company intermittently used the Yellowhead Pass to transport leather and grease from the Saskatchewan District to New Caledonia, in the interior of present-day British Columbia. In terms of provisions, New Caledonia was the poorest district in the entire fur trade. As an early trader put it, “New Caledonia being nearly altogether destitute of large animals both the Natives and Traders live entirely upon Fish.” Leather, principally dressed moose skins, and to a lesser extent buffalo skins, was used in its various forms in New Caledonia as the principal article of trade with the Natives, and by the fur traders themselves for shoes, clothes, pack-cords, snowshoes, tents, window parchment and a variety of other purposes.
The pass was usually referred to as the route or portage via Tête Jaune Cache. On a few occasions in the 1820s, the officer in charge of New Caledonia referred to the route as “the Leather track,” but this term encompassed the entire distance between Fort George and Jasper House. There is no record of any trader of the period ever calling the pass the Leather Pass.
“Looking out the Moose Valley a little lakelet was seen at our feet,” wrote Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] during the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition, “a sparkling gem of glorious blue-green, a color for which a name has not yet been found. We called it ‘Lake Lazuli.’”
Lazuli means of an azure, or sky-blue, color.
A small tributary of Goat River between North Star Creek and Milk River was formerly identified as La Salle Creek, but the name was cancelled in 1965 because of its close proximity to Laselle Creek. At the same time, the spelling Leselle was changed to La Salle to be consistent with the La Salle Lakes across the Fraser River.
Origin of the name unknown. Location approximate.
A photo of Oscar and Ernie Lamming, who built and owned the new Lamming Mill following the first fire, 1956. Valley Museum & Archives Society
As boys, the Lamming brothers worked in their father’s sawmill in Sault St. Marie, Ontario. In 1934 they started their own mill at Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. When timber became scarce, they were attracted to the Robson Valley by Adrian Monroe, who wanted to sell the logs and timber that remained after his mill burned down. Until 1946, a portable mill was used at various locations. In 1945 a new mill was started at Mile 5.4 west of McBride, with a six-car siding. The Canadian National Railway agent called the siding Lamming Mills in imitation of other mill towns.
At one time, the brothers had three sawmills operating, at Dome Creek, Lamco Road, and Lamming Mills. Ernie worked at the sawmill until it closed in 1966, and for three years after ran a small mill next to Zeidler’s peeler plant. In addition to the sawmills, Ernie and Oscar ran a hardware store which they changed to the Alpine Cafe (destroyed by fire), started the Lamming Garage (now 3 Peaks Mechanical), operated the LSL (Lamming-Stanley-Lamming) Construction Company, and ran a dairy that delivered pasteurized milk as far as Valemount. Ernie’s wife Wilma was in charge of all the office work, having in the 1950s six sets of books to keep. Oscar’s wife Nellie ran the store for years, and later was postmistress.
Ernie was chairman of the McBride and District Hospital Board for several years, and was instrumental in the construction of the new hospital. He was long-time chairman of the local school board. For several years after his retirement, Ernie and Wilma spent winters in the Bahamas, where Ernie managed a real estate project. After a serious automobile accident in 1979, they returned to Canada and spent the winters in the Okanagan or on Vancouver Island. Ernie died in Kelowna after a sudden illness.
Oscar had received a degree in taxidermy in 1917, but it was not until 1950 that he was able to pursue his hobby. He completed his first small museum at Lamming Mills as a Centennial Project in 1958. When he retired from logging in 1963, he built Oscar’s Wildlife Museum near the Doré River, on a site that was then on the highway. “He died at 93 years in Winfield. He and his brother Gordon were getting ready to go out on Okanagan Lake to fish when he died suddenly,” according to his grandson Wayne Martin (see comments).
In the 1950s, Gordon, Oscar and Ernie Lamming had a logging operation and sawmill at the end of this road. Lumber was shipped to Lamming Mills for finishing.
Exploring Lake Helena. A limpid gem at the foot of Mount Robson. The raft was fashioned from dead-tree logs roped together.
F.A. Talbot, New Garden of Canada, 1911
In 1913, Blanche Hume, an attendee at the Alpine Club of Canada special mountaineering camp, wrote, “Emerging from the forest primeval we came to beautiful Lake Kinney, called by some Lake Helena.”