Cheadle accompanied William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Milton [1839–1877] on a journey across Canada in 1862–63. They crossed the Rocky Mountains through Yellowhead Pass, almost starved in the North Thompson country, and eventually straggled into Kamloops. They visited the Cariboo gold fields before returning to England by ship from Victoria.

Cheadle, the older and more resourceful of the two, assumed most of the responsibility for their journey. He spelled out their story in two books, Journal of a Trip across Canada and The North West Passage by Land, which has gone through ten editions. In 1865, Cheadle resumed medical practice in London, and married in the following year. He met with great success in his career, and served as dean of St. Mary’s Medical School from 1869 to 1873. In the face of much opposition, he stood among the early supporters of women’s claims to a right to practice medicine.

Milton and Cheadle named numerous features in the Yellowhead Pass area.

Viscount Milton was a British nobleman, explorer of British North America, and Liberal Party politician.
Fitzwilliam was the eldest son of William Wentworth-FitzWilliam, 6th Earl FitzWilliam, and his wife Lady Frances Harriet, daughter of George Douglas, 17th Earl of Morton, and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge [1].

In 1860 Milton visited the Red River Settlement and the trip whetted his appetite for more travel in British North America. According to a lecture he gave to a number of British scientific and literary societies in 1864, he was the initiator of a second and more important journey: “In the spring of 1862 I resolved to investigate for myself the nature of the country between the Red River Settlement and the Rocky Mountains; and to penetrate, if possible, by the shortest route to the gold regions of Cariboo.” He rightly considered himself “fortunate to obtain the assistance” of a friend, Dr. Walter Butler Cheadle, who proved to be the real leader of the expedition [2].

‘The favourable effect upon his health produced by the invigorating climate of the Great Plains, and the charm of the wild life there, induced Lord Milton to return there the following year, in company with Dr. Walter Butler Cheadle [1835–1910], with the view of making a more extensive exploration of the North-West Territory. At that time the gold mines of Cariboo, in British Columbia, were attracting much attention, and the only practicable route to them was the extremely circuitous one by Panama, or the little less indirect and more toilsome journey through United States territory by way of California. Although the rich mining districts of British Columbia lie almost in the direct line across the Continent through British territory, the way was barred by the great chain of the Rocky Mountains; and on each side of the main range lay wide extent of rugged country, covered with dense forest, and in great part unexplored. Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle determined to make the attempt to discover a way through this difficult and trackless region which separated the plains of the Saskatchewan from the mining districts of British Columbia, and they set out on this expedition in the spring of 1863. The story of this adventurous and toilsome journey, graphically related by Lord Milton and his companion in The North-West Passage by Land, is probably familiar to most of us. Provided with very inadequate resources for such an arduous undertaking, the party endured great hardships and privations before they succeeded in forcing their way by the Yellow Head or Leather Pass, and through the dense forest of the North Thompson River, to the plains of Kamloops. Had Lord Milton enjoyed the full vigour of health, his enterprising spirit would have led him to further geographical research. But the renewed strength, which, in spite of its hardships, he eventually obtained from this journey, did not endure. After the lapse of a few years, he was compelled by increasing illness to resign the seat in Parliament to which he had been elected after his return, and he once more crossed the Atlantic to North America. The last few years of his life he spent chiefly in the highlands of Virginia; returning to England, however, shortly before his death [3].

McEvoy, on the staff of the Geological Survey of Canada, made a reconnaissance of the route west of Edmonton through the Yellowhead Pass in 1898, during which he took the first photograph of Mount Robson.

McEvoy’s father was James McEvoy [b. 1818, County Kildare, Ireland – d. 1896, Ottawa, Ontario], a farmer who arrived in Canada before 1833. The elder McEvoy married Margaret McNamara [b. 1820, Tipperary, Ireland—d. 1900] in Ottawa in 1848 [1, 2].

James Jr. was educated in Ottawa public schools and McGill University, graduating in science in 1883. For a short time he taught school and then accepted a position on the staff of the Geological Survey of Canada, where he remained for 15 years [3]. As a young man, he became interested in military affairs, was an officer in the Governor General’s Foot Guards, Ottawa, later a captain in the Kootenay Rifles, having organized two companies in that regiment. In the First World War, with the rank of Major, he was on the staff of the chief instructor in trench warfare at Niagara, London, and border camps [4].

In 1889 he accompanied George Mercer Dawson [1849–1910], the assistant director of the Geological Survey, on geological investigations in British Columbia [5]. In 1898 he made a geological survey of the Yellowhead Pass route from Edmonton to Tête Jaune Cache, passing by Mount Robson:

When we first caught sight of it, a shroud of mist partially enveloped the summit, but this presently rolled away, and we saw its upper portion dimmed by a necklace of feathery clouds, beyond which its pointed apex of ice, glittering in the morning sun, shot up far into the blue heaven above. The top of the mountain is usually completely hidden and rarely indeed is it seen entirely free from clouds. The actual height of the peak is 13,700 feet, or 10,750 feet above the valley.… Although Robson Peak has been long known, its height had never been determined, nor was it supposed to be particularly notable in that respect, but now since the height of Mts. Brown, Hooker and Murchison have been proved to be greatly exaggerated, it has the distinction of being the highest known peak in the Canadian Rockies. [p. 16]

His report included a map showing the Yellowhead Pass route from Edmonton to Tête-Jaune Cache [6]. Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] wrote in 1912 [7]:

The splendid report of James McEvoy, published by the Geological Survey of Canada in 1900, dealing with the geology and natural history resources of the country traversed by the Yellowhead Pass route from Edmonton to Tête-Jaune Cache, contains the most comprehensive and reliable geographical information that has yet been published, and also contains the only geographical map published of that route on a sufficiently large scale to be of value.

In 1901 McEvoy became geologist for the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company at Fernie, B.C. He married Florence Ray [1876 – d. 1942] in 1902. In 1906 he was appointed chief engineer of the company, but relinquished the position soon afterwards to commencial practice in Toronto. He was regarded as one of the best authorities on coal and his services had been retained for numerous enterprises in connection with coal, iron, and oil operations, not only in Canada but in all parts of the world. He was a member of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the Engineering Institute of Canada, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Mining and Metallurgy Institute, London, England [8].

EARLY CITIZEN DIES SUDDENLY

James E. McEvoy, geologist and mining engineer, of Ottawa, died at Corbin on Friday inst. from a heart attack. Deceased had been reporting on some phosphate claims about six or seven miles from Corbin.

The death of James McEvoy recalls the early days of Fernie when he was one of our leading citizens and an official of the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Co. He was a very clever geologist and made a lot of early surveys of the Crow’s Nest Pass coal fields. Had the C.P.R. paid attention to his reports on the Hosmer coal property they would have been a million or so to the good, his report was that the coal seams at that point could not be mined profitably.

During the time he spent in Fernie he took an active interest in local affairs. He was Instrumental in the forming of two companies of the Kootenay Rifles and was appointed captain of A company.

He severed his connection with the C.N.P. Coal Co. about 1907 and took up his residence in Toronto and later on moved to Ottawa.

— Fernie Free Press, July 26, 1935 [9]

He was survived by his widow and one daughter, Dorothy Ray McEvoy. McEvoy was buried in Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa.

Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot [1880–1924]

b. 1880 — London, England
d. 1924 — Quebec, Canada

I was one of a party of six which set out from the western fringe of civilisation in Alberta to make the “North-West Passage” by land, threading 1,200 miles of wonderful, practically unknown country-the interior of New Caledonia, or, as it is now officially called, New British Columbia. The party consisted of Harry R. Charlton, Montreal ; Robert C. W. Lett, Winnipeg ; H. D. Lowry, Washington, U.S.A.; G. Horne Russell, Montreal; a photographer, and myself. The first and third left the party at Tête Jaune Cache to return. The object of my investigations was to form some notion of the economic and scenic value of the country traversed.

My best thanks are due to the Grand Trunk and Grand Trunk Pacific Railways for their valuable assistance in regard to facilities for making the journey and their courteous provision of the photographer, and for placing at my service the copyright photographs that embellish this volume; also to the hardy, hospitable frontiersmen and sourdoughs who, having themselves got in on the ground floor,” readily afforded me all possible information for the guidance of those who are bent upon wooing Fortune in a country which is being unlocked and rendered more accessible every day.

Stanley Washburn [1878–1950]

b. 1878 — Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
d. 1950

Journalist. Was born at Minneapolis, Feb. 7, 1878; son of William Drew and Elizabeth M. (Muzzy) Washburn. Educated at Williams Colloge, Mass., class of 1901, also short time at the Harvard Law School. Received degrees: A.B.Honorary Member Japanese Red Cross Society: Decorated by Emperor of Japan with order of the Imperial Crown. Was in local journalism in Minneapolis from 1901 to Jan., 1904, serving as police reporter, market editor, Sunday editor and editorial writer. Went to the Far East and became special war correspondent of the Chicago Daily News, commanding their despatch boat Fawan for four months in front of Port Arthur, being twice captured by the Russians. Later jointed the Third Japanese Army under Nogi at the siege of Port Arthur. Covered a war scare in the Balkans, and in 1905 (Jan.) was at St. Petersburg for the Revolution. Rejoined Army in Manchuria, where he remained until end of hostilities. Commanded despatch boat France in the Black Sea during late fall of 1905, on the occasion of Russian Revolution, carrying dispatches and mails for four powers and bringing out cargo of refugees from Batuum, then in state of anarchy. Occasional contributor to magazines. Member Delta Psi Fraternity, Masons, Minneapolis Club, Commercial Club and numerous other organizations.

Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, USA, tombstone inscribed:
“Major, U. S. Army, Lt. Col. Military Intelligence Reserves.”

Author of several books, including Trails, Trappers and Tenderfeet in the New Empire of Western Canada, chronicling trips in the Yellowhead Pass area in 1901 and 1909. Stanley’s friend psychologist Lydiard Horton, his classmate at Williams, was the “Mountain Philosopher” of Trails Trappers and Tenderfeet.

John Norman Collie [1859–1942]

b. 1859 — Alderley Edge, Cheshire, England
d. 1942 — Sligachan, Isle of Skye, Scotland

Collie was a chemist and mountaineer who lived at London, England. Between 1897 and 1911, Collie pioneered climbing in the Canadian Rockies, making twenty-one first ascents including Mount Victoria and Mount Athabasca.