Category Archives: People

Charles Doolittle Walcott

Charles Doolittle Walcott [1850–1927]

b. 1850
d. 1927

Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850 – February 9, 1927) was an American paleontologist, administrator of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927, and director of the United States Geological Survey.[1][2] He is famous for his discovery in 1909 of well-preserved fossils, including some of the oldest soft-part imprints, in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada.

Sources of biographical information about Walcott:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Walcott was involved:

  • 1912 Walcott Smithsonian
  • 1913 ACC Camp – Mount Robson
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Walcott was author or co-author:

  • Walcott Jr., Charles D., and —   “A geologist’s paradise.” National Geographic Magazine, 22, no. 6 (1911):WM 03.2 W14ge
  • —   “The monarch of the Canadian Rockies.” National Geographic Magazine, (1913):626. Internet Archive

Gabriel Franchère

Gabriel Franchère

Gabriel Franchère
Wikipedia

Gabriel Franchère [1786–1863]

b. 1786 — Montréal, Quebec
d. 1863 — St. Paul, Minnesota

French Canadian author and explorer of the Pacific Northwest. Franchère was born in Montreal and joined the Pacific Fur Company as a merchant apprentice, arriving at Fort Astoria on the Tonquin. After Astoria was sold to the North West Company, Franchère returned to Montréal overland in 1814. He was employed for a time by John Jacob Astor in Montréal. He wrote Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, published in 1819.

Sources of biographical information about Franchère:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Franchère was involved:

  • 1814 Franchère crosses Athabasca Pass
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Franchère was author or co-author:

  • —   Relation d’un voyage à la Côte du Nord-Ouest de l’Amerique Septentrionale. Montréal: 1820
  • —  and Lamb, William Kaye [1904–1999], editor. Journal of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1969. Internet Archive

Paul Kane

Paul Kane
Self-portrait, 1846-1848

Paul Kane
Self-portrait, 1846-1848
Wikipedia


Jasper House East Side Rocky Mountains
Field sketch, 1847

Jasper House East Side Rocky Mountains
Field sketch, 1847
Wikipedia


Paul Kane, “Boat Encampment,” Hudson’s Bay Company voyaguers, oil on canvas, 1849–1856

Paul Kane, “Boat Encampment,” Hudson’s Bay Company voyaguers, oil on canvas, 1849–1856
Royal Ontario Museum ROM2009_11209_41

Paul Kane [1810–1871]

b. 1810 — Mallow, County Cork, Ireland
d. 1871 — Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Kane was an Irish-born Canadian painter, famous for his paintings of First Nations peoples in the Canadian West and other Native Americans in the Columbia Departmentof the fur trade.

A largely self-educated artist, Paul Kane grew up in York, Upper Canada (now Toronto), and trained himself by copying European masters on a “Grand Tour” study trip through Europe. He undertook two voyages through the Canadian northwest in 1845 and from 1846 to 1848. The first trip took him from Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie and back. Having secured the support of the Hudson’s Bay Company, he set out on a second, much longer voyage from Toronto across the Rocky Mountains. On October 6, 1846, Kane left Edmonton for Fort Assiniboine, where he again embarked with a canoe brigade up the Athabasca River to Jasper House, arriving on November 3. Here he joined a large horse troop bound west, but the party soon had to send the horses back to Jasper’s House and continue on snowshoes, taking only the essentials with them, because Athabasca Pass was already too deeply snowed in that late in the year. They crossed the pass on November 12 and three days later joined a canoe brigade that had been waiting to take them down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver (present-day Vancouver, Washington) and Fort Victoria (present day Victoria, British Columbia).

On both trips Kane sketched and painted First Nations and Métis peoples. Upon his return to Toronto, he produced more than one hundred oil paintings from these sketches. The oil paintings he completed in his studio are considered a part of the Canadian heritage, although he often embellished them considerably, departing from the accuracy of his field sketches in favour of more dramatic scenes.

Sources of biographical information about Kane:

Kane is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Kane was involved:

  • 1846 Kane through Athabasca Pass
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Kane was author or co-author:

  • —   Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America. From Canada to Vancouver’s Island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. London: Longman, Brown, 1859

Richard William Cautley

Richard William Cautley 
Photo from

Richard William Cautley
Photo from “Compass to Satellite” by W.D. Stretton p. 42 (Canadian Surveyor vol 31 no 4)
Alberta’s Land Surveying History

Richard William Cautley [1873–1953]

b. 1873 — Ipswich, England
d. 1953 — Victoria, BC, Canada

Richard William Cautley [1873–1953]

Sources of biographical information about Cautley:

  • Sherwood, Jay. Surveying the Great Divide. The Alberta/BC Boundary Survey, 1913-1917. Qualicum Beach, BC: Caitlin Press, 2017
Events in the Mount Robson region in which Cautley was involved:

  • 1917 Boundary Comission Survey Yellowhead Pass
  • 1923 Boundary Comission Survey completed to Robson
  • 1924 ACC Camp – Mount Robson (guide)
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Cautley was author or co-author:

  • — and Wallace, James Nevin [d. 1941]; Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Part I: From 1913 to 1916. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1917
  • —   “Characteristics of passes in the Canadian Rockies..” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 12 (1921–1922):117-123
  • —  and Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. Report of the Commission appointed to delimit the boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Part II. 1917 to 1921. From Kicking Horse Pass to Yellowhead Pass.. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1924. Whyte Museum
  • —  and Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia – Part III – from 1918 to 1924. Atlas. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1925
  • —  and Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. Report of the Commission Appointed to Delimit the Boundary between the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Parts IIIA & IIIB, 1918 to 1924. From Yellowhead Pass Northerly. Ottawa: Office of the Surveyor General, 1925. Whyte Museum
  • —   High lights of memory : incidents in the life of a Canadian surveyor. 1950. Whyte Museum

David Douglas

David Douglas [1799–1834]

b. 1799 — Scone, Scotland
d. 1834 — Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Sources of biographical information about Douglas:

  • Harvey, Athelstan George [1884–1950]. Douglas of the Fir,: A Biography of David Douglas, Botanist. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947
  • Thorington, James Monroe [1895–1989]. The Glittering Mountains of Canada. A record of exploration and pioneering ascents in the Canadian Rockies 1914-1924. Philadelphia: John W. Lea, 1925 Internet Archive
  • Wikipedia. David Douglas
Events in the Mount Robson region in which Douglas was involved:

  • 1827 Drummond and Douglas meet at York factory waiting for boats home
  • 1827 David Douglas Athabasca pass
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Douglas was author or co-author:

  • —   Journal kept by David Douglas during his travels in North America 1823-1827, together with a particular description of thirty-three species of American oaks and eighteen species of Pinus, with appendices containing a list of the plants introduced by Douglas and an account of his death in 1834. Royal Horticultural Society, 1914

Hudson’s Bay Company

Hudson’s Bay Company

Sources of biographical information about Hudson’s Bay Company:

  • Aborigines’ Protection Society. Canada West and the Hudson’s-Bay Company. London: William Tweedie, 1856
  • Ball, Georgina. “Monopoly system of wildlife management of the Indians and the Hudson’s Bay Company in the early history of British Columbia.” BC Studies, 66 (1985)
  • Ermatinger, Edward [1797–1876]. Edward Ermatinger’s York Factory express journal, being a record of journeys made between Fort Vancouver and Hudson Bay in the years 1827–1828. Ottawa: Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1912 Internet Archive
  • Hearne, Samuel [1745–1792]. A journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean, in the years 1769, 1770, 1771, and 1772. Tyrrell, Joseph Burr, 1858-1957. Totonto: Champlain Society, 1911 Internet Archive
  • Innis, Harold. The Fur Trade in Canada. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930 Internet Archive
  • Knight, James [1640–1721]. Life and death by the frozen sea: the York Fort journals of Hudson’s Bay Company governor James Knight 1714–1717. Edited by Arthur J. Ray. Toronto: The Champlain Society, 2018
  • McMillan, James [1783–1858]. Winnipeg: Hudson’s Bay Company archives. Portion of letter James McMillan to William Connelly HBCA B.188/b/4 fo. 9-10 (1825).
  • Simpson, George [1792–1860]. Fur trade and empire. George Simpson’s journal entitled Remarks connected with fur trade in consequence of a voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-25. Frederick Merk, editor. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931 University of British Columbia Library
  • Simpson, George [1792–1860]. Peace River: A Canoe Voyage from Hudson’s Bay to Pacific, by the Late Sir George Simpson (Governor, Hon. Hudson’s Bay Company.) In 1828: Journal of the Late Chief Factor, Archibald McDonald (Hon. Hudson’s Bay Company), Who Accompanied Him; Edited, with Notes by Malcolm McLeod, Barrister, etc.. Ottawa: J. Durie & Son., 1872
  • Wikipedia. Hudson’s Bay Company
Events in the Mount Robson region in which Hudson’s Bay Company was involved:

  • 1670 HBC charter
  • 1722 La Vérendrye reachs Lk. Winnipeg
  • 1771 Hearne to Coppermine
  • 1774 HBC on Saskatchewan
  • 1812 NWC vs. HBC
  • 1819 Robertson in charge of Fort St Mary
  • 1820 Permanent HBC post established at Fort George
  • 1824 Simpson recrossing Athabasca Pass
  • 1824 Simpson and Ross cross Athabasca Pass from west
  • 1825 HBC becomes active on the northwest coast
  • 1825 McMillan re Tête Jaune’s Cache
  • 1827 George McDougall crosses YHP
  • 1827 David Douglas Athabasca pass
  • 1828 Chief Factor John McLoughlin takes charge of area west of the Rockies
  • 1828 James Douglas is captured in Carrier territory and released after negotiations
  • 1834 James Douglas becomes a Chief Trader within the HBC
  • 1838 HBC granted 21 year exclusive hunting and trading license to northwest coast
  • 1839 James Douglas becomes a Chief Factor within HBC
Also see:

North West Company

North West Company

Sources of biographical information about North West Company:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which North West Company was involved:

  • 1778 Pond to Athabasca
  • 1779 NWC Organized
  • 1789 Mackenzie reaches Arctic Ocean and explores Slave & Mackenzie River
  • 1792 Mackenzie sets out
  • 1793 Mackenzie reaches Pacific in first overland crossing of North America
  • 1793 Mackenzie sees Sekani woman among Soda Cree
  • 1804 Fort Simpson established by Northwest Company
  • 1805 Fort St. John established by Northwest Company
  • 1805 Mcleod’s Lake post established by Simon Fraser
  • 1805 Fort Nelson established on Liard River
  • 1805 Hudson Hope post established at Rocky Mountain Portage
  • 1806 Fort St. James established on Stuart Lake
  • 1806 Fort Fraser post established by HBC at Fraser Lake
  • 1807 Fraser founds Fort George
  • 1807 David Thompson visits the Kutenai. Kutenai House established
  • 1808 Fraser descends Fraser
  • 1811 David Thompson establishes the fur trade through Athabasca Pass.
  • 1811 David Thompson Athabasca Pass
  • 1812 NWC vs. HBC

David Thompson

David Thompson (1770-1857) Canadian cartographer and explorer

David Thompson (1770-1857) Canadian cartographer and explorer
Wikipedia

David Thompson [1770–1857]

b. 1770 — Westminster, England
d. 1857 — Longueuil, Canada East

Thompson, a charity pupil at Grey Coat School, London, was apprenticed to the Hudson’s Bay Company [1670–] in 1784. He joined the North West Company as a surveyor in 1797. In 1811 he explored the length of Columbia River, crossing the Continental Divide via the Athabasca Pass.

Thompson was a member of the British-American Boundary survey from 1815 to 1824. Thompson died of poverty at Longuineil, Quebec, in 1857, age 87. He was never on any of the three Thompson Rivers.

David Thompson’s map North-West Territory of the Province of Canada 1814

Sources of biographical information about Thompson:

Thompson is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Thompson was involved:

  • 1811 David Thompson Athabasca Pass
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Thompson was author or co-author:

  • —   David Thompson’s Narrative of his explorations in western America, 1784-1812. Joseph Burr Tyrrell, editor. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1916. University of British Columbia

Walter Butler Cheadle

Dr. Walter B. Cheadle, ca.1863

Dr. Walter B. Cheadle, ca.1863
British Columbia Archives


Dr. Walter Cheadle, photographed in San Francisco, 1863 (detail)

Dr. Walter Cheadle, photographed in San Francisco, 1863 (detail)
British Columbia Archives

Walter Butler Cheadle [1835–1910]

b. 1835 — Colne, Lancashire, England
d. 1910 — London, England

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.

Sources of biographical information about Cheadle:

Cheadle is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Cheadle was involved:

  • 1863 Milton and Cheadle through YHP
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Cheadle was author or co-author:

  • —   Cheadle’s Journal of Trip Across Canada 1862-63. Ottawa: Graphic Publishers, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and —   The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1865
  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and —   Voyage de l’Atlantique au Pacifique, à travers le Canada, les montagnes Rocheuses et la Colombie anglaise. Paris: Hachette, 1872

William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, Viscount Milton

Viscount Milton, photographed in San Francisco, 1863

Viscount Milton, photographed in San Francisco, 1863
British Columbia Archives

William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Milton [1839–1877]

b. 1839
d. 1877

Viscount Milton was a British nobleman, explorer, 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 He was epileptic.

Lord Milton had been a traveller from his youth up, and, in spite of a delicate frame and frequent illness, he succeeded in accomplishing substantial geographical work of considerable importance. His uncertain health compelled him to seek fresh life and vigour from time to time in some more bracing climate; and after several journeys to the Continent, and one to Iceland in 1861, he crossed the Atlantic to North America, and visited the regions to the west of the Red River Settlement in the Hudson Bay Territories. ‘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, ho 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 at the commencement of the present year.

The practical value of Lord Milton’s work has been well shown by subsequent events. His Expedition served, perhaps more than anything else, to direct public attention to the immense value of the southern portion of the Hudson Bay Territories, and to the great importance of establishing a way of communication between the eastern and western portions of British North America. This has been fullowed by the acquisition, by the Dominion of Canada, of the Hudson Bay Territories; and since that was effected, complete surveys have been carried out for a road and railway across the Rocky Mountains into British Columbia. These works have, indeed, been actually commenced; and the line chosen is identical with that followed by Lord Milton’s Expedition. The route traversed by his party, with so much toil and difficulty, will before long complete the link of communication between the Provinces of the Canadian Confederation, and eventually become the great highway to the Pacific through British North America.

Sources of biographical information about Milton:

Milton is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Milton was involved:

  • 1863 Milton and Cheadle through YHP
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Milton was author or co-author:

  • —  and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1865
  • —  and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. Voyage de l’Atlantique au Pacifique, à travers le Canada, les montagnes Rocheuses et la Colombie anglaise. Paris: Hachette, 1872