Category Archives: People

Alpine Club of Canada

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Alpine Club of Canada [1906–]

b. 1906 — Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

In the spirit of the Alpine Club (UK) created in England in 1857, and the American Alpine Club (founded 1902), the ACC was established in Winnipeg in 1906 by Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] and Elizabeth Parker [1856–1944], with the support of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Sources of biographical information about Alpine Club of Canada:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Alpine Club of Canada was involved:

  • 1906 ACC organized, Mount Robson attempt proposed
  • 1909 ACC Camp – Lake O’Hara
  • 1911 ACC-Smithsonian Robson expedition
  • 1913 ACC Camp – Mount Robson
  • 1924 ACC Camp – Mount Robson (host)
  • 1926 ACC Camp – Tonquin Valley
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Alpine Club of Canada was author or co-author:

  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. ACC Minute Book V14/AC 041M/7 (1906–1914).
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Executive papers (1906–1924).
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Club records (1906–1924).
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Clubhouse register (1910–1913).
  • —   Member’s register, Banff Clubhouse (M200 / AC 0M / 126) (1910–1913).. Whyte Museum
  • —   “Exploration in the Yellowhead.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 3 (1911):117
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Notice of the Alpine Club of Canada, Eighth Annual Camp, 1913, to be held at Mount Robson, on the great Divide, Summit of Robson Pass (AC 0 129) (1913).
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Constitution and List of Members. 1906-1930 (1930).

George R. B. Kinney

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The Reverend George R.B. Kinney; Proctor, BC.

The Reverend George R.B. Kinney; Proctor, BC.
BC Archives


Camp among last bushes. 7000 feet. Lucius Coleman, Arthur Coleman, George Kinney. 1907

Camp among last bushes. 7000 feet. Lucius Coleman, Arthur Coleman, George Kinney. 1907
Coleman, The Canadian Rockies. New and Old trails. p. 327


A.O. Wheeler, Donald “Curly” Phillips, Harry Blagden, Ned Hollister, Charles Walcott Jr., James Shand-Harvey, Casey Jones and Rev. George B. Kinney, near Maligne Lake, Smithsonian-ACC Robson Expedition Photo: Byron Harmon, 1911

A.O. Wheeler, Donald “Curly” Phillips, Harry Blagden, Ned Hollister, Charles Walcott Jr., James Shand-Harvey, Casey Jones and Rev. George B. Kinney, near Maligne Lake, Smithsonian-ACC Robson Expedition
Photo: Byron Harmon, 1911
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

George Rex Boyer Kinney [1872–1961]

b. 1872 — Victoria Corner, New Brunswick, Canada
d. 1961 — Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Kinney became interested in climbing while serving as a minister of the Methodist Church in Banff and Field (1). He accompanied Arthur Philomen Coleman [1852–1939] on his unsuccessful trips to Mount Robson in 1907 and 1908 (2). Kinney returned alone in July 1909, met Donald “Curly” Phillips [1884–1938] near Jasper, and travelled with him through the Yellowhead Pass and the Moose River valley to Mount Robson. After being repelled by weather several times, they reached what Kinney and Phillips reported to be the peak of Mount Robson (3, 4).

During the Alpine Club of Canada camp at Mount Robson in 1913, Phillips stated that he and Kinney had not ascended a final 50-foot dome of snow (5), and official credit for climbing the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies goes to Conrad Kain, William Wasborough Foster [1875–1954], and Albert H. McCarthy [1876–1956] (6).

See Kinney at Robson for more information.
(7, 8)

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

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

  • 1906 ACC organized, Mount Robson attempt proposed
  • 1906 ACC Camp – Yoho
  • 1907 Schaffer meets Coleman in Wilcox Pass
  • 1907 ACC Camp – Paradise Valley
  • 1907 Coleman – Laggan to Robson
  • 1908 Coleman – Edmonton to Robson
  • 1909 Kinney and Phillips at Mount Robson
  • 1909 kinney returns to Edmonton
  • 1911 ACC-Smithsonian Robson expedition (assistant)
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Kinney was author or co-author:

  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. AC 014M George Kinney photographs and price lists. (1907).. Whyte Museum
  • —   Photographs and price lists (M200 / AC 014M) (1907).. Whyte Museum
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Alpine Club of Canada fonds, V14, M200 (1907).. Whyte Museum
  • —   “Mount Stephen.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 1 (1907):91
  • —   “Mount Robson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 2 (1909):10-16
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. ACC fonds M200/III (1909).. Whyte Museum
  • —   “The ascent of Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, vol. 42, no. 7 (1910):496-511. JSTOR
  • —  and Phillips, Donald “Curly” [1884–1938]. “To the top of Mount Robson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1910):21-44
  • —   “Trail From Maligne Lake To Laggan. Report of the Rev. G. Kinney to the Alpine Club of Canada.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 4 (1912):81
  • —   Canadian Mountain Climbing. Vancouver, B.C.: The Canadian Club of Vancouver, 1913
  • —   London, England: Royal Geographical Society Archives. Letter to Arthur Hinks (1917).
  • —   Carnet de visites, agenda medical (sketchbook created in France) (1919).. Library and Archives Canada
  • —   London, England: Royal Geographical Society Archives. Letter to Doctor Hinks (1936).
References:

  • 1. Mortimore, G. E. “The preacher who climbed Mount Robson Peak.” Daily Colonist [Victoria, BC], (9 April 1950)
  • 2. Coleman, Arthur Philemon [1852–1939]. The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911. Internet Archive
  • 3. Kinney, George Rex Boyer [1872–1961], and Phillips, Donald “Curly” [1884–1938]. “To the top of Mount Robson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1910):21-44
  • 4. Kinney, George Rex Boyer [1872–1961]. Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. ACC fonds M200/III (1909). Whyte Museum
  • 5. Parker, Elizabeth [1856–1944]. “A new field for mountaineering.” Scribner’s Magazine, 55 (1914)
  • 6. Kain, Conrad [1883–1934]. “The first ascent of Mt. Robson, the highest peak of the Rockies.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):22-
  • 7. Swanson, James L. [1947–]. Banff: George Kinney and the first ascent of Mount Robson (1999). Spiral Road
  • 8. First World War Personnel Records, Library and Archivres Canada. Kinney, George

Milton and Cheadle

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Our party across the mountains. Milton and Cheadle

Our party across the mountains. Milton and Cheadle
The North-West Passage by Land.


George A. Walkem [left], Dr. Walter Cheadle [seated], Viscount Milton [right, with hat in left hand], photographed in San Francisco, 1863

George A. Walkem [left], Dr. Walter Cheadle [seated], Viscount Milton [right, with hat in left hand], photographed in San Francisco, 1863
British Columbia Archives

William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Milton [1839–1877] was a British nobleman, explorer, and Liberal Party politician. Walter Butler Cheadle [1835–1910] was an English paediatrician. They travelled across Canada in 1862-1863. Departing from Quebec City in July, they wintered near Fort Carlton in present-day Saskatchewan. In 1863 they became the first “tourists” to travel through the Yellowhead Pass. After a challenging and at times humorous summer, they reached Victoria, British Columbia.

They chronicled their trip in 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 (1865).

They contributed many place names to the Yellowhead Pass region.

References:

  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], 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. Internet Archive
  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], 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. Internet Archive
  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “The location of Mt. Milton and the restoration of the names ‘Mt. Milton and Mt. Cheadle’.” American Alpine Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1943). American Alpine Club
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