Page 10 THE TRIBUNE, WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. Thursday, December 23, 1954. That Reindeer Is seconigaTraiion Early Pioneers Who Sought Gold That reindeer is becoming an American tradition. od tale ce Le similarly: convey=| the aburee at tie GrenaiNne Lake ed into the overhead hoppers. This | and Gustafsen Lake which are join- was the first grist mill to be erected | ed together by a narrow diteh. enothe mainland. | A sprinkling of Mexican is also There may be some argument or found among these early pioneers Once upon a time there was a St 5 reindeer with a built-in flashlight @ e 1] or é Gh f @ re this, but John Williams, who for with sneh name. vith such names as Valenzuela and bulb for a nose. You know, Ru- s many years operated a mill at Cli dolph, the red-nosed reindeer. i From a small beginning in 1938. The following is the first installment of excerts from a the little animal with the built-in talk given to the last Historical Society beacon has become as familiar as eS ai Society meeting by a. J. Humpty-Dumpty and Cinderella to : = cas : Youngsters everywhere. outline of the history of Dog Creek, once a busy centre on First invented as a sales give- the road to the Cariboo gold centres. away promotion for Montgomery Ward by Robert L. May, Rudolph trated British Columbia, or the Ore- was featured in many free booklets before he became associated with Christmas. Songwriter Johnny a large si Marks liked the title “Rudolph, | cent to the Fr. i the Red Nosed. Reindeer,” so he /iween Lillooet and Chimney Creek | hostility Wrote a song about it. He was so 5 e remained unaffected, sure he had a success that he start- hive Gece : ed his own Publishing company, y juve heen due in. part to using “Rudolph” as his first re |the fact that it was quite lease. Gene Autry made the initial ed by Indians haying ‘ding, and tbat one record for war-like tendencies. On 030,000 copies. in}cléaer aia Last year, there were 16 differ Ast pide se i close: Dg é ent recordings of the song for sale tO the river were the encampments ranging ‘from boogie-woogie by | ol the Shusw On the west side Sugar Chile Robinson to Bing Cros. | but much farther back were the Chil- by, and cowboy singers. colins. In between these two demar- cation lines lay the lush delta of the Chileotin River and the great Churn Creek basin. This was, and still is dise and mueh of tho was engendered by the ao- sire te control it, With the coming of gold miners, this hitherto untouched portion of the Fraser water shed experienced its first influx of white men, but even then it remained for some lime as litle more than a line of travel to richer prospects further north. ‘The viver itself along this streteh Was for the most part contained with a nar- row defile winding its way between towering walls of lava the result of two major voleanie erup- gon Territory as it was then known, jon of the countr: With the ernde equipment avail able it could not be minea except for 2 brief period of very low wat the spring. In many places the p: went up so abruptly there rem no beach to travel over. “Its swift running tributaries yielded nO pay ing quantities of gold. Prom Lillooet to What is now Canoe Creek the bulk of the traye! Was slong the west bank, In order to proceed farther north it was necesary to make g detour away from the r aecomplisned by having ns paddle the trayeller across to Uie east bank in their home- med canoes; a handicraft at which they were particularly adept, and ;caused the place to be called Canoe Creek, | From that point onward the line jst travel lay slong the trails linkin, } the various Indisn Villages, It cross ed the Dog Creek valley some two miles east of the river then climbed some fifteen hundred feet onto the plateau above, From there it proceed ed in almost as ght line to a point up the Alkali Lake valley where the reservation is now situated, thence on to Springhouse from which point it evered back to the river near Soda Creek. Until the C.P.R. was complet- r , ed to Asheroft, this trail was much HUSTON’S AGENCIES used by the pack trains supplying - many of the Hudson's: Bay Arading posts and other camps to the north. Of the hundreds of miners enter- ing Cariboo, only g small percentage found it possible to follow the min- ing profession. A far greater number had to seek other means of making a livelihood. It was then the farming possibilities of this a began to at tract attention. The three valleys on the east side with their copious reams running through them were ideal for irri jon. The centre on the Dog Creek Valley, some 45 miles eth, appears to have had the t appeal. There are several explanations of- fered as to how Dog Creek got its name. One ascribes it to the number of dogs that greeted a stranger ap- proaching the teepees, Another say the Indians were always guarrelling and snarling like dogs, but some of the old Indians y it was known as Dog pr Dogs Creek long before the White man appeared. One of their old chiefs became noted for his proWess 48 a warrior and got the Bickname of Skaha which is Indian tor dog ‘Two brothers named Harper seem to have been the first to grasp the farming possibilities of this area They returned to their home at Har- May the Season’s friendly cheer, Fill your heart with abounding joy Te last throw New Year, J Claude and Ken BEST WISHES AND THE NEW YEAR FROM per’s Ferry in the Blue River Moun- THE MANAGEMENT AND STAPP fains where they gathered a herd of of the eattle which they trail-herded to Cariboo. One man accompanying them Famous Restaurant on this long drive waecsi Heimere to all of you’ - Drinkell, long-time resident of Dog Creek. The talk was an |! couveyed to apertures for sacking by & | Tresierras. ‘The former, more widely ton for Harper Brothers, ‘rom Po- known as Raphael, took up a piece who later joined the firm of Pat| Cock WHO rn the Asheroft mill tor of land and erected the first lug unit and was the cattle buyer tor | {2° 8¢me firm, and J. S. Place, whose | of the building that was later to be. 2 4 father-in-law operated mill at what | come known as the Dog Cree Hotel. is now called ‘Thompson Siding, all! o. nein ni They took up land at Dog Creek | A eon a jTWis oldest daughter claimed this Mountain and later moved across the |“ .e"7@4 t© the Brown mill as aS happened in 1856 but I have not yet h a a 3 is aeros ele . i first on the mainland. ‘ci i i river to found what is now known jomicially verified this fact. It does We find Moses Pigeon raising i i s the Gang Ranch, : s pat s +; seem open to question since little oh eae ae ae Ge be-| wheat on his ives pani Tani to-teed | joven entpae aparent in this dis- - + ears sae : ane a Ane the mill. He subsequently moved trict that early. ane ahee. bees L ae OF the eordtt: | comer twelve nines ube valley eta | eee Meason, who founded the y Walking. Plough. i found the Grandview Ranch. His Sey eat i (lement of other lands in the} -° Lesser Dog Creek ranch, was for River Ranch holding were taken over ‘ i lower reaches of Dog Creek valley ‘ many years the Indian Agent, magis- i 3 | b¥ Nels Gustafsen who also develop- anickly followed. The earliest set- trate and general trouble hooter. He a andsriniy Ges ed some hay meadows at the he: was also a:profound Greek scholar ers were preponderantly French a : yas é ok ; ne Wer Preponderantly French |S quarters of the creek and thus gave x we find amongst. them Pierre Colin, his name to the two lakes lormine le Conte de Versepench, two broth- | ers Moses and Joseph Pigeon. ‘There is little doubt this was the earliest tempt at permanent settlement in this section of the Fraser water shed. © find Pierre Colin obtained~a licence to use water for irrigation vurposes and domestic use in 186i. "his was quickly followed by Verse- euch who also utilized it for power jurposes. This gentleman had a keen ove of the better things in life. ‘His souse was equipped with an excellent ireplace built of adobe bricks. Not or him was the unpleasant task ot tanding In a pit to draw a whipsaw p and down, He erected a pit over he creek, mounted his saw thereon ‘nd constructed an overshot waler- vhee] which he attached to the The ‘stream then propelled the ind carried away the sawdust. at one speration, the forerunner of the Next came Charlie Brown, Charlie a flour miller by trade and Kkly reverted to his first love. He mported a s cl main drive shaft and a few other rdds and énds and proceded to con- suet a grist mill. Aside from the importations, every piece of shatt- ing, every pulley, each boxing and even the finely balance? reel were fashioned by hand, out of timbers cut in the surrounding woods. As the lour sifted through the silk eover- ing of the reel into a trough, it was (to be continued next week) oe saan fectinas My yours be a holiday overflowing with happin d eer, With happiness and good cheer, Manhattan Beauty Parlour mesns of another handmade shaft to which were attached many pieces of (in so placed as to form a spiral con- Coutts Sawmills sawauer BLOWERS PILLOW BLOCKS SKF DODGE s Morse Roller Chain and Sprockets : Dodge V Drives BF Goodrich V Belts Esco Bardon Hooks and Ferrules EDGERS Manufacturers Welder: Quesnel Machine Shop QUESNEL, B.c. Box 1078 Phone &6-R-2 —e and for the Bright New Year ahead that’s our wish from all of us at CARIBOO TRUCK & EQUIPMENT LTD. Bue (ORTRS SESS SST SSS SSS SESS GS SS SSS.