THE WILLIAMS

throughout the Cariboo

The photographer almost

Main point of this picture.

MppeciamedeysDutierin Coach,” ybuilt for

EARLY PACKER
Jean Caux, familiarly known as Cataline, was known

at the time of its eariy

development.

missed the
This was

Lord Dufferin to make his trip through
the Cariboo.
the 70 Mile House. }

Cataline

CENTENNIAL EDITION

noted

early day packer

One of the most interesting characters in the

early life of the Cariboo was Jean Ca,

UX, familiarly

known as Cataline (or Catalan), the first and the last
of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Packers,

He was born of French
Parentage on the Spanish side
of the frontier in the Cataluna
region, whose inhabitants
spoke the Catalan language;
hence the sobriquet.

For many years he made his
winter quarters at Dog Creek,
where he rented a log cabin
and pastured his mules on the

lush river benches lying be-
tween Dog Creek and Alkali
Lake. He supplied many of

the northern pasts of the Hud-
son's Bay Co., as well as the
telegraph station to Hazleton.

HIS LAST TRIP

He performed many prodi-
gious feats of  pack-train
transportation.

By 1910 he was reduced to
two trains of approximately 75
mules each, one of which was
in the charge of a Chinese
known as “ Pretty.” His last
trip, with only one train, a

It is Shown here outside

f™ Life centred around the road
for half century

: around its famous “ road.”
if of communication and over

Naturally, the men who kept
these services going were all-
important too, and towering
over all of them was Francis
Jones Barnard.

Barnard first walked into
Barkerville carrying mail and
small parcels on his back. He
then established a pony expre:
and when he secured the gov-
ernment mail contract in 1862,
he was ready to control most of
the freight and passenger busi-
ness on the road.

Barnard’s company was the
B.C. Express Company, but
was commonly known as “BX”
(Barnard’s Expres: When

the whole road was complete,
he imported 14-passenger, four-
horse stages, which from Yale
to Soda Creek made two trips
a week and never missed u
trip.

The company changed horses

every 13 miles. At every
coving place a hotel s

rang
up—the Mile Houses of

—

the
~ Cariboo. With his fast changes
of horses, his top drivers, and
not wasting a minute on the
route, Barnard could carry
passengers from Yale to Soda

Creek in 48 hours.

d OUTSTANDING DRIVER

Associated with Barnard in
the performance of service
were some rugged and forceful
pioneers. The most outstand-
ing of these was Stephen Ting-
ley, who for nearly 20 years
drove stage between Yale and
Cache Creek, over what was
probably the most hazardous
tretch of road on the North
American continent.

‘Tingley had been a share-
hdlder in the company since
its) incorporation, and on Sep-
tethber 1, 1888, he became the
sole owner. :

‘The mail contracts paid
about half the cost of operating
the service on the road, so it
can be seen that this contract
was vital to the company.

Over the years the Conserva-
tives held sway at Ottawa the

For half a century, life in the Cariboo centred

This was the main line
it came equipment, food,

passengers and the all-important mail.

contracts went first to Barnard
and then to Tingley, but when
the Liberals swept to power in
1896, the mail contracts were

put out to tender and every
effort was made to get another
bidder.

This wasn’t possible in the
West, where no one was pre-
pared to take on the risky busi-
ness, but finally an Easter#

syndicate headed by Charles V.
‘eed to take it on.
BOUGHT

When Millar, with the Cari-
boo

no difficulty negotiating

Tingley, and the British
umbia Express Company
changed han)

Millar was a wealthy Tor-
onto lawyer, a sound busine:
man and a lover of good hors
and the outdoors. He event-
ually acquired the interests of
partners and under him the

his

company expanded into the
steamboat business.
Another change was in the

offing. In 1911 the Conserva-
tives went back into power in
Ottawa, and the mail contracts
expired on September 30, 191

Early in that year negotia-
tions had been started with
officials of the Post Office de-
partment to establish a con-
tract price for a two-year ex-
tension of service. It was
thought that after that time
the service would no longer be
needed, as the Grand Trunk
Pacific Railway would be in
operation and the projected
Pacific Great, Eastern Railway
would have been completed
from Fort George down the
HAD MAIL CONTRACT

The company had asked
$120,000 a year for the two-
year period and government
anditors had examined the
books and agreed this was a
fair price.

However, on the afternoon
of September 28, 1913, the sup-
erintendent of the company at

route of the Cariboo Road to
Clinton and on to Vancouver.

his headquarters in Ashcroft
was visited by a former resi-
dent who disclosed that he anJ

his associate had the mail
contracts.
The new

contractors, J. T.
<amloops, and J.
Vancouver, did

they had offered to carry the
mail over nearly 1,000 miles
of trail, road and river routes
B.C. Express Company -a»
the mail until the end of
ar and then sold the new
contractors all their stages and
sleighs and some of their
horses, harness and other
equipment.

The new company operated
under the name of the Imperial
Express Company.

Thus the rise and decline of
but the mem-
when “ B.X.
in the Cariboo
lingers on. There are still’
men around who drove com-
pany freight and stage coaches
in the early part of the c¢
tury, men like Archie and ‘Tom
McDougal and Arthur Had-
dock.

a byword

n=

By the shores of the Columneetza

The first residents of this
valley, a proud, copper - hued
race long vanished, probably
referred to their home as “by
the shores of Clumneetza.”

Fact that another name for
the body of water now known
as Williams Lake existed, and
was still occassionally used,
even when the white man first
came, is found in a well-pre-
served issue of a small book or
magazine called “The Leisure
Hour”, printed in London, Eng-
land in 1865.

The book contains an article
entitled “To the Cariboo and
Back", and records the jour-
ney of a Mr. W. Champness
and his nameless nephew, from
England to the diggings at
Antler Creek in the year 1862.
The alternative name for Wil-
liams Lake mentioned in

ix

mixture of horses and mules,
was made in 1913.

It Was customary to leave
Dog Creek for Ashcroft early
in the spring, as weather con-
ditions permitted. He would
arrive back at Dog Creék to-
ward the end of November.

Cataline spoke a language
all his own. It was a mixture
of French, Spanish, English,
Chinese and Shuswap, with a
few Mexican words thrown in
for good measure. One needed
a smattering of each to really
comprehend. He was a rugged
individual—tough as rawhide
—and was rarely seen with
gloves or head covering other
than a wide brimmed stetson
hat. -

Early morning risers at Dog
Creek could observe him, re-
gardless of the temperature,
emerge from his cabin, take a
bath in the snow and shake
himself. If near enough one
would hear him exclaim, ‘She's
good.”

Contrary to, much that has
been written regarding his im-
bibing habits, he rarely drank
anything but Hudson’s Bay
Rum. At times he did appl
a portion of his drink to hi
long, shaggy hair. He
was a highly respected man
and quite soft-hearted despite
his rugged appearance.

He passed away at the home
of his daughter at Quesnel.

LARGEST CARS

Around 191} the late Joe
Place, sr., operated his ranch
and hotel at Dog Creek and
had five cars on the road. The
cars were Oldsmobile '90's, the
biggest car the maker ever put
out. They had 42” wheels and
the engine was five feet in
length.

Summer travel on the roa
was “king”

these early day outfits standing outside

the old Clinton Hotel. T

e : d when horse
in Cariboo. This freighter

he hotel was

Good turn led to first gold strike

;
The first man to disco¥er gold in the Cariboo

owed his good fortune to the}fact that he was willing;
to ae @helping hana t

Peti
arrived on the lower reaches
of the | Fraser just about the
time the Indians aboye Fort
Yale had massacred a number
of white people. Not deterred
by remarks that any attempt
to push farther into hostile In-
dian territory would be fool-
hardy, he and his party, con-
sisting of Tom Moffitt, Jim
Sellers, Crow and Tom
Menefee went upriver as far as
the mouth of the Chilcotin.

Dunlevy, an American,

Ira

One day as Dunlevy was
working with pan and shovel,
a young, pleasant faced Indian
suddenly appeared on the bank
of the river and asked for
food. He was a runner for the
Hudsons Bay Company by the
name of Tomaah, son of Chief
Lolos of Fort Kamloops.

FED TRAVELLER

Walking back to his tent,
Peter quickly made a little fire

and gaye the traveller some hot
tea and food. Tomaan stayed
two days, and on the second
day as he watched Dunlevy

washing some
drew a

sold in his pan,
rough sketch on the

ground of the surrounding
country. Placing the ena of his
stick on

a certain spot on his
plan, the runner said here was
a place where the gold
round and heavier than

was
that

passing as the writer records
stopping at an inn at Williams
Lake, “also called Columeet-
za.”
ATHAPASKAN WORD

The word is not of Shuswap
or of the language of the qa.
looet Indians, Judge Hen,
Castillon, noted authority op
Indian lore and anthropoloey
believes the name was actuate
“Clumneetza”” and was Athap-
askan

Far back in the past
Athapaskans, a race of
fair people, migrated south
penetrated as far as
Some of these people
far south as the
States and were the foi
of the Navajoes ang
But the main body
in B h CoM bia

the
tall,
and
Lytton.
went as
Southern
Tetathers
Apaches,
of the race
VWaPs ]

ater

an Indian. \

¥

Peter Curran  Dun-
levy, first man to dis-
cover gold in the

Cariboo.

|

which Dunlevy was panning.
The place was on a little
river north-east of Lac La
Hache, and Tomaah said he
would meet Dunlevy 16 day
later on the brigade trail at
the east and south end of the
lake and lead them to the
river.
On the 16th day the pros-
pectors were at the appointed
spot, but with some doubts as

pushed back north in front of
the wave of Shuswaps.

Judge Castillou tells us the
word “neetza” in the Athapas-
kan language means “princely
people or ruling house." Work-
ing back from this he believ
the Columeetza is probably a
mis-interpretation of “Colum-

neetza, which would be close
to the Athapaskan “cum to
neetza” or ‘‘meeting of the
princely people.”

The Athapasgans of this
settlement lived. around the

lake, particularly close to Sen-
tinel Rock, and as this would
be about the centre of the dis-
trict from Lytton to Fort St.
James, Judge Castillou theor-
izes that the lake could well
have been the meeting place
for the chiefs of all the bands

to whether the Indian
make his appearance. \

They waited for four hours.
Dunlevy was standing with his
back to the heavy bush when
suddenly he felt a hand on his
shoulder, and the words “Kla-
how-ya-Dunleebi.” It was the
young Indian, true to his word.
However he had urgent dis-
patches to deliver to Fort Kam-
loops and could not make the
trip himself, but he brought
another Indian. Long Baptiste,
to guide the Argonauts,

would

The men travelled past
Eagle Lake, McIntosh Lake,
Moffat Lake, down Moffat

Creek to the Horsefly River
and down thé river to a bench
that slopes off to Quesnel
Lake. There they found coarse
gold, the size of wheat. It was
the middle of June, 1859.

Dunlevy gave up prospecting
in 1861 to start a fur trading
Post and stopping place at
Beaver Lake in partnership
with Sellars. Dunlevy left there
when he saw the new Cariboo
road would kill that venture,
moved to Soda Creek and
started a saloon, store and
ranch. He died there in 1904
and is buried at St. Joseph's
Mission.

morning. Total bill: $2.50.

Express
rates high
by packer

During the 1860's it is esti-
mated there were some 800
head of pack horses and mules
on the Cariboo Trail. These

animals packed an average
weight of 360 pounds for
horses and mules, although

there were usually several head
in each train that could handle
400 pounds.

Freight rates in packing
days were as high as $1.25 a
pound, but with the building
of the Cariboo Road and the
coming of the freight wagons,
this price was reduced to 35
cents from Yale to Barkerville
in 1864. In June, 1865 it drop-
ped “to 25 cents and then to
15 cents.

There were tolls at Suspen-
sion Bridge (where the pres-
ent Alexandria Bridge is now)
and at Spences Bridge. The toll
at both bridges was 25 cents
for each animal, 25 cents for
all passengers and drivers,
$1.50 for stages, $2.50 for
heavy freight wagons, $1.00
for light rigs, and 16 cents a
pound for all freight.

Road tolls were 1 cent a
pound on freight at Yale and
1 cent a pound at Clinton.
These-road tolls were abolished
in ‘the early 1870’s and the
bridge tolls. were removed
about the same time.

Camels were tried once for
packing without success in
1862. They were complete fail-
ures and only made one trip in
the Cariboo. Some of the ani-
mals were taken to Grande
Prairie, 40 miles north-east of
Kamloops, where the last of
them is sead to have died in
1884.

Another type of conveyance
tried were the traction engines
or “road steamers”. F. J. Bar-
nard, founder of Barnard Ex-
press, brought these out from
Scotland in 1871.

But these “steamers” never
completed a trip either. Apart
from the expense of fueling, it
was found that going up and
down hill affected the level of
the water in the steam boiler
to such an extent that the ma.
chines were rendered St ea
useless. The engines were later
jased for logging on the coast.

Money went
long way —

A man could live like a king
travelling the Cariboo Road
back in the '90’s.

E. P. Lee of Redstone tells
of stopping at Boyd's at the
70 Mile, having his four horses
fed, supper and room for the
night and breakfast the next

A

packet of bandages...

was probably as much as the first travellers to the Cariboo had with them by

way of first aid.

doctors and medicine.

In those d

ays, the hardy pioneers had to manage without

Today, Williams Lake Pharmacy takes pride in pro-

vidin. nodern dr: rvi i ici
viding am ‘ug service with the newest medicines known to man. The

last 100 years have been a century of Progress but probably none of it has

been so great as in the world of pharmaceutical development.

WILLIAMS LAKE PHARMACY -

of the nation in this area,