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53-731: The first European explorers travelling through the Forks were Alexander Mackenzie in 1793, and Simon Fraser in 1805. Aboriginal trails laced the valleys for thousands of years. With the Klondike Gold Rush , the Canadian government sought to identify safe overland routes for prospectors to reach the Yukon from Edmonton . As water transport could be expensive, these were intended as wagon trails. The initial NWMP Trail, surveyed during 1897–98 by Inspector J.D. Moodie with First Nations guides, passed along

106-651: A detailed plan of his west coast project to the British government "Preliminaries to the Establishment of a Permanent British Fishery and Trade in Furs etc. on the Continent and West Coast of North America." The British government, at the time predicting conflict with Napoleon, took no action. (Later Simon Fraser and David Thompson worked to extend the Canadian fur trade and prevent U.S. incursion in what would be Canada. ) Mackenzie

159-465: A forestry service engineer on the project, had been the first Caucasian child to live at Finlay Forks. Further contracts were let for the clearing and burning of inferior timber. Several portable sawmills began operations. Carrier Lumber and Cattermole Timber adopted new ideas such as felling on the ice and sorting later. The latter was located on the west bank of the Parsnip River, two miles south, and

212-478: A further 40 miles of heavy construction if extended to Finlay Forks, and progress was long delayed. A PGE link to a possible Alaskan rail route continued to include Finlay Forks. In 1965, an access road north from Highway 97 reached the settlement and construction commenced on the Manson Creek link. A three-times-weekly road freight service with Prince George was soon implemented. The 1966 PGE spur covered only

265-417: A message on a rock near the water's edge of Dean Channel , using a reddish paint made of vermilion and bear grease, and turned back east. The inscription read: "Alex MacKenzie / from Canada / by land / 22 July 1793" (at the time the name Canada was an informal term for the former French territory in what is now southern Quebec and Ontario). The words were later inscribed permanently by surveyors. The site

318-417: A potential town comprised a few scattered cabins, with Ole Johnson offering visitor accommodation. In 1912, Louis Peterson (c.1852–1933) who took up the first pre-emption at the Forks, was postmaster 1926–29, and ran a trading store until his death. The remaining storekeeper, Alan (alternatively Alex) McKinnon, was also a fur trader, postmaster 1920–25 and 1930–43, and a mine owner. Replenishing his supplies in

371-476: A series of similar stations in northern BC and the Yukon. The following year, United Air Transport (UAT) inaugurated a scheduled monthly passenger/freight/mail service for nine months of the year. A half-gallon ice cream consignment was the first occasion it was served in the community. By 1938, the dominion postal inspector's annual visit to Finlay Forks and the surrounding post-offices took five days by air, compared with

424-416: A verbal exchange during an intoxicated episode. While Joe Egnell, husband of the deceased was in a physical altercation with Murphy Porter, their wives May and Mary, and Bessie Tomah, were fighting. Although May had pulled a knife, Bessie, 26, was found guilty of manslaughter and received a three-year sentence. In 1948, Joe Egnell's father, McDonald, and youngest brother, Tony, died, the former of exposure and

477-492: A week by water and land. The 1930s survey for Route B of the proposed Alaska Highway , which was promoted as the Canadian preference, was via this locality. By 1935, the leaning was for a Prince George-Finlay Forks road via Summit Lake rather than Manson Creek, however this choice was not universal, and further surveys ensued. The latter, known as the Turgeon Highway, did not reach Manson Creek until 1939. The project required

530-445: Is now Sir Alexander Mackenzie Provincial Park and is designated First Crossing of North America National Historic Site . In 2016, Mackenzie was named a National Historic Person . He returned the way he had come, arriving at Fort Chipewyan on Aug. 24. He spent the winter there working in the fur trade. The next year he returned to Montreal. Soon after, he travelled to the U.S. and to London. He returned to Montreal and became one of

583-520: The American War of Independence , his father and uncle resumed their military duties and joined the King's Royal Regiment of New York as lieutenants. By 1778, for his safety as a son of loyalists, young Mackenzie was sent, or went accompanied by two aunts, to Montreal . By 1779 (a year before his father's death at Carleton Island ), Mackenzie had a secured apprenticeship with Finlay, Gregory & Co., one of

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636-703: The Black Isle . The Mackenzie River and Mount Sir Alexander are named for him, as is Mackenzie Bay , and the municipality of Mackenzie, British Columbia . There are a number of schools in Canada named after him, such as Sir Alexander Mackenzie Senior Public School in Toronto, Sir Alexander Mackenzie Elementary School in Vancouver, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie Elementary School in St. Albert. Also Sir Alexander Mackenzie School in

689-811: The First Nations people understood that the local rivers flowed to the north-west. Thinking that it would lead to Cook Inlet in Alaska , he set out by canoe on the river known to the local Dene First Nations people as the Dehcho (Mackenzie River) , on 3 July 1789. On 14 July he reached the Arctic Ocean, rather than the Pacific. Later, in a letter to his cousin Roderick , he called the waterway "the River Disappointment," since

742-579: The Jacobite rising of 1745 . He later became a merchant and held the tack of Melbost ; his grandfather being a younger brother of Murdoch Mackenzie, 6th Laird of Fairburn. Educated at the same school as Colin Mackenzie , the army officer and first Surveyor General of India , he sailed to New York City with his father to join an uncle, John Mackenzie, in 1774, after his mother died in Scotland. In 1776, during

795-495: The Nootka Crisis with Spain, he returned to Canada in 1792, and set out to find a route to the Pacific. Accompanied by two native guides (one named Cancre), his cousin, Alexander MacKay , six Canadian voyageurs (Joseph Landry, Charles Ducette, François Beaulieu , Baptiste Bisson, Francois Courtois, Jacques Beauchamp), and a dog simply referred to as "our dog", Mackenzie left Fort Chipewyan on 10 October 1792, and travelled via

848-640: The Peace River . However, low water levels would shorten the navigation season. Four of the potential sites for the W. A. C. Bennett Dam were at the western end of the Peace River canyon near the Forks. Originally, the dam and powerhouse were planned for the Finlay Forks-Wicked River junction seven miles (11 km) east. On drilling down 400 feet in the middle of the Peace River, the failure to reach solid rock identified an unbridgeable crevice. By

901-575: The Pine Pass highway and railway developments . In 1913, Premier McBride envisaged a PGE Alaskan rail route passing through the Forks. In the late 1920s, Mr. Armishaw sought to establish a trail southwest to Manson Creek . A rail line from the Forks to the Ferguson mine in the Ingenika was proposed. Charter flights from Prince George to this mine were taking less than two hours to what had previously been

954-567: The Pine River to the Peace River . From there he travelled to a fork on the Peace River arriving 1 November where he and his cohorts built a fortification that they resided in over the winter. This later became known as Fort Fork . Mackenzie left Fort Fork on 9 May 1793, following the route of the Peace River. He crossed the Great Divide and found the upper reaches of the Fraser River , but

1007-455: The 23 miles (37 km) to Mackenzie. Established in 1813, the location was an important Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post and settlement. Two general stores opened in 1913. That year, the residents formed a community association and petitioned the postal authorities to rename the location as 'Finparpea', compiled from the first three letters of the three rivers. World War I superseded any action, and few returned to their holdings after

1060-602: The Bella Coola Valley, BC. He is referenced in the 1981 folk song "Northwest Passage" by Stan Rogers . The Alexander Mackenzie rose (Explorer Series), developed in 1985 by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada , was named in his honour. Between 1989 and 1993, the Mackenzie Bicentennial Sea-to-Sea Expeditions of Lakehead University attempted a segmented re-enactment of the journey between Montreal and Bella Coola, British Columbia , but

1113-973: The North West Company, he aspired to extend the Company's operations into western Canada and selling those furs in China. His hopes thus were intrusions on the monopoly positions of both the Hudson's Bay Company and the East India Company. Mackenzie was born in Stornoway in Lewis . He was the third of the four children born to Kenneth 'Corc' Mackenzie (1731–1780) and his wife Isabella MacIver, from another prominent mercantile family in Stornoway. When only 14 years old, Mackenzie's father served as an ensign to protect Stornoway during

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1166-536: The Pacific Ocean. Having done this, he had completed the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, 12 years before Lewis and Clark . He had unknowingly missed meeting George Vancouver at Bella Coola by 48 days. He had wanted to continue westward out of a desire to reach the open ocean, but was stopped by the hostility of the Heiltsuk people . Hemmed in by Heiltsuk war canoes, he wrote

1219-605: The Sekani are the Babine to the west, Dakelh to the south, Dunneza (Beaver) to the east, and Kaska and Tahltan , to the north, all Athabaskan peoples. In addition, due to the westward spread of the Plains Cree in recent centuries, their neighbours to the east now include Cree communities. Sekani people call their language [tsekʼene] or [tθekʼene] depending on dialect, which appended with Dene (meaning people), means "people on

1272-538: The adequacy of provincial policing in the area, a permanent police presence was limited to the 1920s. In 1930, Alfred (Alf) Jank (1897–1989) was appointed game warden for the Finlay River district, with his headquarters in the forestry cabin at Finlay Forks. Vic Williams replaced him the following year. Vic and a colleague rescued two men from a capsized boat in the Finlay Rapids , but a third person drowned. In 1933, he

1325-480: The conflict. In 1915, there were about 35 settlers, and the following year, the Fort Grahame band of Sekani established a reserve nearby. William Fox, the Hudson's Bay factor (mercantile agent), was the inaugural postmaster 1916–18, with mail deliveries 6–8 times each year. During the 1920s, The Northern Trading Co. also operated a post, Hugh M. Gibson was a storeowner, and the population was about 12. The nucleus of

1378-505: The estate of Avoch with money left to him by his first cousin and brother-in-law, Admiral George Geddes Mackenzie. Lady Mackenzie's father was a first cousin of the father of George Simpson , Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company . The Mackenzies lived alternately in Avoch and London. He died in 1820 of Bright's disease , at about the age of 56 (his date of birth is unknown). He is buried at Avoch on

1431-409: The general store. The Finlay Bay Cabins, operated by Kelly Brothers, no longer exist. Communications with Prince George were slow, because mail travelled a circuitous route east via Hudson's Hope, Edmonton, and west toward Prince George. The residents appealed for a direct route through Summit Lake, at least during the summer months. The rivers covered with floating ice, the ballot box for an election

1484-544: The irregular passenger, freight and mail service to the Forks. Months later, the ballot box travelled by helicopter. In 1995, when an amphibian plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Finlay Bay, the three occupants escaped uninjured. The Finlay Bay Water Aerodrome (CAK8) was later abandoned. In 1924, Constable Muirhead became the inaugural provincial police constable in residence, and mushed over 500 miles to spend Christmas in Prince George. Although federal police questioned

1537-698: The largest timber salvage operations in North America. At the Forks, Finlay Navigation operated a dispatch base, and Carrier Lumber a sawmill. Sheriffs' sales of assets occurred to settle unpaid wages of Yarkon Industries and workers compensation liabilities of Ashlea Timber at Mile 74½. In 1969, the bush mills disappeared from the pondage area and the first log boom reached Mackenzie from the Finlay drainage. By 1971, further timber salvaging became uneconomical, and Carrier relocated all its operations from Finlay Forks to Mackenzie. On rolling his skidder , operator Vincent Broad

1590-420: The latter of pneumonia. His mother trekked 80 miles in cold winter weather to bring her two children to safety. Game Warden Jank and Const. Lyle Oleson conducted the investigation, and Frank identified his father's body. Frank Egnell, 43, shot to death Keon Pierre (1914–71) following an argument at Finlay Forks. Convicted of manslaughter, he was sentenced to two years less a day. A great deal of mining occurred in

1643-673: The leading partners of the North West Company. In 1799 he left the Company and travelled to London to lobby on behalf of the Canadian fur trade. In 1800 he returned to Canada and aided in the formation of the New North West Company (also known as the XY Company). In his journal Mackenzie recorded the Carrier language for the first time. In 1801 he returned to London and that year the journals of his exploratory journeys were published. [1] (They were later reprinted. ) He then presented

Finlay Forks - Misplaced Pages Continue

1696-459: The mid-1910s, the BC forestry department maintained a headquarters at Finlay Forks, which in due course served a fire ranger role. The forest ranger station operated after World War II , and an assistant ranger station was built in 1964. In the mid-1960s, logging contracts were let for those valleys north, south and east of the Forks, which would be flooded by the dam. Donald Adems (Adams alternate spelling),

1749-536: The most influential fur trading companies in Montreal, which was later administered by Archibald Norman McLeod . In 1787, the company merged with the North West Company . On behalf of the North West Company, Mackenzie journeyed to Lake Athabasca where, in 1788, he was one of the founders of Fort Chipewyan . He had been sent to replace Peter Pond , a partner in the North West Company. From Pond, he learned that

1802-529: The northeast bank of the Forks. Hordes coming from the south would join the trail here. Prospectors also passed through the vicinity on their way to gold rushes at Barkerville (1860s), Omineca (1871–72), and McConnell Creek (1907–08). During the ice-free months, passenger and freight vessels regularly ran between Summit Lake and Hudson's Hope via the Crooked River , the Parsnip River , Finlay Forks, and

1855-406: The previous 40 days by boat. UAT, renamed Yukon Southern Air Transport (YSAT), scheduled a Christmas 1940 mail run. Moving under the joint control of YSAT and Canadian Airways in 1941, the passenger/mail runs continued monthly. By the 1950s, Central B.C. Airways carried the nine mail deliveries for the year, the radiotelephone station had become redundant and closed, and the community's two-way radio

1908-433: The primary grades, and a doublewide for the intermediate ones. The Carrier Lumber campsite provided water, power and sewer connections for the classrooms and teacherage . Operating 1968–1971, student enrolments ranged 20–27. On closure, the three portable buildings were removed. During the 1968 summer, Bud Stuart operated a coffee shop and general store from a tent that evolved into permanent premises. By 1973, Bill Bloor ran

1961-515: The river did not prove to be the Northwest Passage , as he had hoped. In fact the story is probably apocryphal, as Mackenzie's own and contemporary records merely refer to it as the "Grand River." The river came to be known as the Mackenzie River in his honour. In 1791, Mackenzie returned to Great Britain to study the new advance in the measurement of longitude . In the aftermath of

2014-580: The rocks". Sekani is an anglicization of this term. Other forms occasionally found, especially in older sources, are Secunnie , Siccanie , Sikani , and the French Sékanais . The traditional Sekani way of life was based on hunting and gathering. Although fish formed part of the diet, the Sekani relied more heavily on game, in contrast to their Carrier and Babine neighbors. Plant food consisted largely of berries, especially of blueberries. The Sekani traditionally cremated their deceased. After cremation

2067-462: The summer of 1940, he trucked the 50-ton load from Prince George to Summit Lake, from where it was boated to the Forks. The annual fur auction held at Finlay Forks, comprised many trappers and drew in commercial buyers. By the 1950s, the Caucasian population numbered four, two of whom were Roy (1889–1984) & Marge (1900–80) McDougall, who ran the trading post and provided visitor accommodation. Marge

2120-543: The summer of 1969, the T-shaped reservoir was 80-percent full. The combination of high waves and floating logs could make Williston Lake treacherous, with at least eight persons missing and believed drowned in the lake during 1970–1985. The worst area is at Finlay Forks, where the wind can come from north, south, east or west. When his 15-tonne logging truck broke through the ice in the vicinity, Brian Wykes (1956–83) drowned. The joint Peace Pass/Finlay Forks proposals form part of

2173-427: The surrounding mountains, rivers and creeks. The increasing market for produce was anticipated to expand farming in the immediate area. Larry Canty acquired 20,000 acres in 1929 for agricultural development. However, the lack of rail lines and roads hampered mining activities. The 1957 site selection for the W. A. C. Bennett Dam confirmed the flooding would submerge many mining and industrial development properties. By

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2226-471: The vicinity. Found in Prince's cabin were Messmer's gold watch, handmade briefcase, rifle, valuable cameras, film, stolen furs and fur stretchers. Based on this evidence, Game Warden Jank executed an arrest on separate charges. The coroner's court reached an open verdict . Alex Prince, Sekani First Nations, stood trial, but damaging inadmissible statements made by a witness prompted a mistrial. At his retrial, Prince

2279-613: Was knighted in 1802. He returned to Canada, where as Sir Mackenzie, he was lionized, He was elected to the Legislature of Lower Canada . He served as member for Huntingdon County from 1804 to 1808. In 1812 Mackenzie, then aged 48, returned to Scotland, where he married 14-year-old Geddes Mackenzie, twin heiress of Avoch . They had two sons and a daughter. Her grandfather, Captain John Mackenzie of Castle Leod (great-grandson of George Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Seaforth ), purchased

2332-592: Was accessed by an ice-bridge. Fires completely gutted its 50,000-foot capacity McLean Lake Mill, and the Courhon Sawmill on Scott Creek at mile 56 of the access road. A forest fire at Mile 43 threatened another mill. Temporary work camps were at Miles 49 and 73. The forest service established a centre of operations at Finlay Forks. Rising faster than anticipated, the dammed waters created vast logjams and half-submerged trees. In this environment, two tugboat companies and about 25 private logging contractors conducted one of

2385-461: Was also the volunteer first aid attendant for the Sekani and passing itinerants. Arriving in the 1920s, the couple farmed, and Marge served as postmaster 1943–46 and 1948–58. They sold up in 1957, the post-office closed in 1959, and they left 1960/61. The school was a challenge for maintenance crews, being at the northern tip of School District 57. Catering to logging crews and Sekani, the two classrooms comprised an Atco-style singlewide structure for

2438-484: Was appointed coroner in conjunction with his ten-month-each-year game warden role. During the late 1930s, Alf, and Sidney G. Copeland, held the game warden position. In 1940, Sidney apprehended Edward Bird (alias Byrde) at Deserter's Canyon on a charge of bigamy and surrendered him to a police constable for escorting to Prince George. In 1944, after a social confrontation, Alex Prince (1921–45) murdered trappers Eugene Messmer, 33, and then Hans Pfeuffer, 43, at their cabin in

2491-437: Was dependent upon weather conditions. When a plane crashed on making an emergency landing near Finlay Forks in 1950, the pilot and the three passengers survived. Santa would come by plane, but sometimes the weather delayed the event until after Christmas. With flight cancellations, several months of newspapers might arrive together. The Pacific Western Airlines Prince George- Fort St. John run, which commenced in 1957, provided

2544-479: Was discontinued, the Sekani revived an old custom, probably never entirely abandoned, of covering the dead man with the brush hut that had sheltered him during his last days and then deserting the locality for a period. Persons of influence were buried in coffins raised on platforms or trees. They were said to have practiced polyandry before large scale conversion to Catholicism . Three bands identify as Sekani: Kwadacha, McLeod Lake, and Tsay-Keh Dene. In addition,

2597-498: Was fatally crushed (1951–73). Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)#1792.E2.80.9393 Peace River expedition to the Pacific Ocean Sir Alexander Mackenzie ( c.  1764 – 12 March 1820) was a Scottish explorer and fur trader known for accomplishing the first crossing of North America by a European in 1793. The Mackenzie River and Mount Sir Alexander are named after him. As a leading member of

2650-563: Was found guilty of murdering Messmer and a stay of proceedings was entered in a second murder charge in the death of Pfeuffer. After an unsuccessful appeal on the grounds of diminished capacity, he was hanged. In 1964 and 1965, rifle shots wounded separate members of the Poole family on the Finlay Forks reserve. In another shooting incident at a family reunion, May Egnell (1929–68) died, and another woman and boy were injured. The incident arose after

2703-427: Was parachuted from a plane. The mere 13 names on the electoral roll signified an expensive exercise in democracy. The locked ballot box took 15 days to reach Hudson's Hope, from where the mail would take a further 10 days to reach Prince George. By the 1950s, the arrival of the ballot box, containing two votes, delayed the final count. In 1936, a shortwave radiotelephone station opened, which operated in conjunction with

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2756-605: Was unable to complete the final overland 350 kilometres (220 mi) Grease Trail when its First Nation owners refused permission. Sekani Sekani or Tse’khene are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in the Northern Interior of British Columbia . Their territory includes the Finlay and Parsnip River drainages of the Rocky Mountain Trench . The neighbours of

2809-671: Was warned by the local natives that the Fraser Canyon to the south was unnavigable and populated by belligerent tribes. He was instead directed to follow a grease trail by ascending the West Road River , crossing over the Coast Mountains and descending the Bella Coola River to the sea. He followed this advice and reached the Pacific coast on 20 July 1793, at Bella Coola, British Columbia , on North Bentinck Arm , an inlet of

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