Peaks and People

Swift Camp. Monday Aug. 31.                Laid over, and W. spent the morning taking the shoes off the horses.   M. and I ambled back and forth between our house and the Swift shack, as Mrs. S. was finishing a buckskin coat embroidered with silk work for M., and it had to be tried on a good many times.   The old man came over to our camp fire in the evening and edified us with lurid tales of the days in the ‘70s in Wyoming when the Deadwood stage was held up regularly every night, and the “bullion wagon” was robbed even in the daytime; and “Wild Bill”, “Persimmon Bill,” “The Lone Star” etc., ran around shooting up the towns.   We sat gaping and petrified or else struggling to smother our giggles, for his language was sometimes even more lurid than the stories he was telling.   We decided that Swift’s yarns were quite near enough the real thing for us, and that is was just as well we had ...

Caledonia Camp. Sunday, Aug. 30.                No one up till 8 o’clock as it rained till then.   Clearing afterwards with occasional rather fierce showers.   M. and I stated out at 10.30 ahead of the outfit so as to have time to stop at Henry House for photos.   Just before we got there, came upon Mrs. Swift with Lettie and they baby, she was out after gooseberries.   Reached Swift’s about 2 P. M. and of course the old man appeared upon the scene soon and stayed until nearly 5 o’clock.   We learned from him that the Coleman party had gone up to climb Mt. Robson – Dr. C’s. brother and Mr. Kinney.   They were with the bunch of Indians that Mr. Lister’s man reported as having gone past Dominion Prairie – Crees from here though, not the Shuwaps as he said.   And they were to take him up Moose River to the back of Robson.   We knew, of course, that that was where the bunc...

Boulder Creek Camp. Saturday, Aug. 29.                Off at 9.30.   3½ hrs. drive.   Weather more threatening and light showers during day.   We kept to the high water trail, as the other does not seem to be anything extra good anyway, according to the accounts we have heard of it.   Met an outfit as we were getting down toward the Ath valley. Bugler acted as if it was a bear when he first caught sight of them, gave a leap to one side and took a violent “sachez” at a tangent off into to the bush.   They looked like prospectors – two weather beaten old stagers, and a boy bringing up the rear, wearing a straw hat.   As they passed M. and me, one of the men said “Hello fellows.   Oh – ladies! – Excuse me !”   We camped at the same place as coming up.   Rain began in earnest at supper time and it poured all night.         ...

Dominion Prairie Camp. Friday, Aug. 28.                At breakfast at the late hour of 8.30 W. explained the weird sounds we heard last night.   He was at the Chicago Kid’s camp when Mr. Lister left us, and said Mr. L. came over there afterwards and they chewed the rag a long time.   His report of the inside track conservation, and plans and methods of prospectors as such, was edifying.   We got off at 10.30 feeling pleased and cheerful because we are leaving everybody behind.   The Chicagoman told us they had some “quartz” somewhere in this vicinity they were going to stake, and Mr. L. is still waiting for the party with the expert who is to pass judgement on the graphite, which they all know is no good, but which he hopes to sell to a company for two million all the same.                Camped on the same place on ...

On the Yellowhead Pass , Moore Family Fonds, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (V439 / PS - 52) Yellowhead Lake II Camp. Thursday, Aug. 27.                Over the Yellowhead Pass again today.   4½ hrs. drive.   Weather trying to clear up every day, but never quite succeeding.   When we reached Dominion Prairie we thought at first there was no one camped there, but just as we came to the crossing of the creek there was Mr. Lister’s little squatty green tent among the big trees and rocks close to the stream, and the younger of his two French Canadians.   We crossed to our old camp on the other side, and our Chicago friends followed.   U. went back in the afternoon to hear the news.   Mr. L. was off hunting for the day, but he gleaned a few items from the broken English of the pop-eyed little Fr. Canadian.   Dr. Coleman has not gone up to Robson Pk yet ...

Yellowhead Lake looking east , Moore Family Fonds, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (V439 / PS - 51) Moose River Camp. Wednesday, Aug. 26.                Still cloudy and threatening, but not raining, so everyone moved out.   We did not get out till 10.30 and the other outfit still a little later.   After 5½ hrs. drive camped on Yellowhead lake not quite so far up as our camp on the downward trip.   Very little rain during the day.   Cooler and trying to clear in evening.

Moose River Camp. Tuesday, Aug. 25.                Rain, Laid over.   Fresh snow on the mts.   we are hoping Dr. Coleman is not trying to climb Robson Pk. these days.   M. got a bang on the leg yesterday as Nibs jumped a log and it swelled pretty fiercely, so she was just as glad to have a day off to give it a chance.   The other people laid over too.   They are a queer pair to be prospecting out here – Mr. Sommer has a hardware store in Chicago, which his brother is at present managing, and Mr. Kaeke is book keeper for two breweries.   They are both married and have not heard from their wives since about the middle of April, and won’t get home till November.   And they apparently think of lighting out again for 6 months next year – a little prospecting trip down the Yukon about two thousand miles by canoe, or if the assays of the stuff they have picked up in this region are ...