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Article for the Fort George Herald announcing the arrival of the B.X. at the Giscombe Portage.1915
Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage on the Fraser River, North of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
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SternwheelersBefore the main railways and roads were constructed, people in British Columbia often traveled by steam powered sternwheelers. During distinct periods from 1863 to 1921, twelve paddle wheelers carried passengers and freight over the upper Fraser River in central British Columbia. The four hundred mile course from Soda Creek to a point within sight of Mt. Robson is generally calm, however, there are areas where the river punches through rock canyons up to seven miles long.
The sternwheeler was a boat, which was usually constructed of wood, with strong central timbers and light weight timber planks everywhere else for buoyancy. Cables and metal fittings held the wooden vessels together which gave extra strength to the structure. A steam boiler was located on the main deck near the bow, which provided steam to the engines at the stern. Boilers were fired by wood until the late 1890's and thereafter by coal.
Cottonwood Canyon, above Quesnel was the head of navigation for sternwheelers on the Upper Fraser River until 1908, when the surveys for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway triggered a land boom in the Fort George area. The land boom lasted until the completion of the railway in 1914 and the outbreak of World War I in that same year. In 1912 to 1913, during the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway west from the Yellowhead Pass, steamboats worked from Tete Jaune Cache down to Fort George. Construction on the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, north from Soda Creek served to prolong the Upper Fraser River sternwheeler era, but 1921 saw the end of navigation of these boats.
The steamer Charlotte was the only sternwheeler on the upper Fraser until May 1909, when the Fort George Lumber and Navigation Company launched the Nechako, later registered as the Chilco. The Chilco was the first to navigate the Grand Canyon of the Fraser River. The Quesnel, constructed at Quesnel, by a pioneer merchant and fur trader, followed the Nechako into the river in the spring of 1909. The B.X. which was designed and built by Alexander Watson, Jr., of Victoria was launched in May of 1910. The B.X. proved herself to be the "Queen of the North." She was fast, comfortable and reliable at her scheduled service on the upper Fraser. By 1913, the B.C. Express Company operated a mail, passenger and freight service starting with a stagecoach over the Cariboo road and ending with a sternwheeler ride up the Fraser River. The Chilcotin was launched at Soda Creek on July 20, 1910 by the Fort George Lumber and Navigation Company. She was built as an opposition steamer to the B.C. Express Company, B.X., and there was a naturally friendly rivalry between their respective builders, each contending that their boat was the better model. By 1913, the Fort Fraser, the B.C. Express, the Operator, the Conveyor and the Circle W were added to these waters.
Many of these sternwheelers landed at the Huble Homestead at Giscome Portage as well. Al Huble mentioned many times in his diaries that sternwheelers like the Circle W, the Chilcotin, the Nechako (later known as the Chilco), the B.C. Express, the Conveyor and the Fort Fraser stopped in at the homestead.
In fact, Al Huble noted the first steamer on the upper Fraser in his diary of 1909 .
"Packed freight from the river. S.S. Nechako came through Giscome Rapids today in charge of Captain Bonser, being the first steamer that has ever navagated [sic] the upper Fraser. Passed on up river bound for Tete Jeune Cache taking a load of freight up for C.N.R. ."
Many of the sternwheelers that worked on the upper Fraser River frequently advertised their routes and services with the local newspapers, and the S.S. Quesnel was no exception. On August 18, 1915, she ran an advertisement in the Prince George Post.
" STEAMER ROUTE TO PEACE RIVER. STEAMER, QUESNEL"
"Running between Prince George and Giscomb Portage. Best route to the Peace River from Prince George. Every Monday for Giscomb. Freight consigned to Steamer Quesnel, care of Northern Lumber Co., will be forwarded to Summit Lake. From Summit Lake to Peace River the route is all water and down stream and can easily be made by canoes or boats. Lumber for scows or boats in stock at Giscomb. Captain D.A. Foster." Fort George Herald, Aug. 29, 1914
On October 29, 1910 the Fort George Herald noted the goings and comings of the Chilco, which included a trip to the Giscome Portage/Huble Homestead.
"The Chilco arrived from the south on Monday last with a load of freight consigned principally to Messrs. Seebach & Huble, at Giscombe Portage. She left on Tuesday for the latter point, delivering her load and returning here by Wednesday " Fort George Herald. Oct. 29, 1910
On December 04, 1915, the Prince George Herald ran an article in their newspaper concerning the virtual close of the sternwheeler era on the Upper Fraser.
"With the closing of navigation last month, the day of the river steamer in Central British Columbia has practically passed. For years river transportation afforded the best and cheapest means of transporting passengers and freight from on epoint to another throughout the whole of Central British Columbia. The Fraser River was the main artery of travel, and the tonnage handled by the large fleet of river steamers which have plied these waters for the last six years, has been exceptionally large. The fast trains of a new transcontinental have taken the place of these steamers, and with the passing of the latter, one of the pleasantest features of pioneer life becomes a memory." Prince George Herald, December 04, 1915
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BC Express just leaving the Grand Canyon area. (form BC Archives, call no. B 00330)1914
Fraser-Fort George Region, Prince George Area British Columbia, Canada
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Wooding up the SS Chilco at the Giscombe Rapids. (from BC Archives, call no. I 33919August, 1910
Fraser-Fort George Region, Prince George Area British Columbia, Canada
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SS Chilco riverboat at the Giscome Portage (Huble Homestead).August, 1910
Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage on the Fraser River, North of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
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SS Chilco riverboat at the Giscome Portage (Huble Homestead) They are hauling HBC Freight.August 7, 1910
"Steamer Chilco arrived from Ft. George with part of hudson Bay freight. Very Hot day." from Al Huble's Diary
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SS Conveyor riverboat on the Fraser River above Prince George. (from BC Archives, call no. G 032591913
Fraser-Fort George Region, Prince George Area British Columbia, Canada
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SS Nechacco riverboat on the Fraser River. (from BC Archives, Call no. B 01379)1910
Fraser-Fort George Region, Prince George Area British Columbia, Canada
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SS Conveyor, SS Chilcotin and SS Operator riverboat at Prince George.1913
Fraser-Fort George Region, Prince George Area British Columbia, Canada
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Map showing trails and waterways ca 1870 to 19151890
Cariboo and the Fraser-Fort George Region, British Columbia, Canada
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The previous slide shows the trails and waterways ca 1870 to 1915The Cariboo Wagon Road
The era when fur was king was drawing near its end by the middle of 1850. The news of a large find of gold on Tranquille Creek near Kamloops initiated the gold rush of 1858. It was said that about thirty thousand people came by boat or overland from different points in America for this occasion. In 1859 and 1860 important strikes were also made in the Cariboo and by 1862 fortune seekers were on their way to the Cariboo. In November of 1858, James Douglas, a great promoter of roads, proclaimed the establishment of the colony of British Columbia due to the influx of people that the gold rush brought about. Governor Douglas undertook to build a wagon road for the miners over this great distance from the coast to the Cariboo gold fields. By the fall of 1863, the road was open for stages and freight wagons as far as Soda Creek, and by 1865, the road was completed right into Barkerville, a distance of four hundred miles from Yale. Along this route thousands of would-be-prospectors traveled the wagon road, all responding to tales of fabulously rich fields of gold in the Cariboo. The road cost over one million dollars (a great amount of money at that time) and was called the Cariboo Wagon Road . According to "The History of Prince George" by Rev. Runnalls, it was said to be "the pride of the new colony." Up until 1911, the only way from the Cariboo Road at Quesnel to Fort George was by the Fraser River. After 1911 both wagons and stages traveled over a rough road, called the Blackwater Road, which hooked up with the Cariboo Wagon Road in Quesnel.
This information fits with the details of Al Huble's Christmas 1910 trip. Al documented the entire trip in his diaries of 1910 and 1911. He left the homestead on November 3rd, 1910 on horseback and followed a trail to the north side of the Nechako River. On November 6th, he swam all of his horses across the river and went into Fort George for a day. On November 8th, he loaded all of the horses onto the steamer the S.S. Quesnelle, which arrived in Quesnel at 6:00 p.m. the same day. From there, Al described his trip down the Cariboo Wagon Road and his visits at some of the roadhouses along the way to Ashcroft. In Ashcroft, he left by train for eastern Canada.
The train from the Fort George to Giscome Portage
Up until August 14, 1915, Al mentions, walking, riding a horse, or taking a boat down to Willow River, where he would then take a train to Prince George or Edmonton. However, on August 14, 1915, Al notes in his diary, "Came home with buggy", on his way home from Prince George. It appears that as of 1915, there was a wagon road to the portage area from Prince George. In 1919, a wagon road was completed all the way from Prince George to Summit Lake. This was announced on October 8, 1919 in the Prince George Citizen .
"A first class wagon road has just been completed to Summit Lake and settlers residing in that district are well pleased with the facilities now afforded for the marketing of produce. The distance from Prince George to Summit Lake is variously estimated at from 30 to 35 miles, and several autoists have already made the journey over the raod with out difficulty.
Summit Lake is the point of embarkation over the water route to the Peace River country and several parties have recently gone into the north country by this route ." Prince George Citizen, Oct 8, 1919.
Trains
In 1911, proposals from up to ten railways were being considered which would come to, or pass through Prince George, including the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Pacific Great Eastern. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company succeeded in their bid and built a temporary station just east of the end of George Street. The rail line was completed on January 27, 1914, and the first train to cross the Fraser River from the east pulled up beside the temporary station and freight sheds at the end of George Street. This station was used until the permanent station was built between Quebec and Dominion streets in 1922.
By 1915, the frenzy of real estate speculation in Prince George was already on the wane, as the main impetus for the boom had been the construction of the railway. When the Canadian Government entered World War I in August 1914, it put an end to any hope for further railway construction in the area by diverting the large subsidies it had provided for construction into the war effort. As a result, real estate values in the city plummeted and adding to that, the population dropped as a result of men being signed up for military service.
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The B.X. riverboat was built in 1910 and was called the 'Queen' of the upper Fraser.1915
Fraser-Fort George Region, Prince George Area British Columbia, Canada
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Remains of Al Huble's boat 'Bullmoose'.July, 2003
Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage on the Fraser River, North of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
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Remains of Al Huble's boat "Bullmoose" used ca.1915Pat Huble recalls her father, owning two teams of horses, two riding horses and two or three teams of sled dogs for freighting and travel. Pat also recalled her father owning a boat bought in 1914, which had a small paddlewheel in the back and it was also gas powered. This boat was likely used to guide river travelers through the Giscome Rapids, as well as for freighting goods. Al Huble mentions many times in his diaries, that he is either taking a dog team or a team or two of horses over the portage.
"Went up to look at ranch with Bullmoose [boat name] Fine day." from Al Huble Diary June 29, 1914
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