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Victoria Pawsey, a local telephone operator during the heyday of the Kettle Valley Railway, reminisces on the cattle drive:

"There were large corrals & weigh scales near Rock Creek Station. Cattle cars would be shunted to the corrals for loading.

On the specified day the CPR would alert us when the freight would arrive at Rock Creek. The police were also notified to check brands & keep order etc., and we were in touch with farmers who had telephones & others by various methods.

When the CPR at Midway notified us of a change of plans I would take off to various old dusty ranch roads to alert the cattle men, who were driving their cattle slowly along the trails. If the freight train was due earlier it was an anxious journey to try & hurry their herds. If the freight train was much later the ranchers would be smiling - they visualized their herds having a gorgeous refresher in the Kettle River. This made the cattle buyers furious before having the stock weighed in, for there would be a decrease in their weight when arriving in Vancouver."

- from "Notes from the Early Days along the Kettle River Valley" by Victoria Martin (Pawsey), Boundary Historical Society 1958.

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Cattle drive along the KVR line
Circa 1980
Kettle Valley Line


Credits:
Courtesy of the Boltz Family