Category Archives: People

Conrad Kain

Conrad Kain [1883–1934]

b. 1883 — Nasswald, Austria
d. 1934 — Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada

Kain was an Austrian mountain guide who guided extensively in Europe, Canada, and New Zealand, and was responsible for the first ascents of more than 60 routes in British Columbia. He is particularly known for pioneering climbs in the Purcell Mountains and the first ascents of Mount Robson (1913), Mount Louis (1916) and Bugaboo Spire (1916).

Sources of biographical information about Kain:

  • Thorington, James Monroe [1895–1989]. “Conrad Kain, In memoriam.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 22 (1933):184-187
  • Kain, Conrad [1883–1934], and Thorington, James Monroe [1895–1989], editor. Where the Clouds Can Go. New York City: American Alpine Club, 1935
  • Wikipedia Conrad Kain
Kain is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Kain was involved:

  • 1911 ACC-Smithsonian Robson expedition (guide)
  • 1913 ACC Camp – Mount Robson (guide)
  • 1924 Thorington to Tonquin Valley (guide)
  • 1924 ACC Camp – Mount Robson (guide)
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Kain was author or co-author:

  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Die Erstbesteigung des Höchsten Giflei der Rockies, Mt. Robson (1913).
  • —   “The ascent of Mt. Robson.” Alpine Journal, Vol. 28 (1914):35
  • —   “The first ascent of Mt. Robson, the highest peak of the Rockies.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):22-
  • —   “First ascent of Mt. Whitehorn.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):42-43
  • —  and Thorington, James Monroe [1895–1989], editor. Where the Clouds Can Go. New York City: American Alpine Club, 1935

Arnold Louis Mumm

A. L. Mumm and guide Moritz Inderbinen. Mount Robson Camp on Snowbird Pass.
Photo by Frank W. Freeborn, 1913

A. L. Mumm and guide Moritz Inderbinen. Mount Robson Camp on Snowbird Pass.
Photo by Frank W. Freeborn, 1913
Canadian Alpine Journal 1915

Arnold Louis Mumm [1859–1927]

b. 1859 — London, England
d. 1927 — Bay of Biscay, Atlantic Ocean

Mumm, a London publisher, first came to Canada in 1909, at the invitation of Alpine Club of Canada director Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945]. After attending the 1909 ACC camp at Lake O’Hara, Mumm, along with Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery [1873–1955], Geoffrey Hastings [1860–1941], and Moritz Inderbinen [1856–1926], made an attempt on Mount Robson. On their way to the mountain, they met George R. B. Kinney [1872–1961], who reported that he and Donald “Curly” Phillips [1884–1938] had been successful on their own attempt (a claim later disputed). Mumm’s party, hobbled by difficulties of the route and lack of time, was not successful.

Mumm returned with British professor John Norman Collie [1859–1942] in July, 1910, when the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway’s steel had been laid as far as Wolf Creek, about one hundred miles east of theYellowhead Pass. The party spent some time about Mount Robson, but there was so much snow on the mountains and the weather was so stormy that climbing was out of the question, and they were able to ascend only some of the lesser peaks.

The next summer, 1911, Collie and Mumm made another trip, the first to go north of the Athabasca to explore and climb. They ascended the Stoney River, crossed a high pass to the Smoky River, then up Glacier Creek, which they ascended to Mount Bess.

In 1913 Mumm decided to climb Mount Geikie, which three years earlier, when on Yellowhead Mountain, he had seen rising far above its fellows. He was turned back by a storm. Mumm made many climbs in the Alps, Canada, Japan and New Zealand, in addition to accompanying Tom George Longstaff [1875–1964] to the Himalayas.

Sources of biographical information about Mumm:

  • Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860–1945]. “A. L. Mumm — An Appreciation.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 16 (1927–1927):173-175
Mumm is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Mumm was involved:

  • 1906 ACC organized, Mount Robson attempt proposed
  • 1909 English party at Robson
  • 1909 ACC Camp – Lake O’Hara (guest)
  • 1910 Mumm and Collie at Robson
  • 1911 Collie and Mumm Mt Bess
  • 1913 Mumm explores Whirlpool River, Athabasca Pass
  • 1913 ACC Camp – Mount Robson
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Mumm was author or co-author:

  • —   “An attempt on Mount Robson.” Alpine Journal, Vol. 25 (1910–1911):90
  • —   “An expedition to Mount Robson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1910):10-20
  • —   “Mount Robson District. Mumm and Collie’s 1910 Journey.” Alpine Journal, Vol. 25 (1910–1911):466
  • —   “A trip up the Whirlpool River.” Alpine Journal, Vol. 28 (1914):355

Simon Fraser

Simon Fraser

Simon Fraser

Simon Fraser [1776–1862]

b. 1776 — Mapletown, New York, USA
d. 1862 — St. Andrews West, Ontario

Simon Fraser opened the fur trade west of the Rocky Mountains, and was the first white person to descend the Fraser River to its mouth. Fraser was born in Bennington, Vermont, and came to Québec with his mother after his father, a Loyalist officer, died as a prisoner of war during the American revolution. Fraser joined the North West Company in 1792 and was sent to the Athabasca department. He became a partner in the company in 1801. He founded the New Caledonia posts of McLeod Lake (1805), Stuart Lake (later Fort St. James, 1806), Fraser Lake (1806) and Fort George (1807).

During May and June of 1808, with a party of nineteen French Canadian voyageurs, two clerks, and two Native Americans, Fraser made his journey down the Fraser River from just upstream of present-day Prince George to present-day Vancouver. It was a bitter disappointment for him to discover that the river was not the Columbia, and that it was not a practical canoe route to the coast.

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Fraser was involved:

  • 1805 Fraser into New Caledonia
  • 1807 Fraser founds Fort George
  • 1808 Fraser descends Fraser
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Fraser was author or co-author:

  • —  and Lamb, William Kaye [1904–1999], editor. The letters and journals of Simon Fraser, 1806-1808. Toronto: MacMillan, 1960
References:

  • Fraser, Simon [1776–1862], and Lamb, William Kaye [1904–1999], editor. The letters and journals of Simon Fraser, 1806-1808. Toronto: MacMillan, 1960. Internet Archive
  • Wikipedia. Simon Fraser

Pierre Bostonais dit “Tête Jaune”

Pierre Bostonais dit “Tête Jaune” [d. 1827]

d. 1827

“Tête Jaune” (“Yellow Head”) was the nickname of Pierre Bostonais [d. 1827], an Iroquois who worked for the North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company fur trading companies, renowned for his “cache” (French for a hiding place). During the fur trade, a cache was built by removing a round piece of turf about eighteen inches across, excavating the dirt, and lining the excavation with dry branches. After the cached goods were inserted, some earth and the round piece of turf were put on top, and the surplus earth all carefully removed.

According to Milton and Cheadle, who passed through the Yellowhead Pass in 1863, Bostonais’s original cache was at the confluence of the Robson River and Fraser River. The present location of Tête Jaune Cache is near the site selected during the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, at the head of navigation on the Fraser River.

“Bostonais” was a name applied by Indigenous people to Americans of European descent, “Boston Men.” Normally a nickname, Pierre Bostonais may have acquired it as a family name after his family moved from American territory to the Montreal area. (As early as 1670, a number of Iroquois, converted by French priests, left what is now New York State to live near Montreal.) Iroquois were brought out west by the fur trade companies in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as voyageurs, hunters, guides, and trappers. Many Iroquois stayed in the west when their contracts with the fur companies expired, settling east of the Rockies between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers.

Pierre Bostonais first appears in the archives of the Hudson’s Bay Company in January 1805, when the factor at the fur trading post of St. Croix (now in Minnesota) wrote, “This afternoon Tête Jaune’s son expired after a long and painful malady of upwards of three months.” In 1810 Tête Jaune was for a time employed by the North West Company, perhaps arriving at Rocky Mountain House, on the North Saskatchewan River. By 1816, when he is mentioned in the North West Company ledger, Tête Jaune was a “free” Iroquois, not engaged to any fur trade company. Twice in Hudson’s Bay Company books from 1821 to 1823 there are entries of “Pierre Bostonais dit Tête Jaune.”

Colin Robertson [1783–1842], in charge of Fort St. Mary (near the present-day town of Peace River, British Columbia), recorded in his journal for December 1819, “Tête Jaune, the free Iroquois, has given me a chart of that country across the Rocky Mountains.” Tête Jaune guided a party across the mountains the next spring and returned at the end of October. “Tête Jaune and Brother Baptiste arrived — the Iroquois all enjoyed themselves with a booze.” Tête Jaune and Baptiste appear again in 1825, when the Hudson’s Bay Company required a guide over the Yellowhead Pass, then a little-known route. (There is no record that this pass was used by either company prior to 1824, when chief trader Joseph Felix LaRocque tried to establish a post at “Moose or Cranberry Lake.”)

In 1825, Hudson’s Bay Company governor George Simpson ordered chief trader James McMillan to explore the pass. At Jasper House, McMillan hired Tête Jaune as guide. They left Jasper House on 18 October, and by October 24, after a trip of about 120 miles, reached Tête Jaune Cache. In his report to William Connolly, McMillan specifically mentioned “Tête Jaune’s Cache,” the first recorded reference to this place name.

Tête Jaune probably spent the winter of 1825-26 at Fort Alexandria, on the Fraser River north of Quesnel. In early May 1826, just before the departure of the fur brigade from Fort St. James for Fort Vancouver, Connolly received word about the “Iroquois guide who remains sick at Alexandria.”

In early November 1826, Tête Jaune and Baptiste arrived at Fort St. James. “In the evening that old rogue Tête Jaune, and his brother, arrived from below, dread of the Carriers who threaten vengeance for the death of their relatives, is the cause of their coming this way. These people brought nearly one Pack of Beaver between them.”

Tête Jaune and Baptiste apparently spent the winter of 1826–27 with the indigenous Carriers. The brothers returned to Fort St. James in mid-April. Connolly wrote, “I never saw two more wretched beings in my life — since the Fall they have not Killed one Marten between them. They are however good Beaver Trappers & being well furnished with Traps they may perhaps do well — But they are such notorious rascals that no dependence whatever Can be placed in them.” That fall, the brothers were at Bear Lake (Fort Connelly). “I am glad this district is rid of them,” wrote Connolly. “They are brothers who seldom do any good. And very frequently do Mischief.”

In the spring of 1828 word reached Connolly that Tête Jaune, Baptiste, and their families had been “cut off by the Beaver Indians, as a punishment for Hunting upon their lands.” Connolly wrote that “this Melancholy Occurrence took place last fall at Finlay’s Branch, but by whom perpetrated could not be ascertained — The natives throughout the District have for a long While past looked upon the Iroquois as Robbers and despoilers of their lands, and it is only in Consideration for us that they have not long before this taken the only means in their power to rid themselves of their depredators.”

Sources of biographical information about Bostonais dit “Tête Jaune”:

  • McMillan, James [1783–1858]. Winnipeg: Hudson’s Bay Company archives. Portion of letter James McMillan to William Connelly HBCA B.188/b/4 fo. 9-10 (1825).
  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1865 Internet Archive
  • Gates, Charles Marvin. Five fur traders of the Northwest : being the narrative of Peter Pond and the diaries of John Macdonell, Archibald N. McLeod, Hugh Faries, and Thomas Conner . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1933
  • Smyth, David. “Tête Jaune.” Alberta History, 32, no. 1 (1984)
  • Klan, Yvonne Mearns. “That old Rogue, the Iroquois Tête Jaune.” British Columbia Historical News, Vol 34 No. 1 (Winter 2000/2001):19–22 University of British Columbia Archives
Events in the Mount Robson region in which Bostonais dit “Tête Jaune” was involved:

  • 1824 Tête Jaune crosses YHP

Alpine Club of Canada


Alpine Club of Canada [founded 1906]

Founded 1906 Winnipeg

In the spirit of the Alpine Club, London, created in England in 1857, and the American Alpine Club, founded 1902, the Alpine Club of Canada was established in 1906.

The inaugural meeting was held in Winnipeg, arranged by Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] and Elizabeth Parker [1856–1944], with the support of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Sources of biographical information about Alpine Club of Canada:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Alpine Club of Canada was involved:

  • 1906 ACC organized, Mount Robson attempt proposed
  • 1909 ACC Camp – Lake O’Hara
  • 1911 ACC-Smithsonian Robson expedition
  • 1913 ACC Camp – Mount Robson
  • 1924 ACC Camp – Mount Robson (host)
  • 1926 ACC Camp – Tonquin Valley
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Alpine Club of Canada was author or co-author:

  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. ACC Minute Book V14/AC 041M/7 (1906–1914).
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Executive papers (1906–1924).
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Club records (1906–1924).
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Clubhouse register (1910–1913).
  • —   Member’s register, Banff Clubhouse (M200 / AC 0M / 126) (1910–1913).. Whyte Museum
  • —   “Exploration in the Yellowhead.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 3 (1911):117
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Notice of the Alpine Club of Canada, Eighth Annual Camp, 1913, to be held at Mount Robson, on the great Divide, Summit of Robson Pass (AC 0 129) (1913).
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Constitution and List of Members. 1906-1930 (1930).
  • —  ; ; Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. Inventory of the Alpine Club of Canada Collection (1986).

George R. B. Kinney

The Reverend George R.B. Kinney; Proctor, BC.

The Reverend George R.B. Kinney; Proctor, BC. BC Archives


Camp among last bushes. 7000 feet. Lucius Coleman, Arthur Coleman, George Kinney. 1907

Camp among last bushes. 7000 feet. Lucius Coleman, Arthur Coleman, George Kinney. 1907 Coleman, The Canadian Rockies. New and Old trails. p. 327


A.O. Wheeler, Donald “Curly” Phillips, Harry Blagden, Ned Hollister, Charles Walcott Jr., James Shand-Harvey, Casey Jones and Rev. George B. Kinney, near Maligne Lake, Smithsonian-ACC Robson Expedition Photo: Byron Harmon, 1911

A.O. Wheeler, Donald “Curly” Phillips, Harry Blagden, Ned Hollister, Charles Walcott Jr., James Shand-Harvey, Casey Jones and Rev. George B. Kinney, near Maligne Lake, Smithsonian-ACC Robson Expedition
Photo: Byron Harmon, 1911 Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

George Rex Boyer Kinney [1872–1961]

b. 1872 — Victoria Corner, New Brunswick, Canada
d. 1961 — Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Kinney became interested in climbing while serving as a minister of the Methodist Church in Banff and Field [1]. He accompanied Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939] on his unsuccessful trips to Mount Robson in 1907 and 1908 [2]. Kinney returned alone in July 1909, met Donald “Curly” Phillips [1884–1938] near Jasper, and travelled with him through the Yellowhead Pass and the Moose River valley to Mount Robson. After being repelled by weather several times, they reached what Kinney and Phillips reported to be the peak of Mount Robson [3] [4].

During the Alpine Club of Canada camp at Mount Robson in 1913, Phillips stated that he and Kinney had not ascended a final 50-foot dome of snow [5], and official credit for climbing the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies goes to Conrad Kain, William Wasborough Foster [1875–1954], and Albert H. McCarthy [1876–1956] [6].

See Kinney at Robson for more information.
[7]

Kinney is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:

Events in the Mount Robson region in which Kinney was involved:

  • 1906 ACC organized, Mount Robson attempt proposed
  • 1906 ACC Camp – Yoho
  • 1907 Schaffer meets Coleman in Wilcox Pass
  • 1907 ACC Camp – Paradise Valley
  • 1907 Coleman – Laggan to Robson
  • 1908 Coleman – Edmonton to Robson
  • 1909 Kinney and Phillips at Mount Robson
  • 1909 kinney returns to Edmonton
  • 1911 ACC-Smithsonian Robson expedition (assistant)
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Kinney was author or co-author:

  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. AC 014M George Kinney photographs and price lists. (1907). Whyte Museum
  • —   Photographs and price lists (M200 / AC 014M) (1907). Whyte Museum
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. Alpine Club of Canada fonds, V14, M200 (1907). Whyte Museum
  • —   “Mount Stephen.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 1 (1907):91
  • —   “Mount Robson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 2 (1909):10-16
  • —   Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. ACC fonds M200/III (1909). Whyte Museum
  • —   “The ascent of Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, vol. 42, no. 7 (1910):496-511. JSTOR
  • —  and Phillips, Donald “Curly” [1884–1938]. “To the top of Mount Robson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1910):21-44
  • —   “Trail From Maligne Lake To Laggan. Report of the Rev. G. Kinney to the Alpine Club of Canada.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 4 (1912):81
  • —   Canadian Mountain Climbing. Vancouver, B.C.: The Canadian Club of Vancouver, 1913
  • —   London, England: Royal Geographical Society Archives. Letter to Arthur Hinks (1917).
  • —   Carnet de visites, agenda medical (sketchbook created in France) (1919). Library and Archives Canada
  • —   London, England: Royal Geographical Society Archives. Letter to Doctor Hinks (1936).
References:

  • 1. Mortimore, G. E. “The preacher who climbed Mount Robson Peak.” Daily Colonist [Victoria, BC], (9 April 1950)
  • 2. Coleman, Arthur Philemon P. [1852–1939]. The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911. Internet Archive [accessed 3 March 2025]
  • 3. Kinney, George Rex Boyer [1872–1961], and Phillips, Donald “Curly” [1884–1938]. “To the top of Mount Robson.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1910):21-44. Alpine Club of Canada
  • 4. Kinney, George Rex Boyer [1872–1961]. Banff: Whyte Museum Archives. ACC fonds M200/III (1909). Whyte Museum
  • 5. Parker, Elizabeth J. [1856–1944]. “A new field for mountaineering.” Scribner’s Magazine, 55 (1914)
  • 6. Kain, Conrad [1883–1934]. “The first ascent of Mt. Robson, the highest peak of the Rockies.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 6 (1914–1915):22-
  • 7. Swanson, James L. [1947–]. Banff: George Kinney and the first ascent of Mount Robson (1999). Spiral Road

Milton and Cheadle

Our party across the mountains. Milton and Cheadle

Our party across the mountains. Milton and Cheadle
The North-West Passage by Land.


George A. Walkem [left], Dr. Walter Cheadle [seated], Viscount Milton [right, with hat in left hand], photographed in San Francisco, 1863

George A. Walkem [left], Dr. Walter Cheadle [seated], Viscount Milton [right, with hat in left hand], photographed in San Francisco, 1863
British Columbia Archives

William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Milton [1839–1877] was a British nobleman, explorer, and Liberal Party politician. Walter Butler Cheadle [1835–1910] was an English paediatrician. They travelled across Canada in 1862-1863. Departing from Quebec City in July, they wintered near Fort Carlton in present-day Saskatchewan. In 1863 they became the first “tourists” to travel through the Yellowhead Pass. After a challenging and at times humorous summer, they reached Victoria, British Columbia.

They chronicled their trip in The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains (1865).

They contributed many place names to the Yellowhead Pass region.

References:

  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. The North-West Passage by Land. Being the narrative of an expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, undertaken with the view of exploring a route across the continent to British Columbia through British territory, by one of the northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. London: Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1865. Internet Archive
  • Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. Cheadle’s Journal of Trip Across Canada 1862-63. Ottawa: Graphic Publishers, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
  • Milton, William Wentworth Fitzwilliam [1839–1877], and Cheadle, Walter Butler [1835–1910]. Voyage de l’Atlantique au Pacifique, à travers le Canada, les montagnes Rocheuses et la Colombie anglaise. Paris: Hachette, 1872. Internet Archive
  • Zillmer, Raymond T. [1887–1960]. “The location of Mt. Milton and the restoration of the names ‘Mt. Milton and Mt. Cheadle’.” American Alpine Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1943). American Alpine Club