Mount Bridgland ?
Northward, on the other side of the Yellowhead Ridge, was a wild rocky basin, forming the western source of Miette River. There were numerous lakes scattered about it on benches set out at various levels; we counted thirteen, varying in colour from indigo to ultramarine, though some were mere ponds. The line of the Continental Divide follows a ridge, extending northward from the centre of Yellowhead Ridge, which forms the boundary of the basin. It soon closes to a valley, collecting the various waters and flowing eastward. The stream is joined by the eastern source of a the Miette which comes from behind a rock mass of peculiar shape: at one end a blocky tower a stood up like a clumsy smoke-stack, and the whole looked so like a child’s toy locomotive that I called it “Mt. Toot-Toot.”
— Wheeler
But I shall confine myself to some experiences that perhaps are unknown to you We reached the Mount Robson region. As you know we were making the first topographical survey of what are now Jasper Park and Mount Robson Park. We were locating for the first time hundreds of miles of the inter-provincial boundary line between Alberta and British Columbia, and Wheeler got out the first official map of that region, because of our work that season.
Once, as we were on a peak to the west of Mount Robson, a train whistled far to the south of us. There was a good-sized peak in that region, and Mr. Wheeler said, “We will name that peak Mount Toot Toot.” I do not know whether that name stuck or not, but frequently, from that time on, Conrad would give a toot or two to emphasize some occasion, and the three of us would have secret mirth.
— Letter to Thorington from George Kinney, 1934
The glacier up which we had travelled, leading to the snow-filled cirque south of Mt. Gendarme, is of much interest; the ice is thickly veneered with stones and is strewn with glacier tables, and with numerous perfectly formed sand-cones, reaching a height of five feet. Most striking, however, is a great ice wall, 400 feet high, that separates the neve from the dry glacier and reaches right across it. The moving ice-field above flows over this cliff and sends down fragments to litter the floor of the glacier below. It is referred to here as the “Mural Glacier.”
— Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945]
Name given by James Hector [1834–1907] in 1859 after Colin Fraser of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Fraser was in charge of Jasper House from 1835 to 1849.
[Lake St Ann’s] is a pretty sheet of water, several miles in length, its shores dotted on the western side by forty or fifty houses, and a church. Mr. Colin Fraser, the Company’s officer, treated us very kindly. He had been thirty-eight years in the country, seventeen of which he had spent at the solitary post of Jasper House.… Mr Fraser had not seen Fort Garry for thirty years, and for fifteen had not been further than Edmonton, yet he was happy and contented as possible.
— Milton and Cheadle, 1863
[Paul Kane] travelled with a party of Hudson’s Bay Company a men, among them an Iroquois and a Scot, both of whom won his admiration. The Indian fell into the water and was fished out nearly frozen. Asked if he were cold, he answered with true Indian Stoicism, “My clothes are cold; but I am not.” The Scot was Colin Fraser, whose name we know. He was brought out by Sir George Simpson in the capacity of piper. Accompanying the little Governor, Colin, clad in Highland costume, carried his bagpipes and when at the forts astonished the natives who took him to be a relative of the Great Spirit. Indeed, an Indian once besought Colin to intercede for him with the Great Spirit. “The petitioner little knew how limited was his influence” in that high sphere. And now Colin was a clerk of the Great Company and in charge of Jasper House. The party encountered a storm which lasted nearly three days, but horses had been sent down from Jasper House to meet them, and finally they arrived at the post, cold and wet and famished. A blazing fire welcomed them and ample mountain mutton. Kane describes the post as consisting of three log buildings: a dwelling of two rooms, each some fifteen feet square, one used by Indians, voyageurs, traders-men, women and children huddled together promiscuously, and one used exclusively by Colin Fraser, his Cree wife and nine “interesting children.” The second building was a storehouse for grub when they could get any, and the third seemed to be a dog kennel. Kane made a sketch of the place while an Indian made him a pair of snowshoes.
— Elizabeth Parker regarding the 1846 trip of Paul Kane [1810–1871]
Also called “Stony River.”