Named after Rockingham Falls.
Leaving Donald Phillips’s Camp near Robson Railway Station. William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada
Mt. Robson station, 1930s. CNR photo X20165
Bohi 1977 p. 16
There was a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station at Mount Robson in 1911 when Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] surveyed the area for his topographical map of Mount Robson
According to Charles W. Bohi there was also a Canadian Northern Railway station in 1915, later renamed Foster . A “Mt. Robson” station was built at a second location in 1922.
Even at an obscure station such as Mt. Robson, BC, train time could be a major event. A trio of adventurers awaits the arrival of the eastbound passenger train; Mt. Robson was a world-famous centre for packing and hiking and for mountaineers seeking to conquer the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. The others, lacking baggage of any kind, could be the family members of a local section crew going into Redpass to shop, or they could be from the Robson Ranch — a resort just down the valley — waiting to exchange mail. Mt. Robson station was originally located about three mile east of here, where the CNoR erected a Type C depot in 1915. A disastrous snow slide on 26 February 1921 covered the tracks just beyond the tram in this photograph, killing three people. As a result, in conjunction with the construction of a snow shed, in 1922 the CNR established a new station at this location, naming it Mt. Robson and re-naming the former point Foster. A Standard Portable Station and a Standard Freight and Passenger Shelter were installed at the new station in 1922. The local operator and a watchman who patrolled the tracks on either side of the new snow shed ensured that the tragic results of the 1921 snowslide would not recur. Still prominent on the Mt. Robson station here is the cantilever bracket for the train-order signal, which has been removed. The Portable Station was removed in the 1940s, leaving only the shelter. Until October 1963, employee operating timetables instructed passenger trains to stop for five minutes to let on-board patrons catch a glimpse of the station’s namesake mountain, to the right and behind the photographer.
— Bohi 2002
This is the second oldest provincial park in British Columbia, established in 1913
(Strathcona was established in 1911). It’s one of the seven national and provincial parks that together comprise the 26,583 square km World Heritage Site known as Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks.
During the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition, expedition leader Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] became ecstatic about “the vast possibilities of this new alpine paradise” — a combination of “snow-covered mountains, ice-encircled amphitheaters, tumbling glaciers, turquoise lakes and flashing waterfalls.” Wheeler urged the government of British Columbia to establish a provincial park at Mount Robson.
The post office at Mount Robson station was open from 1923 to 1955.
Henry Rider Haggard circa 1905
“The Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad wants, if the Geogaphical Board of Canada consents, to name a great Alp in the Rockies after me — Sir Rider Mountain and Haggard Glacier, a great and unusual compliment,” wrote the British novelist Sir Henry Rider Haggard [1856-1925]during his train trip from Prince Rupert to Edmonton in July 1916. “I saw it. It is a wonderful and magnificent Alp, some ten thousand feet high and measuring many miles around its base. Snow lies on its summit even in summer and it has deep, ripped glaciers and fir-clad ravines upon its flanks, while the crest has some resemblance to a Lion.” The Geographical Board consented to the recommendation.
Haggard, the author of historical and contemporary novels and of such adventure stories as She and King Solomon’s Mines, was on the final leg of his public career as an advocate of “national regeneration through agriculture.” He was sent by the Royal Colonial Institute to investigate prospects for settling war veterans on plots of land in South Africa, Australia, and Canada. He arrived in Victoria in June 1916, an extremely popular figure, both for his novels and his almost lifelong work for the British Empire in various governmental positions.
John Robert Colombo states that Alan Rayburn, executive secretary of Canada’s geographical names secretariat, told him that “the man responsible for this rash of naming was severly reprimanded for promising Sir Rider that one or other of these three features would have his name” — presumably in reference to the customary restrictions in assigning official names.
The mountain was first reported in 1915 by a party including Samuel Prescott Fay [1884–1971] of Boston and guide Fred Brewster of Jasper.
Bennett c. 1930–1935
Wikipedia
Richard Bedford Bennett (1870-1947) was prime minister of Canada from 1930 to 1935.
Bennett was born in New Brunswick, where he was a school teacher and lawyer before moving to Alberta. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1911, and was prime minister from 1930 to 1935, interrupting Mackenzie King’s term. He died, unmarried, in England.
This feature was known as “Mount Goodell” in Climbers Guide to the Interior Ranges of British Columbia, 1937. But it had previously been renamed in the 1927 Premier Range proclamations.
John Haldane (Jack) Renshaw [1884-1955], a guide and outfitter by summer, and a trapper by winter, worked out of McBride He was the eldest son of Robert Haldane Renshaw [1853-1931] and Laura Helen Renshaw (Thacker) [1863-1946). Robert was born in California, Laura in Oregon, and they were married in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Their other children were George, Winnie (MacFayden), Emera [1897-1980], Helena (Lonsdale) [1899-1985], and Robert Haldane, Jr. [1906-1986]. The family came to Canada from Idaho in 1908.
“My father, mother and family followed the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific from Edmonton to Tête Jaune,” wrote Helena Lonsdale in 1977. “I say followed, we were always ahead of the steel, my father ran eating houses, they were never referred to as restaurants or cafes except the first one and that was in Edmonton in 1908. When Tête Jaune closed down in 1913 we moved to 49 (Henningville), which thrived for about a year. We moved from 49 to McBride in the early fall of 1914.”
In 1929 Emera Renshaw married Alexina Roe (b. 1906), a Scottish-born schoolteacher he met at Loos. After homesteading at Loos, they moved to McBride in 1946. Emera, a government log scaler, owned and operated the only pool room in McBride, a business he kept for 20 years. He was a veteran of World War One and was a member of the Canadian Legion and Elks. Alexina ran a cafe, and sold insurance and real estate. She was active in the Royal Purple, the Chamber of Commerce, and the McBride and District Hospital Board. In 1970 the Renshaws and the Lonsdales left McBride for Chase, B.C.
Flying Officer William Quanstrom
Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Named to remember Royal Canadian Air Force Flying Officer William Quanstrom, J26350, from Quesnel. Serving with 12 (RAF) Squadron when his plane was shot down during air operations over the North Sea on 10 April 1944, age 27. With no known grave, his name is inscribed on the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey, UK, panel 248. Parents were Julius and Emma Elizabeth Quanstrom, Quesnel.
Named to remember Canadian Army gunner Alfred Pierrway, K 601413, from Quesnel, serving with the Royal Canadian Artillery when he was killed at Fort Garry on 12 July 1942, age 22. Buried at Prince George Cemetery, grave 4. 2. H. Survived by mother Lily Miller, Quesnel.
Soldier found dead in bush after storm
Possibly a victim of Saturday night’s violent electrical storm, Pte. Alfred Pierway, of the Artillery Training centre, Fort Garry, was found dead in the bush near the barracks early Sunday morning.
There is nothing to lead police to believe there was any foul play but the initial examination revealed that Pte. Pierway died of shock. “There is a strong possibility he may have been struck by lightning.” Dr. O. C. Trainor, pathologist of Misericordia hospital, who is conducting the post mortem, told The Tribune today.
“Lightning may leave extensive marks or none at ail on the body.”
Dr. Trainor said the body showed traces of alcoholism.
The only mark found on Pte. Pierway was a bruise on his left side. Pte. Pierway, formerly of Quesnel, B.C. had returned to Fort Garry shortly after midnight Saturday following a trip to Winnipeg. At 7 a.m. Sunday a university student discovered the body near the bus stop and notified Cpl. I. Morrison, on sentry duty.
Chief Alex Martin, of Fort Garry, is investigating the case. It is not known whether an inquest will be held or not until more results are reported from the postmortem.
— Winnipeg Evening Tribune
Donald Phillips on Mt. Robson at altitude 12,000 feet.
Photo: Rev. G. B. Kinney, 1909
Canadian Alpine Journal, 1910
“Back on the horizon line between Iyatunga and Titkana is a fine point that I am calling Phillips Mountain, in recognition of Donald Phillips, who made the ascent of Robson with Dr. Kinney,” wrote Charles Doolittle Walcott [1850–1927] of his 1912 trip to the Robson area.
Donald “Curly” Phillips [1884–1938] was a Jasper guide and outfitter who accompanied George R. B. Kinney [1872–1961] almost to the top of Mount Robson in 1909. They made several ascents, finally reaching, on Friday, August 13, what Kinney claimed was the peak. Phillips later stated that the highest point had not been reached.
Mount Peelee and the Yellowhead Lakes. Yellowhead Pass, sentineled by Mount Peelee and the Yellowhead Mountains, offers for the transcontinental railroads the lowest and easiest gateway through the Canadian Rockies. Photo by Rev. George Kinney. National Geographic 1911.