Tag Archives: Grand Trunk Pacific

Longworth

British Columbia. Locality
On Canadian National Railway, NW of Penny
53.9167 N 121.4667 W — Map 093H14 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (GTP map)
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in BCCanada
168 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 79 in Fraser Subdivision (McBride to Prince George as of 1977)
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1914. Removed 1963

The name was submitted to the Geographical Board of Canada by Sir Alfred Smithers, chairman of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway during construction of the rail link. The post office opened in October, 1915.

Longworth is located 80 miles west of McBride, it was quite possibly named after an English village in Oxfordshire, UK., (speculation on my part). It may have been one of the place names suggested by Josiah Wedgwood.

— Olson

Wrigley Directories for 1918 lists Longworth as a post office and station on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Population 30. Local resources: Timber, prospecting, and a few small farms. There are no sawmills here and the district offers 25,000,000 feet which may be purchased cheaply from pre-emptors, while twice the amount is available on Government land adjacent to rail. Arthur E. Read was postmaster and ran the general store,and was also the first president of the Yellowhead Association around 1930.

The town of Longworth is on the map to stay. The place now boasts of a population of 100 residents, a good school, church, dance hall, store, post office and pool room. For awhile the settlement had a cabaret but it has been closed up and the piano taken away for repairs. In 1920 the post office was moved into the Toneko Lodge, a majestic wooden structure which also served as a hotel and general store.

Prince George Citizen, February 28, 1924. Quoted by Olson
References:

  • Wrigley Directories, Limited. Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory. Vancouver: 1918. Internet Archive
  • Olson, Raymond W. Ghost Towns on the East Line. Prince George, B.C.: Raymond W. Olson, 2017
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Longworth

Lindup

British Columbia. Railway Point
Canadian National Railway, SE of Longworth, NW of Guilford
53.8833 N 121.3667 W — Map 93H/14 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (GTP map)
Name officially adopted in 1984
Not currently an official name
163 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 75 in Fraser Subdivision (McBride to Prince George as of 1977)
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1914. The Lindup station was moved to Penny in 1947.

LINDUP: a settlement on the G. T. P. Ry., 5 miles west of Penny, no agent, in Prince George Provincial Electoral District. Has Canadian Express. Charges must be prepaid; tele- graph office.

Population 5. Local resources: Saw mills and mixed farming. Heavily timbered unbroken land about 3 miles distant from the mountains.

Address mail Lindup via Penny or Longworth.

Bochscski M section hand
Hall Harold farming
Jardine Carl section foreman
Jardine Chas farming
Lehman F farming
Persons G homesteader
Segel G lineman G T P

— Wrigley 1918

Torsten Berg was the only one to operate a sawmill at Lindup. The mill operated from 1949 to 1952, at which time his timber supply ran out and he moved the mill to Longworth. The timber at Lindup was of nice quality and of good size. Torsten was awarded the contract to supply planks 26 feet long, for the podium for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1952.

The population of Lindup peaked at about 50 people in 1929 and dwindled dramatically the Depression. In 1931 the Prince George Citizen reported that a large relief camp of 100 men were clearing and grubbing road right of way.

Lindup in 2014 does not have any residents and is on a seasonal road that is susceptible to weather restrictions.

— Olson
References:

  • Wrigley Directories, Limited. Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory. Vancouver: 1918. Internet Archive
  • Olson, Raymond W. Ghost Towns on the East Line. Prince George, B.C.: Raymond W. Olson, 2017

Legrand

British Columbia. Railway Point
Canadian National Railway, between Rider and Lamming Mills
53.4167 N 120.3833 W — Map 93H/8 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (GTP map)
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in BCCanada
103 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 13 in Fraser Subdivision (McBride to Prince George as of 1977)
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1914

The community was named after Joseph G. Legrand [1861-1923], a French-born engineer who designed and supervised the construction of all of the bridges on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Legrand emigrated to Canada in 1891. Between 1893 and 1903 he worked successively as a draftsman, checker, and designer of bridge work and in 1903 was appointed assistant chief engineer of the predecessor firm that became the Montreal Locomotive Works. He joined the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1906, at age 45, and assumed responsibilty for designing and overseeing the building of all the bridges on the new railway, thus becoming one of its senior managers.

Fourteen miles west of McBride, Legrand became a farming community. In 1921 six farmers lived there. The Legrand post office was open from August 1924 to June 1925, under postmaster Mrs. Janetta Somerville.

References:

  • CN (Canadian National Railway). Transportation planning branch, Edmonton, and historical office, Montréal. 2000
  • Davies, David L. “Not ‘A Bridge Too Far’ But One Far Enough or How the G.T.P. Crossed the Fraser at Prince George, British Columbia.” Canadian Rail, No. 476 May-June (2000):67–82. Exporail
  • Olson, Raymond W. Ghost Towns on the East Line. Prince George, B.C.: Raymond W. Olson, 2017

Knole station

British Columbia. Railway point
Former name of Rider
53.4833 N 120.5333 W GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1912 (GTP map)
Not currently an official name.
112 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1914. Renamed Rider in 1916.

Knole of Sevenoaks in Kent, England, was once the palace of the archbishops of Canterbury.

The name of this station was probably selected from the list of names that Josiah Wedgewood submitted to Grand Trunk Railway president Charles Melville Hays. William Pittman Hinton, general passenger agent of the Grand Trunk, had asked Wedgewood (of Wedgewood China fame) to submit a list of names suitable for the stations on the new railway line; consequently many station names on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway have a connection to England.

At present there are no highways in the country. However, there are a few good trails. These run from Henningville up the McLennan Valley and over the Albreda summit to the Canoe and North Thompson Rivers: from Knole (Mile 112) up the Goat River and thence to Barkerville, a distance of eighty miles: and from Bear River to Fort George. The Forest Branch of the Department of Lands are building a few trails up a number of streams, notably the Rau Shuswap and Beaver Rivers.

— Walker, South Fork of Fraser River, 1914

In 1916 English author Henry Rider Haggard [1856–1925] travelled through the area on the GTPR. He was so impressed with the scenery and wrote very glowingly about it that the mountain above Crescent Spur was named Mount Rider and the glacier on the mountain was called Haggard Glacier.

The rail stop at Knole is said to have been renamed Rider in his honour, but the name Rider was already in use by 1911.

References:

  • Walker, James Alexander [1887–1959]. “South fork of Fraser River, Dore River to Clearwater River. December 15, 1913.” Report of the Minister of Lands, (1914). Google Books
  • Olson, Raymond W. Ghost Towns on the East Line. Prince George, B.C.: Raymond W. Olson, 2017

Kidd

British Columbia. Railway Point
Canadian National Railway, SW of Torpy River
53.7167 N 120.9667 W — Map 93H/10 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (GTP map)
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in BCCanada
141 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 52 in Fraser Subdivision (McBride to Prince George as of 1977)
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1914

The station might recall Stuart Kidd (1883–1957), manager of Brazeau Trading Company in Nordegg (for whom Mount Kidd in Alberta was named in 1904), or perhaps his brother John Alfred (Fred) Kidd. See comments.

References:

  • Holmgren, Eric J., and Holmgren, Patricia M. Over 2,000 place names of Alberta. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Modern Press, 1973. Internet Archive

Henningville

British Columbia. Community
Former settlement near Tête Jaune Cache
52°58’00” N 119°25’45” W — Map 83D/14 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1914
Not currently an official name.
49 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Henningville (Mile 49), Tête Jaune area

Henningville (Mile 49), Tête Jaune area
Valemount & Area Museum

The company of Palmer Brother and Henning were construction contractors during the construction of the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway through the Yellowhead Pass and south down the Canoe River. Palmer Brother and Henning had a siding on the Grand Trunk Pacific line at Mile 49 (measured from the Alberta border), near Tête Jaune Cache, to service their camps.

In the years after 1912, Henningville grew into a small hamlet with a Canadian Northern Pacific warehouse and some dozen other buildings, including the Austin Brothers store, Cox’s post office, and a pool hall. The name Henningville was rarely used, because the railroaders all called the location “49.”

In the Tête Jaune Cache area, on the Grand Trunk Pacific, people lived in several communities: Mile 53, where the Siems-Carey and the Foley, Welsh and Stewart wharves bordered the Fraser River, Mile 52, where the new train station, Main Street and the red-light district were, Mile 51, where a ship-building yard had been set up to rebuild two sternwheelers, originally from Victoria, B.C., and Mile 49, later to be known as Henningville.

Tête Jaune Cache magistrate William A. Jowett noted in his diary in June, 1914: “To 49 for Henning’s surprise party on his return from being married with Bel and had a good time!”

The Henningville post office opened in 1913; in 1917 the name was changed to Tête Jaune Cache.

References:

  • MacGregor, James Grierson. Overland by the Yellowhead. Saskatoon: Western Producer, 1974. Internet Archive
  • Topping, William. A checklist of British Columbia post offices. Vancouver: published by the author, 7430 Angus Drive, 1983
  • Valemount Historic Society. Yellowhead Pass and its People. Valemount, B.C.: 1984
  • McKirdy, Fern. “The early history of the Yellowhead and Tête Jaune.” Canoe Mountain Echo, (2 & 9 September 1987)
  • Frazer, Leonard. “Caribou Joe and the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific.” Prince George Citizen, 17 May (2011). Prince George Citizen

Guilford station

British Columbia. Railway Point
On Canadian National Railway, NE of junction ofSlim Creek and Fraser River
53.8167 N 121.2 W — Map 93H/14 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (GTP map)
Name officially adopted in 1958
Not currently an official name
154 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 66 in Fraser Subdivision (McBride to Prince George as of 1977)

Established as a flag station on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway four
miles east of Penny.

No agent or local residents in 1918, according to Wrigley’s.

Although the Grand Trunk Pacific had built a station at Guilford, the community of Guilford evolved two miles west of the station. That location was where the river and the railroad tracks met, both being vital transportation links. The name was quite possibly chosen from the Josiah Wedgwood list of names. Guilford is the name of a village in the county of Surrey, England, which is now spelt Guildford.

— Olson, p. 92

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wagner left for Edmonton, the community of Guilford lost its last resident and another ghost town was created. Everything has been shipped out of the once thriving sawmill village.

Prince George Citizen, November 1956 (quoted in Olson)

According to the BC Geographical Names office, the name Guilford was suggested by Mr. Smithers (OBF 0047). Adopted in 1958. confirmed in 1983, and rescinded in 1984.

References:

  • Wrigley Directories, Limited. Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory. Vancouver: 1918. Internet Archive
  • CN (Canadian National Railway). Transportation planning branch, Edmonton, and historical office, Montréal. 2000
  • Olson, Raymond W. Ghost Towns on the East Line. Prince George, B.C.: Raymond W. Olson, 2017
  • British Columbia Geographical Names. Guilford
Also see:

Goat River station

British Columbia. Railway Point
Canadian National Railway near junction of Fraser River and Goat River
53.5333 N 120.6 W — Map 93H/10 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in BCCanada
118 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 28 in Fraser Subdivision (McBride to Prince George as of 1977)
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1914

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station at Mile 117 (west of the Yellowhead Pass) was initially named “Rooney,” after W. J. Rooney, superintendent of construction in charge of the GTP Telegraph Service. Sometime between 1918 and 1925 the station was renamed “Goat River.”

Bohi’s listing says the station name “Goat River” was preceded by the names “Rooney” and “Brundell.”

The post office at Goat River Station operated from 1923 to 1945.

References:

  • Topping, William. A checklist of British Columbia post offices. Vancouver: published by the author, 7430 Angus Drive, 1983
  • Bohi, Charles W., and Kozma, Leslie S. Canadian National’s Western Stations. Don Mills, Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2002
Also see:

Foster

British Columbia. Railway point
Canadian National Railway, E of junction of Fraser River and Robson River
53.0139 N 119.1306 W — Map 83E/3 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1989
Official in BCCanada
32 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 50 in Albreda Subdivision (Jasper to Blue River as of 1977)
This railway point appears on:
Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1923
Hon. George E. Foster
Photo: Libraries and Archives Canada

Hon. George E. Foster
Photo: Libraries and Archives Canada
New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia

This Canadian Northern Railway station was named in the 1920s for senator Sir George Eulas Foster [1847–1931], then Minister of Trade and Commerce. On the eve of the general election in 1917, Foster was struck by a railway engine at Union Station in Toronto and left with a broken shoulder blade, a broken collar bone, and four broken ribs. His determination even as an injured 70-year-old was in evidence as he resumed his duties from his sickbed and returned to the House within months.

Mt. Robson-CNoR
1st location 1915 Renamed Foster
2nd location 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
References:

  • CN (Canadian National Railway). Transportation planning branch, Edmonton, and historical office, Montréal. 2000
  • Bohi, Charles W., and Kozma, Leslie S. Canadian National’s Western Stations. Don Mills, Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2002

Fitzwilliam

British Columbia. Railway Point
Canadian National Railway, between Yellowhead Lake and Moose Lake
52.8667 N 118.6667 W — Map 83D/15 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in BCCanada
9 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 27 in Albreda Subdivision (Jasper to Blue River as of 1977)
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1913. Formerly known as Alpland
This railway point appears on:
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway stations