8 The Peace River District

canyons and broad prairies for some eight hundred miles till its waters are
joined by those of the mighty Athabaska, to sweep northward to Great Slave
lake. This lake, a veritable inland ocean, feeds the Great Mackenzie river,
which flows northward a thousand miles and drains an area of over half a million
square miles.

Two large mountain rivers, the Finlay and the Parsnip, the one flowing
southerly, the other northerly, unite their waters at Finlay at the foot of mount
Selwyn, towering 3,000 feet above them, and the large river thus formed by
their confluence is known as the Peace. From this inspiring source, with an
initial width of 300 feet, the Peace runs in an easterly direction, through the
mountains and foothills to burst forth at Hudson Hope, on the upper limit of
the Peace River block, into the vast plateaus it drains.

Below Hudson Hope it widens out and flows with a uniform current through
a valley cut deep across the surrounding plains. Fort St. John, British Columbia
is on its left limit in the Peace River block. Dunvegan is also on its left bank,
in Alberta, and here is located a ferry where the old wagon road from Edmonton
crossed to continue to lake Saskatoon. Finlay, Hudson Hope, Fort St. John,
and Dunvegan are still practically trading posts, but little changed from early
days. Some sixty miles below Dunvegan, the old settlement of ‘Peace River
Landing,” or ‘‘Peace River Crossing,’ has given way to the new thriving town
of Peace River, now linked with steel to Edmonton and the “outside.”

This point on the river was formerly reached from Edmonton by a two or
three weeks’ trying stage journey over a trail that spelt discomfort and hardship
at every turn. Now one can travel by rail, with all the comforts of dining
and sleeping cars, in twenty-six hours over practically the same route. From
here, modern steamboats ply up and down the river, a ferry crosses it, and a
giant steel bridge has recently been built to span it, and allow the rails to push
farther west and north.

From “The Crossing,” as this town is locally known, the river’s course is
almost due north some two hundred and fifty miles to the old historic trading
post of Fort Vermilion, where another ferry has recently been provided; thence
easterly again to the rapids and falls of Vermilion chutes. Navigation is here
interrupted again. Below the chutes, the river winds northeasterly till it is
joined near the northwest end of lake Athabaska by the waters of this lake and the
Athabaska river. From the confluence of these great waters, the large river
formed takes a new name, the Slave, and the Peace loses its identity in the
union. The Slave flows northerly to Slave lake, broken once by a series of
rapids from Fitzgerald to Fort Smith, on the northerly boundary of Alberta.

It will be seen that the Peace is divided into three great sections. Above
Hudson Hope, it is navigable from the head of Rocky Mountain canyon to
Finlay. Navigation also extends ninety miles additional up the Finlay and
some distance up the Parsnip. From Hudson Hope to Vermilion chutes,
steamers ply regularly during the open season. Below the chutes, the river is
navigable to its mouth. Navigation also extends down the Slave as far as
Fitzgerald, as well as on lake Athabaska and up the Athabaska river as far as
McMurray.