Highway

Ahead of the Alaska

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By

DON MUNDAY
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A Historical Account of the Hardships and Perils Encountered by Robert Camp-
bell, Who First Explored the Headwaters of Liard River and the Yukon—Tribal
Indians Ruled by Chieftainess—Establishes Fort Selkirk—Now the Alaska

Highway Traverses the Territory Discovered by White Men in 1834.

THE ALASKA road across northern

British Columbia naturally revives interest

in the earliest exploration by white men of
the region it traverses.

Every Canadian school-child knows of
‘the epic journeys of Simon Fraser and Sir

_ Alexander Mackenzie down the great rivers
bearing their names, but few could name
the man who explored the headwaters of
Liard River and most of the Yukon. Yet

of the three explorers, Robert Campbell
stands foremost for sheer courage, persist-

ence, and for dangers and hardships over-

come. Campbell enjoyed the favour of Sir
George Simpson, most famous of governors
of the Hudson’s Bay Company, but he nearly
perished more than once through enmity or
indifference of his immediate superiors.

Son of a Perthshire sheep-farmer, Camp-

bell at 22 sailed from Stromness for York
Factory in Hudson Bay in 1830, and in due
course arrived at Fort Garry on the Red
River. Here he took up sub-managership
of the Company’s experimental farm, and
attracted the attention of the Governor who
had a name for being a shrewd judge of
men. Simpson invited him to enter the fur
trade after Campbell had taken an important
part in an extraordinary journey from
Kentucky to Fort Garry with a flock of
sheep—a story in itself.

Thus it was that in 1834 Campbell arrived
at Fort Simpson on Mackenzie River at
the mouth of the Liard.

“I received a kind reception from Mr.
John Stuart, the venerable old gentleman in
charge.” This was the last such reception
Campbell was to receive at Fort Simpson
for many years. Chief Trader Murdo Mc-
Pherson, who soon took charge, proved
unfriendly as soon as Campbell began his
explorations.

Campbell remained in charge of the Fort
during McPherson’s absence in the summer
of 1836.

“In the early part of August I was sur-
prised by the arrival of Hutchinson with
some of his men in a large canoe. He had
Wintered at Fort Halkett (500 miles up
Liard River) and was ordered to establish
a post at Dease Lake (discovered in 1835 by
Chief Trader J. M. McLeod) and to explore
as far as possible down the west side of the
mountains. : 2
. He had not continued far,” records

WINTER EDITION

Campbell, “when an alarm was got up that
hundreds of ‘Russian’ Indians were ad-
vancing on the camp to murder them all.
A panic seized the whole party and they
ran down the bank pell-mell, jumped into
their canoes, never halting till they reached
Fort de Liard.”

(“Russian” Indians meant those trading
with the Russians, who urged them to
attack Hudson’s Bay Company men.)

He left in March for Fort de Liard where
canoes had to be made.

“We found it hard to get men, either
whites or Indians, willing to go. The panic

Robert Campbell

—Photo courtesy B. C. Archives

\
of the previous year seemed to have spread
all over the district. About the middle of
May, I managed to muster 16 men, but
they went into the enterprise in a half-
hearted way,” says Campbell.

“On the third morning out, we found
that some of the Indians had cleared out
during the night, and when we put ashore
for breakfast, nearly half of them said they
were so fearful of what was before them
that they would go no further. There was

no use wasting time expostulating with such
a timid crowd.”

RECRUITS FOR EXPLORATION

On returning to the Fort, Campbell
called for volunteers. “The trip has to be
made. There is to be no flying from an
enemy before he is seen. I will not ask any
of my men to go before me to face the
enemy. I will be kind to, and do all I can
for my’men; but if any show signs of
insubordination it will be at peril of his
life.”

By next morning he got the required
number of men and started. But the sum-
mer freshet began before they reached
“Hell’s Gates.” “When the river is in flood,”
says Campbell, “no boat that is built could
ascend from “The Devil’s Portage, as the
current is not only strong but is full of
rapids and whirlpools, and rushes between
perpendicular walls two or three hundred
feet high.” The portage was three miles
long.

The croak of a frog or screech of an owl
was at once taken for an enemy’s signal by
his men. Fort Halkett was reached without
sighting real enemies. A garden was plan-
ted, berries gathered, fish and meat dried
for the winter. This was at the mouth of
Smith River near the present Lower Post.

Near here Campbell discovered the so-
called “Tropical Valley” of later travellers.
“In the neighbourhood are some curious
warm-water springs issuing from the sloping
bank of the river. The water though cold
as ice in summer is warm (but not hot) in
winter, and keeps a channel open for miles
along the bank. The water encrustrates
the ground it rises through.” ;

They saw no Indians in spite of his men’s
fears of “fierce hordes sweeping down on
them,” and the winter passed uneventfully
in their “quiet retreat in the heart of the
mountains.”

In 1838, Campbell started for Dease
Lake with two canoes with eight men in
each. Their route lay among the mountains.
The water was very high, the current very
strong, and portages numerous.

They reached Dease Lake in July, and
most of the men set to work to build a fort
about five miles from the mouth of the
Nahani River. ;

“On July 20, I started with Francis Hoole

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