File consists of two letters written by John McCormick to a friend describing his experiences in Barkerville and the gold mining conditions on Williams Creek.
McCormick, JohnItem is a printed seasonal greeting card. Includes a printed image of an Alaskan Highway view from Dawson Creek and an outline map of the Alaska Highway. Printed card inscription states "Major and Mrs. C.C. Clitheroe Rae Pauline and David Charles Send Greeting and Best Wishes for Christmas 1944 and the New Year 1945".
File consists of:
- 1961 Letter of appointment for Walter George Freshwater (1929-2014) to be Manager at the Queen Charlotte City branch of CIBC
- 1961 CIBC pamphlet for the Queen Charlotte City branch
- Queen Charlotte Islands Telephone Directory (15 April 1961)
- Queen Charlotte Islands Chamber of Commerce By-laws (ca. 1961)
Item is a promotional calendar for a long haul trucking company from Vanderhoof, BC called "Johnson Transfer". Calendar imagery is a print of an English setter dog.
Item is a course selection guide for Grade 8 courses at Cassiar Secondary School from 1983-1984.
File consists of digital scans of the following reports regarding indigenous land use:
- Archeo Tech Associates. "An Aboriginal Sustenance Impact Assessment of the Quesnel River Gold Development Project, near Quesnel, B.C.". Prepared for the Mine Review and Permitting Branch, Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. December 1993.
- Archeo Tech Associates. "An Aboriginal Sustenance Impact Assessment of the Kemess South Gold-Copper Project: A Status Report". Prepared for El Condor Resources Ltd. September 1995.
- John Dewhirst and Archaeo Research Ltd. "Tsilhqot'in Use and Occupancy of the Xeni Gwet'in Claim Area, 1793-1864". Prepared for Chief Roger William, Xeni Gwet'in First Nation Government and Woodward & Company. 4 August 2005.
File consists of items found within the book "Placer Mining in British Columbia" (1931), which now resides in our Special Collections:
- Photograph depicting a creek within a extensive mountain range. Handwritten annotation in upper right corner reads: “Cassiar Yukon Properties Quartz Creek” and an arrow pointing downwards towards a creek (2 copies)
- Photograph depicting rocky valley. Handwritten annotation along top and bottom of recto reads: “600’ Channel; Wing Pit”
- Telegram from A.J. Marion to Joseph T. Mandy sent from Telegraph Creek, BC, on May 17 (1968?) re: mining start dates in Dease lake, Lower Post and McDames
- 6 scraps of paper with handwritten mining notes
- “Mining in focus” by Bruce Ramsey, 1968 handwritten notes
Consists of a black & white copy of an artwork depicting a street of Port Essington. Two identifiable buildings along the street are the Hotel Essington and a church.
Consists of 3 legal-size copies of drawings of and a surveyor's report on Lot 7392. Includes drawings of lot, and a note reading : "This is a foreshore Lot in front of Part of Lot 45, Village of Port Essington"
Item is a Canadian Pacific Railway document with a "Passenger trains line up of No. 2 & No. 12 - In & Out" from 6 October 1970. Includes names and codes of train cars.
Item reads "Programme of Ceremony at Unveiling of Cairn at Barkerville under the auspices of Cariboo Lodge No. 4, A.F. & A.M., to mark completion of the historic Cariboo Road in 1865". Includes an order of ceremony, the committee in charge, information about children's sports at the event, and a listing of pioneers and "old-timers" present in the platform party at the event.
This 16 page booklet includes illustrations and a program of events, along with a short history of Williams Lake, a short history of stampedes, a "Dude Dictionary", and a poem entitled "The Old Cow Puncher". Also includes a summary about the "Cariboo Indians" (possibly referring to the Secwepemc Nation and other First Nations near the Williams Lake area) contemporary to the time that contains information that is now considered inaccurate.
Item is issue Vol. 2 No. 4 from February 1912 of the "British Columbia Bulletin of Information", a promotional mouthpiece of the Natural Resources Security Company. The publication is self-described as "About the vast natural resources and commercial, agricultural and mining progress, together with a synopsis of the laws regulating public lands, timber, coal and other minerals, and current record of development in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan for the business man, the farmer and the investor". The headline of this issue is "B.C. Government Guarantees Bonds of Railway to connect Fort George with Vancouver". The Natural Resources Security Company was a development company that sold a significant amount of land in Fort George.
Two duplicate booklets for the "Government auction sale of property at Prince George, Fort George, and South Fort George". Both booklets are variously annotated with different numbers (bid prices? final sale amounts?) next to listed lots to be sold.
File consists of promotional pamphlets and brochures advertising the City of Prince George. Includes:
- Prince George Downtown Business Improvement Association, "Your Guide to Downtown Prince George 2020/21"
- City of Prince George, "Trail Guide", [ca. 2020]
- Tourism PG, "Falls Guide: Waterfall Destinations", [ca. 2022]
- Tourism PG, "Recreation Sites Guide: Prince George Area", [ca. 2022]
- Prince George Citizen, "Taste of Prince George 2023" restaurant guide
This 75th anniversary history of the Quest Club presented by Margaret Moffat and Joan Grainger at a celebratory luncheon held at Esther's Inn on October 12th, 1999 was gleaned from the History of the Quest Club prepared by Joy McMillan and Joan Grainger in 1984 for the 60th Anniversary of the Quest Club, and from Minutes of the Quest Club meetings up to 1999.
The Quest Club was started by six Prince George women who quested for more information in all fields of knowledge.
This item is a photocopy reproduction of Bob Steventon's College of New Caledonia student research essay entitled "The Origins and Background of the Wenner-Gren British Columbia Development Project" for History 211 (Local History Seminar).
This document is a contemporary transcription of a Hudson's Bay Company Fort George (New Caledonia) post journal. The accuracy and completeness of this transcription is not verified.
This file consists of photocopy reproductions of research material relating to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) in Northern British Columbia, the Stuart Lake Mission, and the Our Lady of Good Hope Church in Fort St. James. Includes:
- Informational email from William O'Hara about the Our Lady of Good Hope Church in Fort St. James, 2014
- Reproduction of article by Bill O'Hara, "Our Lady of Good Hope Church first used at Christmas, 1878" from the Caledonia Courier, 17 Dec 1997
- Reproduction of "Missions de la congrégation des missionnaires oblats de Marie Immaculée - Dix-huitieme Année - No. 69. - Mars 1880" [French], a report that includes mention of "les Babines", "les Sékénés" [Sekani], "les Hotsoten" [Wet'suwet'en], Stuart Lake, Fort George, McLeod Lake, Babine Lake, among others
This Canadian National Railways trip passes book is believed to have been created and maintained by the Office of the Locomotive Foreman (Boston Bar). CNR pensioners, employees, and employee dependents were eligible for types of trip passes for travel on CNR trains (annual, long service, and trip passes). The use of these passes were recorded in this log book, organized alphabetically by the last name of the employee with alphabetical dividers. Each employee's section includes the employee's starting date of employment, pass destination information, the pass number provided, the date the pass was received, and the signature of the traveller. Some employee sections also contain inserted CNR pass forms and other inserted documentation that include personal information. Numerous other textual materials have been inserted at the beginning and end of the log book, including CNR circulars, policy documents, blank forms, and inter-departmental correspondence regarding pass policies as well as inquiries about specific employees.
Stone Creek Hotel was a motel in Stoner, BC, located 23 miles south of Prince George. File consists of:
- 1962 Stone Creek Hotel calendar
- Correspondence from Roy and Lorraine Santics, owners of Stone Creek Hotel, to family members
- Photograph of Santics family
- Empty Stone Creek Hotel matchbook
- Stone Creek Lodge drink coaster
- Stone Creek Hotel ashtray
- Clipping ad for the Stone Creek Hotel
Some of the items in this file contain imagery of vintage "pin-up girls".
Item is a 1967 annual report created by the First Memorial United Church in Vanderhoof.
Item is a brochure promoting the 150th anniversary of Fort St. James, BC. The brochure contains a history of Fort St. James.
Item is an orange bumper sticker with the BC Hydro logo and the words "I HAVE SEEN THE PEACE POWER PROJECT".
Item is a brochure printed for the BC Centennial Caravan project from 1971 which included a number of promotional displays. The brochure has a handwritten annotation: "Vanderhoof, B.C. June 12, 1971".
"Port Essington: A Town Remembered" consists of copies of 4 black & white photographs of Port Essington, taken in October 1984 by Nancy Robertson, and published on page 13 of the 15 November 1984 edition of The Daily News, Prince Rupert's newspaper. The page caption reads as follows : "Port Essington : a town remembered - These photos are from an aging Port Essington taken in the fall month of October by photographer Nancy Robertson. Once a thriving community, Port Essington stands derelict at a Skeena estuary with only occasional visitors."
Item is two photocopied chapters from Gwen Abram's biographical manuscript entitled "Bone to Soup: A Memoir by Gwen Abram". The chapters are titled "Wood and Snow: Adventures in Prince George; Walls Come Tumbling Down" and "Fun at College: Prince George college sit-in".
Item is a 1968 Tourist Edition of the Prince George Progress newspaper. Includes "Mr. P.G. Welcomes You to Prince George" full page advertisement from the Prince George Chamber of Commerce, as well as features on various tourist attractions in Northern and Central BC.
Item is a single-page mimeographed list of free miners' licenses dating from May 31st, 1928.
File includes:
- Memorandum to Stuart S. Holland, 14 Nov. 1941
- Newspaper clipping re: Boulder Creek, ca. Jan. 1939
- Correspondence from Barrington Transportation Company to Stuart Holland, 1 May 1939
- Notes regarding amounts of gold and silver on Wheaton Creek (Boulder Creek)
Item is a tourist travel brochure for Quesnel, ca. 1963. The date of the brochure based on the image of the newly opened Quesnel Museum on the front of the brochure, which opened in 1963. Includes a pictorial city map inside the brochure.
Item is original correspondence from the accountant of the Consolidated Cariboo Hydraulic Mining Company to "Messrs. Harvey, Bailey & Co., Ashcroft, B.C." Includes original cover envelope posted 1 Sept. 1899 at the Bullion Post Office located 3 miles southeast of Quesnelle Forks. Also includes an accompanying informational sheet about the company operations and some postal history about the item.
File consists of Ernie Kaesmodel's copy of "Cariboo Chronicles" by John Roberts. The booklet is signed by the author. The booklet is accompanied by a letter from Rip Kitchen to Ernie Kaesmodel regarding the "Cariboo Chronicles" booklet and provides other local historical anecdotes.
Advertisement reads:
A FORTUNE IS WITHIN YOUR REACH
The Natural Center for a Great Metropolis in Central British Columbia
50,000 people have written to this company in the past few months for information on Fort George and Central British Columbia. This spring this section will see its real awakening--of course the shrewd investor of small capital appreciates what it means to buy land or town lots in the path of great industrial development, which development is not merely contemplated, but is actually in progress. The person who sees Fort George and its wonderfully rich tributary country today and invests a small sum there and revisits it again in 1915 would find himself financially independent, and the whole face of things so completely changed that he could not realize it as the same spot where his small investment had been made in 1911.
These statements are not dreams, but real existing facts based on the solid foundation of an immense virgin country, marvelously rich in natural resources being opened to the world by the greatest transcontinental railway system on the American continent, 1,100 miles, of navigable waterways radiate from Fort George.
Fort George is on the line of seven railroads projected and under construction. We issue a monthly periodical, The British Columbia Bulletin of Information--full of intensely interesting reading and pictures of British Columbia, which we will mail to you every month if you will ask.
Item is a 14 Nov. 1912 receipt of products purchased from John A. Fraser & Co., Ltd. of Quesnel, B.C., "dealers in general merchandise and lumber". The buyer was Tom Styner[?].
This promotional map of the city of Prince George describes the city as "the hub of our northwest empire". Includes a printed map drawn by Hammond that shows significant locations in Prince George, including the Prince George Citizen office, civic arena, bus depot, civic centre, city hall, city hospital, CNR station, fire hall, government building, post office, provincial library, and the junior-senior high school. Includes numerous handwritten annotations of other locations including the women's provincial jail, old army buildings, power house, armories, bowling alley, Connaught Hill, and "The Cache".
Produced and directed by Alf Burton. Musical direction by Catherine Moonie. Performances at Duchess Park Junior High School Auditorium, March 5-7, 1959.
Consists of two letters written in Traditional Chinese, likely sent in the same accompanying single envelope, to Hwong Leeyau in Victoria, BC. The letters were sent by Canglee and Yangkou in Anyox, BC on Sept. 19.
Letter 1:
Brother Leeyau,
The job market is bleak in Anyox. The copper [mining] is gone and there is no revenue. Job firing and rate reduction happened time and again. There are countless people with no jobs and countless people getting out of town. The brothers from our village are working now but their working days seem numbered. I have no job now and I am thinking of leaving town. I want to ask you whether there are jobs in Victoria.
Canglee
Posted on Sept. 19 with an address for mail in Anyox
Letter 2:
Brother Leeyau,
Leeyu came by bus to my place on the 9th. He wanted to work in a restaurant but there is no such a job for him. Now he's working for a white person and the pay is $18 a week. The job market is very slow in our city and it's very hard to find a job. One should save a lot of money so that once there is a chance you can make progressed quickly. I got a letter from Kwang Wei yesterday, telling me he and Mr. Chiang created a company of iron and copper in Vancouver, right by Sinfualo [transliteration - might be a restaurant]. He asked me to invest in and also work for the company. I like this business very much and talked with the stakeholders on my side. They said I can by no means leave the shop. To think about it, my business is actually very stable. I had a hard time to decide. As the saying goes, you can't split one body for two jobs. I finally declined their offer by writing and I let you know about it.
Yangkou
Sept. 19
Also includes accompanying modern translation sheet for the letters.