Item 2012.11.3.4 - Report on trip taken in August, September and October 1923 by John M. Holzworth in Northeastern British Columbia in the interests of the United States Biological Survey on the subject of mountain sheep and caribou distribution

• Textual record

43 p.

Items purchased from the Smithsonian Institution and received by the NBCA in 2011.

The John M. Holzworth Field Report consists of 24 descriptive text with 75 black and white photographs that document biological reconnaissance work undertaken by Holzworth, and includes detailed descriptions of the land and water transportation routes taken, weather observations, and commentary on communities and people he encountered while on his expedition to hunt and collect bighorn sheep and caribou specimens in the area. In order to reach the Peace River country via water route he travelled from Prince George to Summit Lake, Crooked River, and on the Parsnip River system and then down the Peace River, accompanied at one point with a trapper named George Wosly and stopping to hunt in the Mt Selwyn area. On the expedition which made its way into the headwaters of the Pine/Murray region to search for mountain sheep, Holzworth relied on two local guides, Harry Garbitt and Louis [last name unknown] to traverse the vast landscape. The report provides documentation also of members of the Beaver First Nation camps and images of early 20th century homesteaders near present day Tumbler Ridge. Finding no sheep in this area, Holzworth came out to Pouce Coupe, and returned back into the mountains from the Alberta side, up the Wapiti, where he was successful in getting his bighorn sheep specimens.