Why not a third railwway to the BC Coast?

[wmoebis]

Throw a little potash in there or a little coal or gold, something that anyone, but a farmer, could see a profit on and there would be a hole through there that you could move the Eiffel tower through.

[TOM4CWB]

"...HOWSE PASS
Lying at the head of the Howse River, just five kilometres beyond Mount David Thompson, Howse Pass is said to have been first crossed by David Thompson's party in 1807.(Actually Thompson had sent an advance party over the pass in 1806. Jacques Finlay, a man named MacMaster and two others travelled over the pass, cut a rough trail down the Blaeberry River side, and built two canoes for Thompson's use. They then returned to Rocky Mountain House and presented Thompson with a map showing where they had been.) (McCart)....

Howse Pass was named for Hudson's Bay explorer Joseph Howse. As part of the quest for a passage to Native groups of present day British Columbia, Howse and a party of seventeen traversed the pass in 1809. David Thompson of the North West Company had journeyed through this pass two years earlier. Yet, Thompson named the area after Howse whom he had met in 1810. The Pikuanni carefully guarded this stretch of the Rocky Mountains. They did not want either explorer to gain direct access to trade with western Native groups, such as the Kutenai. The Pikuanni were a formable threat which was possibly why Thompson went north, where he eventually explored and utilized the Athabasca pass. Although, Howse returned to England with a 1500 pound profit from a successful season trading with the Flathead peoples of present day Kalispell, Montana, the pass was deemed too dangerous for future trade. The Howse pass was not used by the Hudson's Bay Company for another twelve years.(Jennifer Howse)..."

There is no doubt which pass would be, from central (Between Calgary and Edmonton) Alberta, the best to go to Southern British Columbia ports...being 95km for trucks/trains... with the Yellow-head at 1,131 m (3,711 ft), but further to the north of our most commonly used Vancouver BC ports...the

Howse Pass [is]
1539 m
5050 ft

Location

Province; Alberta/BC
Canadian National Park; Banff
Map; 82N/15
Latitude; 51; 48; 00
Longitude;116; 45; 20
UTM Grid Ref; 169386

Headwaters N or E; Conway Creek
Headwaters S or W; Blaeberry River
Adjacnt Mtn N or W; Mount Conway
Adjacnt Mtn S or E; Howse Peak


The 'Kicking Horse Pass is:1627 m
5339 ft.
Interesting how it got its' name:
..."Kicking Horse Pass was named for a horse that kicked Dr. Hector. As the party was struggling eastward towards the pass one of the pack horses, in an attempt to escape the fallen timber that made travelling so difficult, plunged into the river. Hector described the events that followed, "...the banks were so steep that we had great difficulty in getting him out. In attempting to recatch my own horse, which had strayed off while we were engaged with the one in the water, he kicked me in the chest, but I had luckily got close to him before he struck out, so that I did not get the full force of the blow. ...According to Erasmus; "Dr. Hector must have been unconscious for at least two hours when Sutherland yelled for us to come up; he was now conscious but in great pain. He asked for his kit and directed me to prepare some medicine that would ease the pain."

A more drastic telling of events was; "Although Hector did not record it in his report, it is said that his men came to the conclusion that he had been killed by the horse's kick and had dug a grave for him. He was almost buried alive and since he had not recovered his ability to speak, had to wink an eye to demonstrate to his party that he was still, in fact, alive."

"Even without Hector's injury, the party was having great difficulty finding food and was near starvation. They struggled towards the pass, eating blueberries along the way until they reached Wapta Lake at the summit where they camped and were able to kill a grouse and, "were happy to boil it up with some ends of candles and odd pieces of grease, to make something like a supper for the five of us after a very hard day's work. The next day a moose was shot and the men began to regain their strength."

[TOM4CWB]

Jackson...
Hmmm... Day 20 of my 'CNCP Writ of Execution' Hunger Strike'... boiled Grouse and blueberries sounds good!!!

Grin!

[blackpowder]

I'da considered eating the horse.

[TOM4CWB]

I never thought of it that way before Blackpowder!

A good horse is way better than a quad... if all else fails...YOU CAN EAT IT!!!

I hope the horse lovers in my family don't read this!!!

[farmaholic]

Your right Tom, but I'd still rather have the quad.

Too funny.