Showing 52 results

The collection consists of oral history interviews pertaining to the eastern part of the Cariboo region and Horsefly, B.C.

CALL NUMBER: T2785:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977-07-06 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Glenn begins with his birth in 1902 in South Bend, Washington; his mother went down to be with relatives for the birth and returned shortly after. His parents operated a ranch and one of the two hotels in Horsefly. Glen talks of the community when the three major mines were operating; the Hydraulic Mine operated by J.B. Hobson, who was also manager of the Bullion Mine at Likely; the Orientals, who dug ditches and worked in the mines; Ward's Mine; the Miocene Mine; I.D. and E. Co. (International Dredging Co.); the effects on the community of the closure of the mines; Glen began trapping when he was very young and has trapped for over sixty years. He talks about what a trap line is, where his was in the Quesnel Lake area, how much time he spent on the trap line and what he took with him. TRACK 2: Glen continues to talk about trapping; what it was like to live on a trap line for several months, what the trapping cabins were like; a few stories of his experiences on the trapline; about traps; how he sold the fur; how trapping today compares to trapping in the 1920s and 1930s.

CALL NUMBER: T2785:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977-07-06 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Trapping; supplies in trappers cabins; setting traps; stretching and tanning hides; first aid on the trap line; trapping regulations; big game hunting; guiding; began when he was about 19 years old; first time guiding hunters from California; supplies taken by hunters; hunting stones, etc. TRACK 2: Big game hunting; hunting stories; game population; decreasing and increasing numbers over the years; wolves across Quesnel Lake; changes in big game hunting; small game in the area; grouse and pheasant; dressing and preparing meat; brief description of the Williams Lake Stampede in the 1920s.

CALL NUMBER: T2785:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977-07-06 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Father's ranch; the Walters's Ranch; work around the ranch; hired help; Ah Wee, the Chinese domestic and ranch hand; operations around the ranch; survey of ranches up Black Creek; mining at Eureka Creek in the early 1900s; ranches, pre-emptions along Horsefly Lake Road; ranches in Beaver Valley. TRACK 2: Ranches in Beaver Valley; cattle drives from Horsefly to Ashcroft and Williams Lake as late at the 1940s; early freighting along the Cariboo Road from Ashcroft; team and wagon; trips into Horsefly; freighting with trucks; goods brought into Horsefly; incident at home with family.

CALL NUMBER: T2785:0004 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977-07-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Glen talks about buying a small ranch in Horsefly from his mother and building up the ranch into a working operation; clearing land; seeding; irrigation; haying; Indian crews; trading with locals; winter campgrounds; battle on Cariboo Island and the reason there are no Indians in Horsefly. TRACK 2: 108 Road; original road into Horsefly before the road from 150 Mile; his father had the mail route over 108 Road; original road through Horsefly to Quesnel Lake and across to the gold fields around Barkerville and Keithley Creek.

CALL NUMBER: T2785:0005 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Glen remembers the wild horses in the area before they died out; role of women on the ranches; fencing in the early days; Farmer's Institute; buying seed in the early days; effects of the First World War on ranching, as well as the Depression and the Second World War. TRACK 2: Differences between ranching in the early days and ranching today; early roads around Horsefly; road-building crews; horse graders; corduroying; changeover to power graders; trucks; freighting with trucks and traffic along 150 Road in the 1920s; conditions of the roads.

CALL NUMBER: T2785:0006 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Glen's father owned and operated the Walters Hotel which was one of two hotels during the early 1900s; the bunkhouses used by miners; the Meiss Hotel; the main hotel also called the City Hotel, had a small store; description of it, saloon, dining room, livery stables, rooms, services provided; patrons; gambling; miners; Walters Hotel also called the Horsefly Hotel; rooms; livery stables; dining room, meals; Harry Walters carried gold for Hobson and was also an early forest ranger. TRACK 2: House of ill repute in Horsefly; hotel patrons; celebrations at hotels; first phone installed in Horsefly.

CALL NUMBER: T2787:0001 - 0004 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): The Walters and Youngker families of Horsefly, B.C. RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available for this interview.];

CALL NUMBER: T2787:0005 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Life in Horsefly in the early 20th century RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available for this interview.];

CALL NUMBER: T2787:0006 - 0009 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1977?] SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available for this interview.];

CALL NUMBER: T2792:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Harry Brown's family; Dairy farming in the Fraser Valley before the Depression; selling milk to individual buyers; organisation of Fraser Valley Milk Producers; moving to the Cariboo, Likely; and Horsefly; ranching in Beaver Valley during the 1940s; what the place was like when he bought it; getting the ranch going; haying; feeding cattle; daily chores and routine; milking cows and shipping; cream to Williams Lake and Quesnel. TRACK 2: Ranching Beaver Valley; leisure time in the winter; feeding cattle in the winter; travel by horse and cutter in winter time; condition of roads; cattle drives to Williams Lake; Williams Lake in the 1940s; operating a general store in Horsefly in the 1950s; managing a men's clothing store in Williams Lake; Horsefly in the early 1940s; the general store in Horsefly from 1950 to 1958. CALL NUMBER: T2792:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: Harry talks about his years living in the Corner House, a large rambling log house in the centre of Horsefly; taking in boarders; feeding people; the General Store in Horsefly in the 1950s; bringing in beer for the local population; Niquidet's freight line from Williams Lake to Horsefly in the 1950s; customers; trappers, hunters, locals, tourists, forestry people; store goods; on the ranch in Beaver Valley; chores, fencing, irrigation; buying seed; pigs; the log home that was on the place when Harry moved in; building a barn; comparison between farming in the Fraser Valley and the Cariboo; winter on the ranch; Melba's father, Harry's father-in-law; food on the ranch.

CALL NUMBER: T2796:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): The Gruhs family of Horsefly, B.C. RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Gruhs family history. Homesteading. Stores and successive owners. Food. Social activities: community hall; gopher dance. Severe winters. Stove. TRACK 2: Religion. School teaching. Engagement; and marriage to Ben Gruhs. Esther's early childhood in New Westminster. Education. Preserving. Bridge in Horsefly. Road building. Fire in 1934 that almost destroyed home. Cars.;

CALL NUMBER: T2796:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available for this tape.];

RECORDED: [location unknown], [1977 or 1978]

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1979-08

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1980-08-21

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available for this interview.];

CALL NUMBER: T1444:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Mining and ranching RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978-03-23 SUMMARY: Oral history interview with Mabel Kinvig. TRACK 1: Description of her father, James Wiggins. Arrival in Horsefly, 1906. Horsefly hydraulic mine, J. Wiggins, caretaker, buildings, Bill Thompson, miner, visitors. TRACK 2: Pioneer ranch at Miocene (B.C.). Building up the ranch. John Wawn. Government surveys. Indian crews. CALL NUMBER: T1444:0003 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Miocene, B.C., and Pioneer Ranch RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978-04-21 SUMMARY: Early development of Miocene, B.C. People who stopped at Pioneer ranch. CALL NUMBER: T1444:0004 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978-04-28 SUMMARY: [No content summary available for this tape.] CALL NUMBER: T1444:0005 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Home life in the Cariboo RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978-05-16 SUMMARY: TRACK 1 & 2: Early home life in the Cariboo: food, canning, fruit, vegetables. CALL NUMBER: T1444:0006 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): The life of her father, James Wiggins RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978-05-03 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: The life of her father, James Wiggins: Vancouver, Cariboo, government packer in the North, telegraph linesman in the North. TRACK 2: The life of James Wiggins, continued: Newspaper articles about breaks in telegraph service.

CALL NUMBER: T2794:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Life in Horsefly in the 1920s : The Hockley family RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977

CALL NUMBER: T2794:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Hunting and guiding east of Horsefly, 1926-1960 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977

CALL NUMBER: T2794:0003 - 0005 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available for these three tapes.];

CALL NUMBER: T2797:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): An immigrant's life in the Depression : homesteading at Horsefly Lake RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Erik Viksten's family in Sweden; their dairy farm; immigration to Canada in 1928; special difficulties of life during the Depression for an immigrant; various jobs on the prairies and BC in carpentry, mining and ranching. TRACK 2: Arrival in Horsefly; first visit to [his] brothers' in Horsefly in 1937; fishing on Horsefly Lake; lodge on Horsefly Lake; the south shore of Horsefly Lake, 1948; first resident on the south shore of Horsefly Lake; salmon hatcheries at Horsefly; those who worked there; the operation; winter on the lake; travel.

CALL NUMBER: T2797:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Life at Horsefly Lake in the 1950s and 1960s RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Boat building on Horsefly Lake; how Erik became involved in boat building; technicalities of boat building with the facilities Erik had on the lake. Life on Horsefly Lake during the 1950s; trappers in the winter time; Erik trapped one winter. TRACK 2: People living one the lake cutting ice in winter to preserve food. Travel in the winter. Erik made skis on which he travelled into Horsefly. What Erik remembers of Horsefly in 1948: the general store; the old-timers who gathered at the store to tell stories. Erik tells a trapping story that involved John Larson, Jack Grahame, and himself.

CALL NUMBER: T2790:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1977 or 1978] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Agnes begins with a letter summarising the background of her parents who were German immigrants to the states; she tells about her journey from Ashcroft to Horsefly by covered wagon in 1910; homesteading in Horsefly; the old Gruh's place; chinking logs, etc.; when still a young girl, Agnes was a companion to Mrs. J.P. Patenaude, and invalid; she accompanied her to Montreal and talks about the train trip across Canada; life for a pioneer woman; washing, ironing, cleaning, upkeep of a log home; chores around the farm; roles and attitudes of women. TRACK 2: Parties, celebrations and dances in Horsefly when Agnes was still a girl; marriage to Joe Williams in 1914; Walter's home; their front room; Harry and Alva Walters; Meiss Hotel, one of the two hotels in Horsefly; Mrs. Meiss's parlour; Mr. Meiss's pet bear; rooms; Agnes helping at the hotel; Patenaude family; J.P. Patenaude as an important member of the community; Hope, Albert and Ernest Patenaude; store operated by the Patenaude family during the 1910s; interior; card games; goods; wood stoves; high teas; food; keeping food in summer; baking; drying fruit; staples. CALL NUMBER: T2790:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1977 or 1978] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Surprise parties in Horsefly around 1910; dances in homes and at the community hall; May Day celebrations, plays, races, fun fair, dinner and dance; reminiscences of Agnes's life when living with her parents. TRACK 2: Agnes living on her parents farm; Agnes's mother and father; medicine and pregnancies in the early days; general store in Horsefly. CALL NUMBER: T2790:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1977 or 1978] SUMMARY: Surprise parties in Horsefly around 1910; dances in homes and at the community hall; May Day celebrations, plays, races, fun fair, dinner and dance; reminiscences of Agnes's life when living with her parents. TRACK 2: Agnes living on her parents farm; Agnes's mother and father; medicine and pregnancies in the early days; general store in Horsefly. CALL NUMBER: T2790:0004 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1977 or 1978] SUMMARY: Agnes Williams reads a letter she received concerning Joe's father, who was an early miner in the Cariboo area; engagement to Joe Williams; marriage, 1914; home on the old Ward Mine site with Joe's father; Joe and Agnes pre-empted land across the river; early home life; laundry and wash day; furniture when they first moved in, straw tick beds; cleaning; home made soap; hooked rugs; sewing, early clothing. TRACK 2: Early home life continued; Sunday school and services in various homes; home life; preserving and cooking meat; milk; keeping butter; making cottage cheese; canning; Indian camps in the fall; wagons of Indians would come for hunting; berry picking; trading with local people; stories about Indians; Ladies' Aid Society in Horsefly; bridge tea parties held in various homes.

CALL NUMBER: T2798:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Boyhood of a young trapper ; trapping around Hobson Lake and Horsefly, B.C. RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977-08-22 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Arrival of the DeWees family on foot from Washington when Dick was 10; the family camped for a while, then settled in an old cabin at Antoine Lake, northwest of Horsefly, where they lived for two years in the 1920s; life when Dick was a young boy; story of fishing on Horsefly Lake; trapping at Antoine Lake; schooling at Horsefly at the first and second schools there; how he earned $60.00 a month as a janitor while going to school; school at Black Creek. TRACK 2: Trapping as a young boy at Hobson Lake; his family winters on Quesnel Lake at Killdog Creek; story of trapper Bill Miner and trapping with Lloyd Walters. CALL NUMBER: T2798:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Stories of old-timers and of the local dances, Horsefly, B.C. RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Dick DeWees talks about the old Miocene Mine in 1918; mining at Jawbone Pool; mining near Joe Williams' house, east of the river, in 1923. Dick tells the story of cooking for a suppression crew when he was 13; trapping with Fred and B. Hooker and Lloyd Walters; stories about Tom Hooker and the Hooker family; blacksmith; sawmill; hunting lodge. TRACK 2: Stories of old timers in Horsefly; Spencer Hope Patenaude and the telegraph office; John Wawn, a central figure in the community; Justice of the Peace; school trustee; his shoe repair shop; Alec and Matilda Meiss of the Meiss Hotel; the Bull Moose Club as bachelor's headquarters; dances at the community hall. CALL NUMBER: T2798:0003 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Transportation and hunting in the Cariboo RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: The trip from the United States to Horsefly in 1918; early roads; Horsefly in 1918. TRACK 2: Trapping around Horsefly Lake and Quesnel Lake. CALL NUMBER: T2798:0004 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Big game hunting in the Cariboo RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: Big game hunting around Horsefly, B.C. CALL NUMBER: T2798:0005 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: [No content summary available for this tape.] CALL NUMBER: T2798:0006 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Prospecting and mining in the Horsefly area; both placer and hard-rock. TRACK 2: Mining around Horsefly; dances in the community hall.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available for this interview.];

RECORDED: [location unknown], [1977 or 1978]

CALL NUMBER: T2788:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Recollections of Horsefly, 1905 and 1910 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977

CALL NUMBER: T2788:0002 - 0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available for these two tapes.];

CALL NUMBER: T2788:0004 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Mining around Horsefly in the early 20th century RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977

CALL NUMBER: T2788:0005 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Old-timers of Horsefly, B.C. RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Old timers of Horsefly, BC. TRACK 2: Old timers continued; comparison between life today and sixty years ago.;

CALL NUMBER: T2789:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Teaching and social life in Cariboo communities RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977-07 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Ruby Barrett's parents; father was a minister and came to preach in Vancouver in 1929; her father's work as a missionary up the coast; Normal School in Vancouver when Ruby was 18; her first ;teaching post at North Lytton School; her second teaching position at Alexis Creek; trip from Williams lake to Alexis Creek; her third teaching position at Horsefly in 1938; her recollections of Horsefly in 1938; her marriage to trapper Tan Barrett. TRACK 2: Ruby's marriage to Stan Barrett, continued; their first home; social life in Horsefly; Christmas concerts at the school. CALL NUMBER: T2789:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): A teacher in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977-12-21 SUMMARY: Experiences as a teacher at Alexis Creek and Horsefly, BC. CALL NUMBER: T2789:0003 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Teaching in Horsefly, B.C., 1938-1941 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978-01-05 SUMMARY: Teaching in Horsefly from 1938 to 1941; the teaching profession in general. CALL NUMBER: T2789:0004 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): A trapper's wife, 1942 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: Ruby Barrett; her life as the wife of a trapper in the Cariboo in 1942. CALL NUMBER: T2789:0005 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): A trapper's wife, 1942 & 1945 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978 SUMMARY: Ruby Barrett; her life as the wife of a trapper in the Cariboo region from 1942 to 1945.