Diaries, documents and research notes concerning the family of Annie Margaret Angus, especially her father Major William James Anderson. Materials consist mostly of diaries (1885-1924) of Major Anderson, and his wife Laura, which cover his career in the British Army and the family's efforts in establishing a fruit orchard in the Kettle Valley/Rock Creek district of British Columbia. They also include papers regarding W.J. Anderson's military career, family history, Annie M. Angus' correspondence and research notes regarding here family's history, and her annotations and notes on her father's diaries. Also included are two family photograph albums which have been transferred to Visual Records.

Annie Margaret Angus was the eldest daughter of Major William James Anderson and his wife Laura. Born in Turkey, she was raised in Scotland and India before her family emigrated to the Rock Creek valley of British Columbia in 1909. There they worked at establishing a fruit ranch until her father's death in 1915 and the abandonment of the orchard for Vancouver in 1919. Annie Anderson attended the University of British Columbia from 1919-1923 and married Dr. Henry Angus in 1924. Following his retirement from the faculty of the University of B.C. in 1956, where he served as the dean of Graduate Studies, Dr. Angus was appointed Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission. Mrs. Angus was active in community affairs, serving as a member of the Vancouver School Board from 1952-1958, and on the Senate of the University of British Columbia from 1957 to the mid-1960s. She was also active in child welfare agencies in Vancouver and at the national level.

Major William James Anderson, 1860-1915, the father of Annie Margaret Angus, was the son of Colonel John Cumming Anderson of the Royal Engineers in India. As a young officer J.C. Anderson had been in charge of the defences of Lucknow during the Sepoy Mutiny. W.J. Anderson was also first cousin (on his father's side) to Alexander Caulfield Anderson, a chief factor with the Hudson's Bay Company in British Columbia. W.J. Anderson was raised in India and England and was commissioned in the British Army in 1882. He was posted in India, Crete and Turkey, where he served as a military consul from 1899 to 1903. In 1900 he married Laura Elsworth who was born in Wisconsin in 1870, and taught at an American missionary school for girls in Turkey where she and William Anderson met. With the rank of Major, William Anderson retired from the army in 1909. The family then emigrated to British Columbia to establish a fruit ranch in the Kettle Valley/Rock Creek district on land purchased from the "Kettle Valley Irrigated Fruit Lands Company". In 1915 Major Anderson was recalled to active duty and was killed while serving at Gallipoli on October 19, 1915. Laura Anderson was forced to abandon the orchard in 1919 and to move to Vancouver.

Series contains correspondence files relating to water licences and irrigation in the vicinities of Rock Creek and Greenwood, and the southern Okanagan valley.

The series consists of a file created by the Provincial Archives in 1933-1934. It contains correspondence inward and outward with copies of memos re gold discoveries on Rock Creek, Wild Horse Creek, Williams Creek; memo re The Cariboo Consolidated Limited; papers pertaining to the title to real estate of placer mining claims "Princess Marie", "San Juan", "Forward", and "Deadwood".

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-03-11 SUMMARY: Mr. Fred Kingsley was born in Idaho in 1886. He moved to Bridesville in 1900 and his father built a log house for the family. The family opened a cattle ranch but all of the horses were diseased and had to be shot. Mr. Kingsley's father was the quarantine officer when smallpox broke out. The development of Rock Creek and the surrounding land is discussed, as are several people and travel routes. He recounts driving mail on stagecoach at the turn of the century. Many stories are told.

CALL NUMBER: T0658:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-03-13 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Gus Milliken tells many stories from many different sources about the area around Yale. The first story takes place during the gold rush about a man who sells another man a claim to a mine which turned out to be a gravel mine, not a gold mine. Several other prospecting stories, some of which are fictitious. Early stories about the sternwheelers, including an argument between an engineer and the captain of a steamship; legends about the packer Cataline (Jean Caux); pack mules near Lytton; March 1858; a man named Hill, who discovered the first gold along the Fraser; the first hotels in the area; Joe MacKenzie, an original '58er; Ned Stout; Dewdney Landing; Bill MacKenzie, orchards, the building of the CPR station at Yale; some historical facts about the town of Yale; the first sawmill, first town council and first white male born in BC, Chinese miners and old timers. TRACK 2: Mr. Milliken describes how Yale got its name; its origins as a fort in 1846; the Hudson's Bay Company; the first buildings in Yale, L.T. Hill as the first person to discover gold in 1858; the relationship between the Hudson's Bay Company and San Francisco; the original Fort Hope, the people who worked in the first gold mines, activity in the area as it was being established, the first post office in 1916, Hope as a gold mining town; prospectors who had to move on to other places because all of the land had been staked; a dynamite plant; other early homes.

CALL NUMBER: T0658:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-03-13 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Milliken continues describing Andrew Onderdonk, who was "supposed to have built the railway but who was in fact the engineer". He describes the American company that paid for the building of the railway from Emory to beyond Yale. He discusses the construction of the railway; the first roads in the area; Indian trails in the area, including Douglas Portage and how Mr. Yale named it; he describes Mr. Yale; gold in Rock Creek; the Kettle Valley and the Canadian National Railroad [sic]; mills in the area; the Hope-Nicola trail and other trails.

The item consists of an audio interview with H.H. Stevens, recorded in 1966.
T0327:0001 summary
Track 1: Mr. Stevens, who came to Vernon in 1894, talks about his early experiences and memories of the Okanagan, including driving the stage from Penticton to Grand Forks in 1897; Camp McKinney; Fairview; Rossland; Phoenix; Greenwood; Grand Forks; Crows Nest Railway; Rock Creek; prospecting and mining and W.R. Meagaw. He describes Vernon; local residents; farms; ranches and the Aberdeen Ranch.
Track 2: Mr. Stevens continues with recollections about the Coldstream Ranch; Okanagan Lake; coming to Vancouver 1901; False Creek; CPR land holdings; real estate boom 1901 to 1912; sawmills and logging; Oppenheimer brothers; local personalities and wholesalers; Victoria wholesalers; North Vancouver ferry; Stewart; and the Dominion Trust Company.

T0327:0002 summary
Track 1: Mr. Stevens speaks about the Dominion Trust Company; the beginning of party politics in BC, 1903; and his election as a federal Conservative MP in 1911. He comments on federal political life; Vancouver in the boom period and depression, from 1911 to 1920; personalities; Alvo von Alvensleben; Hindus; Japanese; wholesalers and the Vancouver Hotel. [Track 2: blank.]

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1955 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. James Bacon Knowles discusses the development of Kelowna from 1905; the coming of the railways; aquatic associations; the water supply; ferry service; the civic centre and city parks. TRACK 2: Mr. Knowles discusses the first white men in the Okanagan in 1811; details of their travels; the Okanagan brigade trail; fur trading in the area; mining around Rock Creek; Father Pandosy and the first white settlement in the valley; other early settlers; transportation; land development; Mr. Knowles' arrival in the area; his first impressions of Kelowna in 1905; Kelowna people; orchards in the area; the development of Kelowna; recreation; social life; the Guisachan property at Kelowna and more on Guisachan Ranch.;

The series consists of a letter book created by the Rock Creek mining recorder, William Graham McMynn, between June 1893 and January 1895. Rock Creek was part of the Osoyoos division of the Yale mining district. The letter book is indexed by name of correspondent and contains letter press copies of McMynn's correspondence outward regarding mining matters in Rock Creek.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-11-05 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Lillian Ban Quan discusses her father, who was Cantonese, and how he ran a store at Rock Creek. Her mother was a Chilliwack Indian. Her mother married Chu Ban Quan at Rock Creek in 1907.; She describes Wildhorse, St. Eugene Mission and the dramatic method of mining used at Wildhorse. Then she discusses her marriage at sixteen to a forty-five year old man. [TRACK 2: blank.]

This series consists of a record of land claims and government reservations, by William George Cox, Esq., Magistrate, Rock Creek, B.C., 1860-1862. Cox was the magistrate and Gold Commissioner for this area at the time. The volume includes descriptions of land claimed by settlers, as well as general government reserves and Indian Reserves. The back of the volume was used as a Sheriff's book for the County of Cariboo, and a police charge book, 1861.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-11-03 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. May A. Fenwick-Wilson came to Canada in 1910 from Devonshire to join her brother in the Kettle Valley. She and her brother made a living by supplying fruit to British settlers. She describes leisure activities including skating, tobogganing and her brother's polo club, which had its own rules. She tells about the war experiences of British men she knew (e.g., Captain Hessinger), most of whom returned to England to fight in World War 1. She tells stories of people who were in the area in the post-war era, including one about a man whose family was murdered by Indians, and details about a man named Strong. She tells many stories about miners, people in Rock Creek, and a family named Lynch, whom Lynch Creek was named after. She discusses her life back in Devonshire and Ireland. She comments on how much she enjoyed the country in Canada and her experiences with cattle and horses.

TRACK 2: Mrs. Wilson continues about cattle ranching and compliments the marksmanship of various people. She discusses early settlement and how much harder it was for the women than for the men to settle in a new country. She talks about the appeal of the country to the British people, most of whom were retired Army and Navy officers, and how they adapted to rural life. She mentions the Bill Miner train robbery and log drives up the river. She tells about the tragic romance of a; man named Sidley and his wife, about whom she is writing for the BC Historical Society. Mrs. Wilson talks about several places that served as social halls. She tells a story of a man named Larson who was a bartender.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-03-10 SUMMARY: Harold "Monty" Moll came from London to Midway in 1910 after being a seaman. He worked for the CPR as a bookkeeper and water boy with a group of Italians laying steel near Castlegar. Mr. Moll describes his brothers' lives working for the CPR in Midway. Mr. Moll discusses how the CPR affected the town of Midway and provides detailed description and stories about the hotel and its owners. Then Mrs. Moll tells about her move to Rock Creek in 1918 as a school teacher. She describes her experience of putting on a Christmas play for the children. Both Mr. and Mrs. Moll discuss the area at that time.

CALL NUMBER: T1330:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1961-02-14 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Noel Robinson; a newspaper reporter; recalls some early personalities of Vancouver including: Captain Alex MacLean, the inspiration for the characater of Wolf Larsen in Jack London's "Sea; Wolf"; sailors; captains and others associated with the sea; Hastings Mill; the Empress boats; E. Pauline Johnson; and Mary Capilano. TRACK 2: Mr. Robinson continues with recollections of Mary Capilano; the funeral of E. Pauline Johnson; the Little Theatre company; J. Francis Bursill, including the Vagabond's Club, pageants, and creating the Bursill Institute; B.C. Hilliam and "The Belle of Bur;rard"; and more about Captain Alex MacLean.

CALL NUMBER: T1330:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1961-02-14 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Robinson recalls coming to Victoria and his work on the organ in the wooden cathedral; writing and producing his play the "Cat's Paw" in Victoria. He reminiscences about newspaper person;alities; his work and travels in the Boundary area, including Rock Creek and Midway; playing cricket; hunting in the Chilcotin area; Dog Creek Hill; Bob Piper; Williams Lake; George Murray and early newspapers in Lillooet; the Alaska Highway News; and early journalists Roy Brown, Ronald Kenvyn, and Bruce McKelvie. TRACK 2: This is a very short tape; Mr. Robinson talks about Captain Alex MacLean.

CALL NUMBER: T1330:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1961-04-11 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Robinson recalls J. Francis Bursill, and reacts to comments made about him by his granddaughter, Thekla Bursill-Hall, in a interview. [See T1331:0001.] Robinson talks about Bursill's personality; the Collingwood Institute; the Bursill Library; aspects of why Bursill came to B.C.; the Bursill family; literary life in Vancouver; anecdotes; his pen name (Felix Penne); eccentricities; Hugh Savage; and the death of J.Francis Bursill. Mr. Robinson continues with recollections about his interview with the Bengali writer and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. [TRACK 2: blank.]

Cariboo-McKinney mine.

This series contains the record of grants of water rights for mining purposes at Rock Creek, pursuant to the Placer Mining Act, 1891.

The series consists of letter book copies of outward correspondence and cash book entries written by William George Cox, Gold Commissioner, Rock Creek, June 1861 - Nov. 1862 (and Jan. 26 and March 4, 1863).

This volume was created by WG Cox, Police Magistrate and Gold Commissioner of Rock Creek in 1861. The ledger lists all of the furniture, fixtures, supplies and other items located at the Rock Creek government office and their "fate" - possibly where some items were moved to when the office closed around 1863.

Documentary. Traces the pack-trail which once linked the Kootenay gold fields with the west coast, from Fort Hope to Fort Steele. Includes footage of the closing down of Camp McKinney gold mine; site of Fort Shepherd HBC post; Waneta Dam; St. Eugene Mission Church, and the cemetery at trail's end, Wild Horse Creek. One striking sequence shows the deserted streets and buildings of Fort Steele prior to its restoration.

Series consists of a history of Rock Creek Women's Institute and history of Rock Creek. Also contains 3 photographs.

This series consists of a plaint and procedure book for Yale County Court cases heard at Rock Creek, Osoyoos, Midway, Fairview and Keremeos (including mining jurisdictions), Jun 1890 - Oct. 1896; registrar's records book, July 1892 - June 1903; and miscellaneous loose correspondence and orders, ca. 1896-1909.