RECORDED: [location unknown], 1961-07-07 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Richard Carroll, known as Dick, describes arriving into the [Nechako?] area from Vancouver in 1908 on his way to Alaska; he stopped to work on the Grand Trunk Railway at the head of navigation on the Skeena River. He describes people he met at the time, such as prospector Eli Carpenter, who was on his way to a gold rush; his eventual arrival in Burns Lake via the Telegraph Trail in 1909 on his way to Fort George, which he describes as the most remote part of BC at the time. Mr. Carrol outlines the land he staked; working on the railroad; his work as a mail carrier from Telkwa to Williams Lake, including using pack horses for transportation in summer and sleighs in the winter; prices of various goods in Burns Lake at the time; various farmers and goods they sold in the area; the telegraph office in Burns Lake as means of communicating with the Yukon during the gold rush; Mrs. Bessie Wallace as the first white woman to come to Burns Lake in 1909; produce which came from Ashcroft through Quesnel; more on telegraph posts; a story about Barney Mulvaney's wedding and a description of his character; and a description of an Indian raid at Kispiox. TRACK 2: Mr. Carroll describes an encounter with Chinese people; more on George and Bessie Wallace; ranching; and a trip with an explorer to Fort McLeod.

Robert Burns McMicking was a manager for the Victoria and Esquimalt Telephone Company (later part of the British Columbia Telephone Company) and an electrician for the City of Victoria. He was married to Margaret (Leighton) McMicking.

Records include six volumes of letterbook correspondence outward, 1871-1895 and 1905-1910, relating to the telephone, telegraph and lighting system and the electrical business in Victoria. Also included are diaries from 1862-1863 and 1877 relating to life in Yale; notes for lectures on topics relating to electricity and physics; marriage certificate, 1899; documents relating to Commission as Justice of the Peace, 1899; papers relating to McMicking family history and a scrapbook of clippings relating to electrical and telephone business.

Shows line from New Westminster to beyond Quesnel, B.C. Photographic copy of sheet 4 or 5 of a 6-sheet set showing the telegraph line from Monterey, Calif. to Fort Stager, B.C. The original is a coloured manuscript map in the Bancroft Library (Map/12(W)/C7T/1866). This map differs slightly from one of the same title drawn by J.F. Lewis (CM/A376). The title is not in a cartouche, and place names differ.

Shows line from New Westminster to beyond Quesnel, B.C. Photographic copy of sheet 4 or 5 of a 6-sheet set showing the telegraph line from Monterey, Calif. to Fort Stager, B.C. The original is a coloured manuscript map in the Bancroft Library (Map/12(W)/C7T/1866). This map differs slightly from one of the same title drawn by J.C. White (CM/A375). The title is in a cartouche, and place names differ.