The Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail, sometimes referred to simply as the Brigade Trail, refers to one of two routes used by

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

fur traders to transport furs, goods and supplies between coastal and

Columbia District The Columbia District was a fur-trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, in both the United States and British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the temporarily jointly occupi ...

headquarters at

Fort Vancouver Fort Vancouver was a 19th-century fur trading post built in the winter of 1824–1825. It was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was ...

and those in

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

and also in

Rupert's Land Rupert's Land (), or Prince Rupert's Land (), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin. The right to "sole trade and commerce" over Rupert's Land was granted to Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), based a ...

. Importantly the route was that used by the annual " Hudson's Bay Express", a shipment of the company books and profits to company headquarters. The older of the two routes, and the most used, was from Fort Vancouver via the Columbia and

Okanagan River The Okanogan River (known as the Okanagan River in Canada) is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately 115 mi (185 km) long, in southern British Columbia and north central Washington. It drains a scenic plateau region called t ...

s to Fort Shuswap (aka Fort Kamloops, today's City of Kamloops, then via the Bonaparte and

Cariboo Plateau The Cariboo Plateau is a volcanic plateau in south-central British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Fraser Plateau which is a northward extension of the North American Plateau. The southern limit of the plateau is the Bonaparte River although ...

s to the

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

at Fort Alexandria). From there the Express used river travel via the Peace River to the Prairies and Rupert's Land. Another route used by the Express was the direct to Rupert's Land York Factory Express via the Columbia River to Boat Encampment on that river's Big Bend (beneath today's Kinbasket Lake reservoir) and then via Howse Pass or Athabaska Pass . The route from Fort Kamloops to Fort Alexandria later featured prominently in the migration to the Cariboo goldfields and was known to miners using it as the Brigade Trail. The southern part of the trail, between Forts Vancouver and Kamloops, was at this time known as the

Okanagan Trail The Okanagan Trail was an inland route to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush from the Lower Columbia region of the Washington and Oregon Territories in 1858–1859. The route was essentially the same as that used by the Hudson's Bay Company fur brig ...

. In anticipation of the division of the Columbia District/

Oregon Country Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long Oregon boundary dispute, dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been demarcat ...

, the company established a new fort just north of the future boundary at Fort Langley on the lower reaches of the Fraser River and the exploration of alternate routes via British territory for the company fur brigades from the seacoast to the Interior was undertaken. Considered among the new routes were what later became known as the

Lakes Route The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior Plateau, Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cat ...

and passes in the southern Canadian Cascades later used by the Dewdney Trail and the Crowsnest Highway, but the most viable route was decided to be a difficult crossing of the Canadian Cascades, over the east wall of the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...

just above Spuzzum onto the

Thompson Plateau The Thompson Plateau forms the southern portion of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia, Canada, lying to the west of Okanagan Lake, south of the Thompson River and east of (although never adjoining it) the Fraser River. At its most southern ...

, then to Fort Kamloops. A great deal of money was spent on the route, which was steep and narrow and carved into the mountainside, rising from Kequaloose, which lies opposite Spuzzum on the east bank of the Fraser near today's Alexandra Bridge, and was only used a few times by fur brigades because of its difficulty for

pack animal A pack animal, also known as a sumpter animal or beast of burden, is a working animal used to transport goods or materials by carrying them, usually on its back. Domestic animals of many species are used in this way, among them alpacas, Bact ...

s. Most shipments by this route were disastrous. It had fallen into disuse by the time of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush.

Hiking trails

Portions of the Fraser Canyon route along the Canadian Cascades are maintained as hiking trails by the Fraser Valley Regional District, including the first main ascent from Kequaloose. The Hope Mountain Centre for Outdoor Learning is a volunteer organization that builds and maintains trails along the original Brigade routes including the HBC (1849) Heritage Trail, a 74 km wilderness route from

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...

to Tulameen with ten backcountry campsites, and the Tikwalus Heritage Trail, a 10 km trail near Alexandra Bridge that formed part of the 1848 brigade route and also is a traditional route for the Nlakaʼpamux (Thompson) people.

References

External links

detailed history on "Crowsnest Highway" website history page
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223102230/http://crowsnest-highway.ca/cgi-bin/citypage.pl?city=osoyoos#2 , date=2016-12-23 Pre-Confederation British Columbia Historic trails and roads in Washington (state) Historic trails and roads in British Columbia Fur trade Hudson's Bay Company

Hiking trails

See also

References

External links