Q: How many of these explorations did Simon Fraser embark upon?
A: If Simon Fraser was involved in other reconnaissance missions for the North West Company, he and his descendants apparently didn't consider them significant enough to record them. With regard to explorations in what's now British Columbia, the answer depends upon how you wish to consider what occurred. You could argue there were three, if you consider the expedition to McLeod Lake, the expedition up the Nechako River to Stuart Lake and the other lakes of the Interior Plateau and the expedition down the Fraser River to tidewater as separate events - they occurred over a three-year span. Or you could argue just as strongly that there was just one, if you consider them all part of the same mission to expand trading west of the Rockies and find a commercially-viable route to the sea.
Q: How long would it have taken Simon Fraser and his men to cross the reservoir behind the Bennett Dam by canoe?
A: In 1806, there was no dam and therefore no reservoir, so Simon Fraser's voyageurs were paddling upstream against the powerful currents of the spring runoff that had put the Peace, Parsnip and Pack rivers in spate. Fraser's journal for that year records him leaving Rocky Mountain Portage Fort near present Hudson's Hope on May 21 bound up the Peace River. He arrived at the Parsnip River on May 28 with "men very much fatigued and some of them near giving up." On June 5, he entered the Pack River. On June 7, he arrived at Trout Lake Post, later Fort McLeod. The journey had taken 17 days. Today, with a road around the former Peace River Canyon and the smooth paddling afforded by a deep reservoir extending from there to the mouth of the Pack River, I estimate Fraser's canoes would make the same journey in about eight-and-a-half days. Here's how I calculate: A generous two days for the portage around Peace River Canyon, since the first day they would stay within a half day of the fort to allow the opportunity to return for any overlooked equipment or supplies. With clear paddling in good weather, a canoe might cover 50 kilometres per day across water no adverse current. At 220 kilometres of linear distance, allow four and a half days paddling. Then the same two days paddle upstream on the Pack River documented in his journals.
Q: Was Simon Fraser interested in the fur trade or was his goal exploration?
A: His instructions were to expand the fur trade operations of the North West Company beyond the Rocky Mountains and to find a navigable route to the sea. It was assumed that the large river Alexander Mackenzie had partially travelled on his way to the first overland crossing of the continent in 1793 was the Columbia River. Fraser first secured the northern part of the province for his company, then looked for the navigable waterway that would have created an enormous commercial advantage. If furs from the far west could be shipped to Europe and Asia by sea instead of transporting them across North America by canoe, costs could be drastically reduced and those savings would go directly to the company's bottom line. In that sense, his exploration mission was of paramount importance and was a failure - as had Mackenzie's search for a maritime connection more than a decade before him.
Q: How much batter could one of his well made canoes take before it was beyond patching and fixing and completely fell apart?
A: Contemporary builders of birchbark canoes say that with careful use and adequate maintenance they can last for many decades. However, the canoes of the fur trade were roughly used and were subject to much abuse in the normal run of events. They could be holed or broken on rocks, punctured by floating debris and submerged snags, seams could be sprung by stress on the frame - if they were dropped during a portage, for example, or battered running a rapid. Simon Fraser's journal from 1806 records many delays to repair damaged canoes with materials either carried by the expedition or gathered from the surrounding bush. Judging from the importance of canoe builders to fur trading establishments -- as important as hunters -- it appears that the replacement of canoes was a constant task from season to season.
Q: If Tse-Khene was made into a historic site/tourist spot, how successful do you think it would be? Are many interested in the travels of Simon Fraser?
A: I'm not a tourism marketer and thus can't venture a valid opinion regarding the likely success of such a venture if it were undertaken. Obviously, the response from a potential market would depend upon the quality and cost of the experience offered. However, it is clear from other places that there is an up-swing in interest in cultural tourism world wide. And given the quality of the outdoor recreational values in the region that comprises the Tse-Khene's traditional homeland, I'd say there is likely some outstanding potential there, particularly if it were available as part of a broader regional network of tourism experiences. For example, it would seem to be a natural adjunct to the national historic site at Fort St. James, to the recreational opportunities afforded by the Williston Reservoir and by access to the wilderness regions of the Northern Rockies.
Q: Is there a family tree for Simon Fraser?
A: Determining lineage is difficult because of the turbulent times, the nature of record-keeping and the fact that many informal liaisons on the frontier produced offspring that were not formally recorded. A partial family tree for Simon Fraser can be constructed thanks to two decades of indefatigable research by Barbara Rogers in Vancouver. She notes that we have some evidence in Fraser's own handwriting. His father, Simon Fraser Sr., was thought to be the third son (and fifth child, three others not named, perhaps because they died young, may have preceded him) of William Fraser III of Culbokie, Scotland, and Margaret MacDonell.
Fraser identified uncles and aunts include Margaret, Hugh (the record is confused in his regard), William, Ann, John (who became paymaster for the British Army and later a judge in Montreal), Archibald, James, Alexander, Donald, Peter, and Roderick Fraser. Simon Fraser Sr. married Isobel (or Elizabeth or Isabella) Grant, the daughter of Aneas Grant of Duldreggan and Hannah Grant of Sheuglie. Simon Sr. and Isobel (Or Isabella? Or Elizabeth?) had at least nine children. I say "at least" because sometimes infants who were stillborn or died at birth might not be recorded. The known children were: Margaret, William, Hannah, Angus, Isabella, Nelly (Helen? Or Ellen?), Peter, Nancy, Simon Jr., and perhaps Jane (Or Jeanne? Or Jenny?).
Simon Jr. had at least two wives, possibly three. The first (there may have been one other), was apparently married on the frontier "in the fashion of the country." She bore several children (some suggest as many as six). The known children from these relationships are Peter John and Charles James born in 1815 and 1817 at Athabasca.
However, a letter from Fraser dated Jan. 31, 1807, to James McDougall, then clerk at Stuart Lake, requests that anything for which "the Children are in want of and can be had please give it to them & Charge the same to my acct.," a pretty clear suggestion that he may have been involved in another, earlier liaison. Some other accounts suggest that a Simon Peter was also a son from one of these marriages and that there were also three daughters.
On his return to Upper Canada, Simon Jr. married Catherine MacDonnel of Leek. He was 44 and she was 29. She bore at least nine children. They were: Simon William, Isabella, Allan, Margery, Catherine Harriet, Helen (who died an infant), Roderick, James Ambrose and John Alexander.
Q: Were the voyageurs' canoes really 11-metres long?
A: Yes, they were. Some were actually 12-metres long. They were constructed with cedar ribs and a skin of birch bark that was stitched together with a special twine made from spruce root. The seams and hull were waterproofed with the gummy sap of the spruce tree. This meant that virtually everywhere the canoes travelled in the northern bush there were repair materials readily available. They were capable of travelling thousands of kilometres in a season. Canoe building, which took about two weeks to complete, was one of the important skills that set some fur trade employees off from others and got them additional pay or privileges, much like acquiring an industrial first aid ticket or other special skill sets some trades people off from other employees on a job site today.
Q: How did Fraser get from Summit Lake to the Fraser River at Prince George?
A: He didn't. Fraser backtracked from McLeod Lake down the Pack River then travelled south up the Parsnip River to Arctic Lake, made a portage of about 700 paces to Portage Lake, passed into Pacific Lake and thentravelled down James Creek to the McGregor River which carried him to the Fraser River (which he thought was the Columbia), entering about 60 kilometres upstream from present day Prince George.
Q: You referred to Sleeping Giant Island on the horizon in one story. Isn't it actually a peninsula?
A: The reader is right and the writer was wrong. The Sleeping Giant is indeed the rugged highlands of the Sibley Peninsula which projects southwest into Thunder Bay at the western end of Lake Superior. Againstthe horizon in the evening twilight, it looks like an island but in fact it is not, as I'd have known if I'd consulted my maps more carefully before leaping to a conclusion. It's now a 24,400 hectare provincial park maintained by the Ontario government.
Q: Are you planning to set up those articles in book form which would be much easier reading?
A: About a third of those who wrote to me about Simon Fraser asked variants of this question. However, it's not easily answered by me since it's a policy decision that's the prerogative of the publishers and senioreditors of the newspaper. Publishing a book is a much different and in some ways more complicated prospect than printing the articles in the first place. It comes with much different cost-recovery and revenue-generating structures, for example, so such a decision would require careful consideration and wouldn't -- and shouldn't -- be taken quickly or lightly.
Q: While visiting Scotland I was told that Simon Fraser was raised in Scotland at Lovat Castle but you say he was born in what's now the United States. Which is correct?
A: The historic record is confused by the fact that a number of individuals went by the name Simon Fraser. However, the Simon Fraser who travelled to what's now British Columbia in 1805 was definitely born in North America and grew up in up-state New York and later Montreal before signing on as a clerk with the North West Company and travelling west with the fur brigades.The explorer's father was also named Simon, doubtless after clan chief, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, who was executed for supporting Charles Stuart in the rebellion of 1745. In clan societies, the clan head was considered its "father" and so the popularity of the first name Simon among late 18th Century Frasers reflects an expression of clan loyalty. Thus, while there was indeed a Simon Fraser raised at Lovat Castle, it was not the same Simon Fraser who founded what would become modern British Columbia.
Q: Who were the first non-aboriginal people to see what is now British Columbia?
A: Some claim the first visitor was Huishen, a travelling monk mentioned in Imperial Chinese records as having travelled far to the east in the year 458. Most scholars consider it a fabulous tale. Sir Francis Drake was off the West Coast in 1579 but how far north he ventured is a matter of scholarly debate. Apostolos Valerianos, a Greek pilot for the Spanish, was reported as having sailed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1592. This too is disputed. However, it is known that Russian explorer Vitus Bering's expedition reported seeing what are now known to be the St. Elias Mountains roughly where the Alaska, Yukon and B.C. boundaries intersect. So the Russians get credit for being the first non-native people known to have laid eyes on what's now B.C. Captain James Cook landed at Nootka Sound in 1778, so the British get credit for being the first Europeans known to have set foot in what is now B.C.
Q: Fort St. James is celebrating its bicentennial this year. Isn't that the first permanent settlement in B.C.?
A: No, that distinction belongs to its neighbour, McLeod Lake, formerly known as Fort McLeod and before that Trout Lake Post. It was established in late 1805, about six months before Fraser reached Stuart Lake where Fort St. James is located. However, Fort St. James soon eclipsed Fort McLeod in importance, serving as the capital of New Caledonia for many decades.
Q: What was the average lifespan of a man in Simon Fraser's day? Did he experience any major illnesses or injuries?
A: It's generally thought, based on studies of mortalities in seven countries including the United Kingdom and the United States, that life expectancy in 1805, the year Simon Fraser founded Fort McLeod, was 36 years. Fraser's journal doesn't appear to record any serious illnesses. He did suffer a serious injury to his knee when he turned out with a local militia regiment during the rebellion of 1837 and it troubled him for the rest of his life.
Q: All the accounts of explorers seem to be written from their point of view. Are there any aboriginal accounts of first contact that could counter the biases of these literary accounts?
Yes, there are, but getting them is easier said than done because so much aboriginal history is recorded in an oral tradition rather than a written one, and often is rendered in mythical or metaphorical rather than literal terms. However, a number of early ethnologists did record stories from elders they interviewed about first contact. Modern scholars like Wendy Wickwire and Andrea Laforet have brought some fascinating accounts of Simon Fraser's first encounters with aboriginal people in B.C. into the mainstream. Wickwire's paper To See Ourselves As Other's Other: Nlaka'pamux Contact Narratives, published in the Canadian Historical Review, Vol. LXXV, No. 1, pp. 1-20, March, 1994, is an interesting account of how aboriginal people interpreted the arrival of Simon Fraser in 1808.
Q: Which of the MacDonell's was Simon Fraser's wife descended from?
A: According to historian W. Kaye Lamb, Simon Fraser married Catherine Macdonell on June 7, 1820, at St. Andrew's West near Cornwall, Ontario. She was the daughter of Allan MacDonell, who lived about 50 kilometres away. He was a prominent military man. Simon was 44 and his bride was 29. They had nine children that we know about. Vancouver researcher Barbara Rogers notes that Catherine's father was the son of John MacDonell of Leek, one of three brothers who organized the voyage of the Pearl which brought Simon Fraser's parents,siblings and fellow Highlanders to New York in 1773. The other two brothers were Allan of Collachie and Alexander of Aberchalder. Most of the Macdonnel families in Ontario are descended from these three brothers.
Q: While visiting Scotland I was told that Simon Fraser was raised in Scotland at Lovat Castle but you say he was born in what's now the United States. Which is correct?
A: The historic record is confused by the fact that a number of individuals went by the name Simon Fraser. However, the Simon Fraser who travelled to what's now B.C. in 1805 was definitely born in North America and grew up in up-state New York and later Montreal before signing on as a clerk with the North West Company and travelling west with the fur brigades.
[Back to top]
/ ·  Simon Fraser Home
o 

This site is a part of the canada.com Network.