Libra^y-of, LeglBl a ttTe JfohSl. ;N6. 5. - gCjUTH FORTlM)RGfc ;B. G\, SEPTEMBER A GREAT FUTURE HIGHWAY WURVEY OF WAGGON ROAD FROMfSTONEY CREEK TO SOUTH FORT GEORGE - .^ NOWCOMPLETE. fof. Mr* T. Rognaas,«.. the /engineer whom' the inister^of Public Works evincing his usual foresight in chosing^cjever and capable" men for L staff, is here"'at j present, haying completed he surveying/Gx the new. road whiclv will 'extend romStone.y Creek to Fort George; thence crossing; 3 Fraser river from the^foot of Fourth street, ath Tort George (where the Government ferry Jil beSocated), on down the fertile valley^on thef ast sideline river to Quensel.^ ;¦¦' The dis'tonc^frorn Stony .Cre^ek to Fort George/ seventy-eight miles and from' Fort George to uesnel probably ab^ut^-the same distance as a uch shorteri and better rbu^g.^11 be had than ^ te present road' to Quesnel via Black water f ronv uth Fort George;. - ^^Tx l The total distance of the new roaaHhen.Jrom tiesfiel to,Stoney Creek will be 15G miles^pproxi-ately,-ovej'- a road which will have the easiest des^rf any to the north. ¦.'.¦¦.;'¦'•." he road from- Fort George to Stoney Creek ill be an especial boon to the settlers and miners the ' Nechaco, Fraser,- arul!; Stewart's 'lake" districts. • Owing.to. the fact that the low .'waterin 'the Ne-. chaco river makes navigation at certain months "cf the year very uncertain, the settlers west-of South Fort George ;in the districts before men-" tioned must rely on pack-horses and wagons to do their freighting with,.-to,.a very great extent, -' -yf From Stoney Creeik to Quesnel the rourid-p"i'pon a road, the grades of which makes heayj.'-ioads an impossibility, means a distanceof 2.52iniles. This" comparea with the trip from Stoney Creek to.South r^Ori George means ninety^six miles per round-Crip fenger. South' Fort George wkli its. enterprising merchant^^and quick team and steamboat Canadian Pacific probable likli-hood-oi^receivjng frejg¥.$^|rom Edmonton via Tete. Jaun Cache next>fa1l. ATRthe^e advantages Avill make it the most^convenient Bass connection with the roadHp Stewart'srld£e, Fraser,. lake and Hazleton too^giyes^ it an advantage not to be under estimated, arid^he traffic of *it wjll even . reapK the Ominpea' mines^by cheapen) freight to Stewart'plaice.. ¦;-uXx^ , >< The road fropr'Fort George to Quesneion the east side oiHhe Fraser river opens up perhaps,'the most fertile part of this valley, and will mean activity in agricultural circles, and probably|wiU -renew, interest in the Cariboo mountain range;, and -Hixon creek mineral deposits. The Provincial Government has promised to complete the road between Mud river and South Fort George this fall. There is quite a large settlement at present .and the road will prove a great con-[ venience to this
A NORTH AND SOUTH RAILWAY lilRECT RAILROAD FROM NORTHERN INTERIOR TO VANCOUVER MUST ":: EVENTUALLY BE BUILT. : British Columbia,' of>all Canada's Provinces, stinds in the greatest need of railroad transporta-i-tion.facilities in>ruei; that the stupendous mineral, '. agricultural^rfid timber resources within the Prov.-^ incje's bounaaries may be brought within reach of the. farmer,- thejniner, and the lumberman,- whose¦ operations, owing to thelack of these facilities are at^reserft restricted to an infinitesimal portion of the productive territories of British Columbia^ saVeNfor the efforts.of.the scattered- bands of pio-l neerssin her remote but bountiful hinterlands. The^. building of the Canadian Pacific Railway brought^t-ne.N^buthern end of the Province the primal necessity^f extensive development, cheap ^transportation. The production of minerals, the growth of the agricultural and lumbering industries wiiich now form •thessubj'ect matter of yearly statistics, issued with priae\py the Government departments in^Victoria,bear iMnite testimony.of the wonderful transformation of an enormous"uri-" .developecl territory int'6\ fertile andJ prosperous; areasby the advent of transport by rail.* . ^he^Qrand Trunk Pacific Railway is to, be the second railroad to bisect the Province from' East to West,on'1tsvtranscontinentai way to the Pacific coaat-r^and traversing a territorjcjn every way ^.ecfuai in natural resourees to that-traversed by the Canadian Pacific Railw|aYMn tfie South, it will eyentuall^xcreate iri^thls sparsely populated and /'poorly developed central portion oi^the Province. , as prosperous andproductive a railroacFbelt as that 1 adjacent to the Canadian Pacific Railway, ^d ,its tributary roads, whilst to the,general "public territory offers a better opportunity of' " near the line, than did its southern ceinpetitor as no barring railroad land, belt -wfll bound the Inline; of the Grand Trunk Pacific through . this Province. The Province of British Columbiajextending from the 49th to the 60th parallels/oi longitude lies north-westerly in a gener^rdirection. .Its greatest breadth extends across the northern boundryTput the average^oreadth will bev found not to, exceed -about half its "length. \ V ¦ ; //"^Having as an established fact two railroads crossing the .Province, British Columbia- now ^stands in great need of a, north and south railrdadc. to bring>the virgin territory between the Grand vrTrunk^acific and the Canadian. Pacific Railway, f^n,d/the^ wonderful expanse of inestimably rich ¦ • j^iJoiibtry-in th6 great Peace river valley within easy preach of.the centres of population on the British > rCplumbianxseaboard>xrhat this line will eventually be-builtther-e islioBoinbt, although at present - theisection byef'Vhich actuaKconstruction is con-^ tern plated by. railroajd companies; that between^ Vancouver and Fort George^ is badly^tiedfup by charter mongers who seekxto peddle" their privi^ ledges to, bona fide jLompaniesxwhich are ready to build. When these matters h&ve been adjusted by legislation and the coiistructionxof the Van- :¦ ' couver-Fort George road has been actually-com- .. menced the northern terminus of that road will ^not be at Fort George but at some point in the Peace river valley.? /-_._. Mercator's projection ; shows that^fehe Peace river valley; in British Columbia isVon approxi-^ niately/tHe ;sa.me. degree of longitude as Glasgow An Scotland/and considering-that'the./Peace, heads at the confluence of theFindlay and Parsnip rivers in this Province on the 124th'parallel of latitude and that from there it wends its way half across Canada, discharging into Lesser Slave or Atha-•> basca lake, from theeasterri end of which another system of water-ways connects it with Churchill river flowing intor Hudson^s Bay, tliere can' be i little doubt that when'Vancouver and Prince " Rupert are connected by rail with a system of ^extending clear acrpss Canada, whilst the same ^ line of railroad will open up the greatest unde- -velopeji. portion (of tjie Proyincejihat the greatest — —fi of advancement in British'Columbia's history1 This rwd^ill, we believe, joe built by the Grand Trunk Pacifi^Rajhvay Company,...as that system would"reap\enbnno&s<^enefit\therefrom, both from the Peace river tonnage>*yid: from the branch to yaiicouverr Th^ present projected line, a creation of General Manager Chambbrlaih^ which leaves , ~Tete Jaune (Cache and saws across^e. grain of the proyince'in a direct but,impossible lin^to^Van-coiiyer is more~or less of a. joke'to-those who kjiow^ the country, and if built it would effectually kUl Princej Rupert as that company's western -terrni-nus, and would result in a transcontinental line _from Moncton to Vancouver with a branch irom the Cache to Prince Rupert. .,, ^ j A STORYlF VALUES THE FORT GEORGE TOWNSITE ONCE UPON 7 A TIME WENT A'BEGGING FOR .: OWNERSHIP. r ' ¦ xr Hugo Ross, one of the foremost reality men of the Canadian west visited Fort George this week ¦ for^the first time. ~ :( #ilj"v Mr.";ifcos& holds half \ interest in the. townsite of Fort George, of the Natural Resources Security ^Company, on iheNechaco river here, a large section of the water-front of which is held in reserve for Kimr , ,_., . -:>c..y;:' ' _!_' '" ' The visit of Mr. Ross to. Fort George recalls to us the history of the days but two short years ago, when the townsite-.-of the Natural Resources Security Company was "unreserved, >urioccupied,' ¦and unaliehated Crown land," and of the strange tricks of fate which finally landecTikin the ownership of the Natural. Resources Security^Conipariy, to be advertised to the extent of scores ohihou-- sands of dollars as. the townsite of Fort George. >\ It was in the Summer of the year 1908 that the editor, of this; paper received a letter from an ^ engineer who had been in the employ of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company, on their prielnni-^ nary surveythrough this section, requesting him to have stakecTin^ the names of (^OTLeask and G. P/Roberts, certain- tract o^land immediately / adjoining the ;north^\vest corner of Indian Reserve>: No. 1, here. The fequgsx was granted and the . editor allotted the jpbco Hiram Carney in* QuesnelJi Carney wrote later from Fort%ieorge stating that ^.he had .transferred the worlc to^r^ancis Hoffer-camp, jtf-iihis place,; To Frank bej^hg^ the honor " of ^riving the legal post that transferred the^ /^Townsite of _Fort:George''.from the ownership of . the Crown to that of G/O.LeasVandG. P.'Rorje; We duly received the forms and forwarded" the xto Barkervi.lle, publishing in the second issue of \buf\first paper, the Cariboo Observer, the adver-accordirig, to the ^'Xand Acb\ / r several prior stakirigs nad been made on^thVland; but none of the applicants had gone any further^han to drive alocation^post on the ground thatV^ow decorated by thousands of corner posts of twentyrfiye foot lots. Amongst these prior- locators was^Bctb Alexander,;one of the, oldest residents of this place^wifro staked land, bu through inattention to the nece^sWy * procee^ 'awoke one morning to,find;that his tiro^ foj^appli-cation* had lapsed, and>two men in the^eniploy of the Grand Trunk^PacifiCj, who -never "further than^stake..;_. y^.\^ ".' owner did noj^fiold'the land long, ____CT ._ for $T^an^acre^/The buyer a^Winnipeg ^operator, named . two or three years. The wood's around here are full of these ''if I had of—'' gentlemen, but we shed never a |ear,. . I" There are iownsite^ and^tdwnsites here, some. \vere originally .bought for smalL figures and,were boosted into dizzy heights of' value by the greatest , efforts of the ad writer's art; others, have been lx>ught.at equally low figures and have reached high values by the independent efforts of the investing public- in occupation of-their properties, i There are yet chances in and near Fort George : at large to make profits in land,%ut, to-our many enquirers we W|ould advbcate a personal ^inspection before writing any cliecks.. ' -.'¦;• /I ". - ^,---Hamilton has.commencedJ;he construction of aTfirie hew store on one of his lots at the foot 6^ Second street. It is rjfersistantly -rumored that^Mt\ Haniiltpn-wiU retire from the mercantile^business shortly and will devote his time to jiikOperations &d ^ in, jii Tje President of-th«i;British Columbia & Alaskan, Railroad, Jean J^ollTen^tein, of New York4.y. S. A.;( has announcetl that the surveys of that road from thi§.rpoint to Quesnel, are.., completed and the pai'ttes^Jiaye been withdrawn froih the field. Mr.^ .'Wplk en stein Js now consulting, wtth Premier Me-" Bride regarding^the concessions his company want's , before further'worTcssdH be don.fe^ 'V-j i. ¦ .