From "British Columbia Historical News" Vol.14, No.2 Winter 1980
by R.C. Harris
Sapper Duffy’s Exploration
Cayoosh Creek To Lillooet, 1860.
In the
summer of 1860, a small party of Royal Engineer surveyors was laying
out town and suburban lots at Cayoosh (now the town of Lillooet).1
The lots were needed by the colonial government for sale by auction
to anxious settlers. Field notes in the Surveyor General’s
office show Sapper Duffy was triangulating the principal features of
the district with a five inch theodolite, while Sapper Breakenridge
was booking the readings.
During
the survey, His Excellency Governor James Douglas came into town on
Friday, 07 September, 1860, via “the Horse-way”, formed in 1858.2
He was inspecting the Harrison-Lillooet (Lake) route to the
goldfields, with a view to converting it to a wagon road.
Douglas wanted to be sure he had the best location for the Second
Portage, which ran from Lillooet Lake to the town of Cayoosh on
Fraser’s River.
Before
reaching his decision, he required the exploration of an alternative3
Indian pass to Lillooet Lake via Cayoosh Creek. He called for
a qualified volunteer to lead the exploration. With some
diffidence, Sapper James Duffy stepped forward (and made his name
immortal), but was soon reprimanded4 by his military
superiors for leaving his regular surveying duty without authority.
Duffy
was one of the group of military surveyors who arrived in British
Columbia in 1858, under Captain R.M. Parsons, R.E., as part of the
Columbia Detachment of Royal Engineers. This detachment was
separate from the North American Boundary Commission whose members
arrived earlier, under Captain J.S. Hawkins, R.E. to survey and mark
the boundary along the 49th parallel.
On the
morning of Monday, 10 September, 1860, Duffy started up the Cayoosh
trail with several experienced Indians. He had received
written instructions5 from Cayoosh magistrate Thomas
Elwyn, who sent a second letter to Lieutenant H.S. Palmer, R.E., at
Port Pemberton, asking Palmer to meet Duffy “on Lillooet Lake with a
supply of provisions.”
Duffy
traveled an estimated 56 miles to Lillooet Lake at a steady eight
miles per day, descending steeply to the lake on Sunday, 16
September, 1860 at what is now Joffre Creek. His route, mostly
on the Indian trail, ran up the left (north) bank of Cayoosh Creek
past a long lake7, then over the divide and down the
right (north) bank of Joffre Creek. He did not return by the
same route, but went three miles north up Lillooet Lake to report to
Lt. Palmer in Port Pemberton, at the mouth of Birkenhead River.
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Duffy’s report of exploration is dated Wednesday, 19 September,
1860, R.E. Camp, Harrison Road. His notes8 and
sketch maps9 give an adequate description of the route.
(See extracts concerning natural history collected at Appendix A.
and a map compiled from his report at Appendix B.) Duffy
mentioned having received verbal instructions from the Governor to
look for gold en route, and records washing eight specs of gold from
a shovel full of dirt, at mile 18.
Regarding the prospects for a wagon road, Duffy says, “The line of
road is generally pretty good – as far as I can judge practicable
for a wagon road…The greatest obstacle is at the Lillooet Lake end
where there is a very rapid fall of about 1,000 feet to the lake.
I think a wagon road could be made up this portion by zigzagging.”
On his
one mile to one inch strip map, Duffy names the long lake between
his camps 4 and 5 as Lake Melvin. We do not know who Duffy was
honouring, and the lake was actually named “L Duffy” on the map10
of British Columbia later completed by his colleagues11
in New Westminster as they were disbanding in October 1863.
The name remains to this day.
Duffy’s “Lake Melvin” was accommodated later by a later Surveyor
General who named a small Melvin Lake and Creek about five miles
east of Duffey Lake. Duffey shows Joffre Creek as Sunday
River, for the day he descended its right bank to Lillooet Lake.
It was, however, shown as Duffey Creek on provincial maps until
1914, when it was renamed in honour of another soldier, Marshall
J.J.C. Joffre, Commander in Chief of the French Army.12
Following his report of exploration, which he handed to Lt. Palmer,
Duffy returned to his duties at Cayoosh town, where he found a
questionnaire13 demanding an explanation for his absence
from duty. He answered with commendable forthrightness.
The
town plan of “Kayoosch” was soon completed, and the lots sold.
The manuscript is filed by the Surveyor General as 9, 10T2,
Townsites: and tracings by Corporal J.C. White will be found in 2
Locker 13H
We
have not traced Duffy’s movements for the remainder of 1860, but he
was back on the Harrison-Lillooet trail early in 1861. The
British Colonist and the New Westminster Times reported14
he was found frozen to death in the snow on the first, or long,
portage between Douglas (head of navigation on Harrison Lake) and
Lillooet Lake. With some difficulty, his body was returned to
New Westminster where he was escorted to his grave by the whole
detachment of Royal Engineers on Sunday, 19 January. His
widow, Alice, was enquiring about her inheritance in the Fall of
1862.
Duffy’s name has been recorded three ways. Governor Douglas
used “Duffie” in his diary and when reporting15 the
intended exploration to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, Colonial
Secretary in London. Army records in England show “James
Duffy” enlisted 02 October 1848 and was assigned Regimental Number
2146. His was the only death in the Columbia Detachment in
1861; the date is recorded as 09 January.
Duffy and his colleagues used Duffy and Duffey almost
indiscriminately; there was a slight preference for Duffy, though it
is recorded as Lake Duffey on the last Royal Engineer map of British
Columbia. This inconsistency of spelling continues today, when
both spellings may be found on one page16.
The Gazetteer of Canada has adopted “Duffey” , possibly to
distinguish it from the Duffy Creek and Lake south of Kamloops Lake,
which was named for Patrick Duffy the pre-emptor of Lot 824, (near
the mouth of the creek), 27 August 1896.
A century after Duffy’s exploration, a forestry road was completed
over Duffy’s Cayoosh Creek route to Lillooet Lake. It is now
(1980) a provincial highway, connection Pemberton, and Lillooet
Lake, with Lillooet town. A new bridge over the Fraser River
near Lillooet town will handle traffic from the “Duffy” highway.
Notes
1. Moody to
Assistant Commissioner of Lands, Lillooet. 19 June 1961 “…the
Governor desires that the town sometimes known as Kayoosh should be
known by its original Indian name of Lillooet.”
PABC C/AB/30.7/2
2.
Despatch No. 13, 09 October 1860, Douglas
to Newcastle, para. 21.
3. Douglas to
Moody, 08 September 1860, reporting having found the Indian who knew
a road direct from this place to Lillooet Lake, PABC F485c/4.
4. PABC F495a/2.
Luard to Duffy, 26 September 1860, New Westminster; Duffy to Luard,
06 October 1860, Cayoosh.
5. Elwyn to
Duffy, 10 September 1860, Original not found, but copies identified
below at 6, 7.
6. Duffy’s long
strip map of the exploration at 1 inch = 1 mile. PABC 8500 A61 {A
note to our visitors: though this endnote appears in the original
essay, there was no
footnote listed in the text of the essay.}
7. The first
record of this lake’s existence is on: “Sketch of Part of British
Columbia by Lt. R.C. Mayne, R.N. of HMS Plumper, 1859. Approximate
scale ¼ inch = 1 nautic mile.” On the line of what is now Cayoosh
Creek is noted: “from Cayoosh lake, exact position unknown.”
Surveyor General of B.C.: 33 T1 (Large) Original Maps.
8. Duffy to
Palmer, R.E. Camp, Harrison Road, 19 September 1860, Report of ten
pages, including copy of instructions Elwyn to Duffy, 10 September
1860. PABC F495 a/2.
9. Duffy’s
general sketch map showing old and new routes to Lillooet Lake, with
a second copy of instructions Elwyn to Duffy, 10 September 1960.
PABC 8500 A60. See note 6.
10. Map: (part
of) “British Columbia,” ten miles to one inch, sheets 2 and 5
joined. “Prepared under the direction of Capt. Parsons, R.E., New
Westminster, September 1863. Reduced and drawn by (Corporal) J.
Conroy, R.E. Lithographed by (Sapper) W. Oldham, R.E.” Received by
the Royal Geographical Society, London, 04 November 1867. RGS call
no. D52.
11. Parsons to
Moody, 13 October 1863. PABC F1313/10 “I enclose the Lithograph of
Sheet 2…it will be in our power to produce the sheet north of it,
No.5,…in ten days if I be permitted to retain Corporal Conroy for
that period and Sapper Oldham for a few days to print the copies.”
12. Dept. of
Lands, map 2B: “New Westminster and Yale (Districts), 1914, four
miles to one inch” shows “Joffre (Duffey) Creek.” Surveyor General,
B.C. Plan 1T6 Lillooet Indian Reserves, also shows “Joffre (Duffey)
Creek.”
13. PABC F495a/2.
14. The British
Colonist, 18 January 1861; New Westminster Times. 26 January 1861.
15. Despatch No.
13, 09 October 1860, Douglas to Newcastle. “Three exploratory
parties were dispatched, during my stay, from Cayoosh: the first
under the charge of Sapper Duffy, had orders to examine a route by
the Cayoosh River from Port Anderson to Lake Lillooet, reported by
natives to be more direct and in many respects more convenient than
the present route by Anderson Lake; the second under Sapper
Breakenridge,…”
16. Beautiful
British Columbia, Summer 1980, p.3.
Appendix A |
Items of natural history, sampled from
Duffy’s report |
|
Approximate
Mileage |
|
16 |
Cedar,
Cottonwood, Poplar
Caught 36 trout (up to ½ lb.) in an hour, with a fly
High bush cranberries very plentiful. |
18 |
Gold found
here, 8 specs in a shovel full of dirt. |
19 |
Slide –
Marble blocks |
27 |
Good grass
and Indian wapatos (potatoes). |
27 ¼ |
Indian
camping ground. |
30 |
Berries of
several kinds, very plentiful
Bear ponds. |
30 ¼ |
High bush
cranberries very plentiful |
33 |
Blazed
trees and an Indian camp – good soil. |
36 |
Several
large black bears seen here. |
37 ½ |
Ground
hogs (marmots, from Duffy’s description) and sheep.
Bear pools.
Great quantities of goose and raspberries. |
47 ½ |
Good soil.
Bilberries are plentiful. |
48 |
Grouse
plentiful. |
|