BOB TREMBLAY: Dad started from Kamloops, coming up the Cariboo Trail with a pack train, headed for the Yukon. The first year they got as far as Little Prairie (now Chetwynd). They stayed there over the winter. After that he trapped and traded with the Indians for two or three years. Then he went to work with the government surveyors to survey the Block lines. As soon as it was through he bought the survey outfit out — the grub and stuff like that — and the machinery they had at the experimental farm at Fort St. John.
He started his place in the Pouce Coupe district in 1906. He put up a couple of buildings, a house and a barn. Then in 1908 he went after us. We three boys stopped at Grouard for a year and mother and my oldest brother came up here. Also Joe Auton came up with them. That year he built a store, in 1908. There were quite a few Indians around here and he was trading with them. In the district the only white people were Joe Walton and his family. Knutsons and Neilsens were trapping out West.
MRS. COUTTS: What sort of goods did Mr. Tremblay keep in the store?
BOB TREMBLAY: Just the necessities of life — grub and moccasins and moose hides. Rice, raisins and prunes and flour, and dried potatoes.
MRS. COUTTS: What material was the store built of?
BOB TREMBLAY: It was built of logs — hewed logs roofed over with dirt — poles with dirt on top. The floor was whipsawed lumber.
MRS. COUTTS: Was the whipsaw one he got from the farm at Fort St. John?
BOB TREMBLAY: Some he made himself.
MRS. COUTTS: Were the other buildings the same?
BOB TREMBLAY: For the first building he made a pole floor. It was very rough, just hewed on the top side. Part of the building was just a dirt floor, packed earth. That was the house.
MRS. COUTTS: When was the Post Office installed?
BOB TREMBLAY: It must have been around 1913 after the survey and people had started to come in.
MRS. COUTTS: The first surveyors were in 1905. Weren’t there other parties?
BOB TREMBLAY: There were other parties in 1912. McFarlane surveyed the first Pouce Coupe district. He was from Grande Prairie or Sexsmith. McMillan surveyed the base lines. After that it was Bruno (or Bruneau?) surveyed to the west. The border between Alberta and B.C. was already surveyed at the time.
MRS. COUTTS: Did your dad have a pack train?
BOB TREMBLAY: Yeah. He had a pack around the store. He used it to go to Spirit River or Lake Saskatoon to get supplies, and most of his work was done for surveying parties, hauling stuff for them.
MRS. COUTTS: How soon did the settlers come in?
BOB TREMBLAY: The majority came about 1912-13, the big rush. A lot came in while the survey was going on, and went out. They located the land, and filed on the way back.
MRS. COUTTS: How did they come?
BOB TREMBLAY: Every way. Dad had cut a wagon road in 1909 from Horse Lake (Brainard) to Pouce Coupe. That way they could come with wagons. From Spirit River — with pack trains.
MRS. COUTTS: How did that road compare with the present road? Is it in about the same place?
BOB TREMBLAY: You could say it’s almost exactly in the same place. (There had since been a straightening of the highway past Tomslake).
MRS. COUTTS: If you fly over it you can see why. It is in the logical place. How did the landseekers come in — walk? And where did they stay?
BOB TREMBLAY: There were stopping places all along. There were some at Beaverlodge — Rutabaga Johnson’s was one of them. Then “Kelly” (Sunderman) and “Shorty” — then you had to come to Borden’s. That was at Swan Lake, then they stayed at our place.
MRS. COUTTS: By then did you have a proper stopping place?
BOB TREMBLAY: Oh, yes. We had several buildings.
MRS. COUTTS: How far away did they have to go from your centre to find land?
BOB TREMBLAY: Practically the whole Pouce Coupe Prairie was settled in the first two years, all the way up to Doe River. Pierce and that outfit came in ‘13.
MRS. COUTTS: Where were the next store buildings of the area placed?
BOB TREMBLAY: That would be Howard Atkinson. That was at Saskatoon Creek. He had a store there and a farm. I think he started that about 1914.
MRS. COUTTS: That isn’t on the main road now is it? Did it follow an old trail?
BOB TREMBLAY: There’s a fairly easy crossing of the Creek there. Dad kept the store until about 1914 and then he had a fellow by the name of Sheppey (?) running it.
MRS. COUTTS: Was it a very busy store? You couldn’t tell how many customers might come in a day?
BOB TREMBLAY: Not so very busy — I couldn’t tell how many.
MRS. COUTTS: When the Post Office came they’d have to come for mail also. Did it make any difference in the goods that were stocked? And can you remember any of the prices?
BOB TREMBLAY: No, not much difference. Flour was $12.00 a sack (100 lbs.) — mostly freight. Most of the flour came up the Peace on the boat. He packed it in from Rolla Landing. I don’t remember the cost of tea. I know Chase and Blackburn jam was 50 cents for a little half pound tin.
MRS. COUTTS: You didn’t have many fancy things like jam.
BOB TREMBLAY: No. He had to be very careful about that in them days.
MRS. COUTTS: Canned goods?
BOB TREMBLAY: No. He had dried salt pork, great big thick slabs. “Sowbelly” or early bacon. Oh, yes, he had beans and rice. We packed from Rolla Landing until about 1914 and then some settlers cut a road to the top of the hill. Then they could use wagons all the way down.
MRS. COUTTS: Then the goods were brought in on the D.A. Thomas. On any of the other boats?
BOB TREMBLAY: Not that late, no. There was the mission boat and the Hudson Bay boat.
MRS. COUTTS: The D.A. Thomas was the freight boat. You got your goods only once a year then?
BOB TREMBLAY: Oh no, they came up two — three times a summer.
MRS. COUTTS: Were there any other boats or trading companies then?
BOB TREMBLAY: There was one in Fort St. John. Spirit River had the Hudson’s Bay and the Revillon.
MRS. COUTTS: Were the Revillon Freres gone from Fort St. John by then? We’ve been told that they had been there on this side of the river. Were there other fur trading companies? Who did J. Hall trade for? In the days when you dad was packing out supplies for the survey parties, how far would he go in a day?
BOB TREMBLAY: They tried to make it a rule to go only fifteen miles — maybe a mile or two more or less.
MRS. COUTTS: It would be fifteen miles between stopping places then.
BOB TREMBLAY: Yes, or they’d camp just wherever they were.
MRS. COUTTS: How long would it take to pack in from the railhead?
BOB TREMBLAY: We never packed from railhead — just from Spirit [River] or Lake Saskatoon or the Peace. To Lake Saskatoon it would take quite a while to make a trip. It’s seventy-five miles — five days.
MRS. COUTTS: How great a load would each horse carry?
BOB TREMBLAY: He usually put 300 pounds on a horse.
MRS. COUTTS: How did he pack the load?
BOB TREMBLAY: There is only one way to do it — the diamond hitch. You have to be an expert to do a really good job of it. No – I can’t think of any good stories. Most of what I remember was chasing after horses, all over the prairie. I never packed. I went with the wagons. We turned horses loose and I had to do the herding.
MRS. COUTTS: What was housekeeping like for your mother and sisters?
BOB TREMBLAY: It was pretty tough, I guess. No stove to cook on. She had to bake her bread in the ashes — in a Dutch oven. It was very nice bread.
MRS. COUTTS: They always tell us that. What did she have to cook in — great big kettles?
BOB TREMBLAY: She had ordinary kettles — couple of iron kettles and a number of “granite” ones. She cooked inside. She had a big fireplace.