Prince George, British Columbia

Prince George is the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada, with a population of 74,004 in the metropolitan area. It is often called the province's "Northern Capital" or sometimes the "Spruce Capital" because it is the hub city for Northern BC. It is situated at the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers, and at the crossroads of Highway 16 and Highway 97.
History.
The origins of Prince George can be traced to the North West Company fur trading post of Fort George, which was established in 1807 by Simon Fraser and named in honour of King George III. The post was centred in the centuries-old homeland of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, whose very name means "people of the confluence of the two rivers."
1800s.
Throughout the 19th century, Fort George remained unchanged, and Fort St. James reigned as the main trading post and capital of the New Caledonia area. Even during the Cariboo Gold Rush, Fort George was isolated although Quesnel prospered as the Cariboo Road was built to its doorstep, making it the main staging area for the miners going to the goldfields at Barkerville. Then, when the Collins Overland Telegraph Trail was built in 1865–67, it bypassed Fort George, following the Blackwater Trail from Quesnel and continuing northwest towards Hazelton.
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.
Finally in 1903, Fort George's fortune began to change when reports said that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (later part of Canadian National Railway (CN Rail)) would pass near the fur post. In 1906, agricultural settlement began around Fort George and then in 1909, development of the town began as two rival land speculation companies built the communities of South Fort George and Central Fort George. South Fort George was built on the Fraser River near the Hudson's Bay Company's trading post and Central Fort George was built to the northwest on the Nechako River. Both communities flourished due to the marketing strategies of the land promoter for Central Fort George, George Hammond, who advertised the community all over Canada and Britain, describing Fort George in glowing terms as being the future hub of British Columbia, having mild winters and being suitable for any agricultural endeavour (except for the growing of peaches). Ten paddle steamer sternwheelers serviced the area, coming up on the Fraser River from Soda Creek.
Properties were sold in both of the main townsites and many others nearby, such as Birmingham, Fort Salmon, Nechako Heights and Willow City. By 1913, South and Central Fort George each had a population of 1,500 and were booming as thousands of rail construction workers came to town for supplies and entertainment. Both communities believed that the Grand Trunk Pacific station and townsite would be built in their town, and both were disappointed when the railway purchased the of land in between them from the Lhiedli T'enneh instead, even though Charles Vance Millar, then the owner of the BC Express Company, was well into negotiations to purchase that property himself. The railway compensated Millar by giving him of the property and, by 1914, when the railway was completed, there were four major communities in Fort George: South, Central, Millar Addition and the railway's townsite, Prince George, where the station was built. Although George Hammond fought a series of bitter legal battles for a station for Central and the right to incorporate, the railway won in the end, and the City of Prince George was incorporated on March 6, 1915.
Etymology.
There were three rationales given for naming the new city as "Prince George":
Businessmen in Hammond, Fort George petitioned the provincial government to block the new name but they were unsuccessful. In May 1915, residents voted by plebiscite to name the new city as "Prince George".
War years.
With the onset of World War I in 1914, the local economy was devastated as many local men enlisted and the construction of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway was halted, creating a massive drop in population, a problem that was exacerbated by the ensuing Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. Prince George persevered through the 1920s and the Great Depression of the 1930s and did not experience any significant growth until World War II when an army camp was built at the foot of Cranbrook Hill, bringing new life to the struggling businesses and service industries.
Army Camp Prince George was opened during WWII and once housed 6,000 soldiers. From March 1942 – October 1943, divisional troops and units of the 16th Infantry Brigade (8th Canadian Infantry Division) were housed there. The camp was located in the area of 1st Street, Central Street,15th Ave, to the bottom of Cranbrook Hill. Barracks were built to house the soldiers, dining halls constructed to feed them, and wet canteens for their leisure and entertainment. There were rifle ranges, mortar ranges and artillery ranges. The camp closed at the end of the war. Most of the buildings were either demolished or moved to new locations, although some remain in their original locations, such as the former transportation building on 15th Avenue, that was used by the British Columbia Forestry Service from the late 1940s to 1963. It is now owned by the City of Prince George for use by the Community Arts Council. The Nechako Bottle Depot on First Avenue is also another former camp building. Others include the first Overwaitea store, at Victoria and Third, formerly a barracks and the original civic centre, which was the old drill shed, was removed and rebuilt on Seventh Avenue.
After the war, as the ravaged European cities rebuilt, the demand for lumber skyrocketed and Prince George, with its abundance of sawmills and spruce trees, prospered. Finally, in 1952, after 40 years of construction, the Pacific Great Eastern was completed and joined with the CN line at Prince George, and with the completion of Highways 16 and 97, Prince George finally fulfilled George Hammond's long ago promise of being the hub of British Columbia.
Modern history.
Canadian Forces Station Baldy Hughes (ADC ID: C-20) was constructed in 1952 as a General Surveillance Radar station. It was located south-southwest of Prince George, and was closed in 1988. It was operated as part of the Pinetree Line network controlled by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Today the former station is The Baldy Hughes Addiction Treatment Centre.
On June 25, 1956, at just after 7 p.m., a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane built in 1943 (serial number 8300, bearing Canadian registration CF-HSC) flown by Frank Samuel Pynn, out of the Prince George Airport, was observed flying in an unsafe manner, it went into a half roll, seemed to fall over on its back and nosed into a deep ravine in the cut-banks on the north side of town approximately one kilometre from the city centre. Pilot Frank Pynn, a former Royal Air Force Transport Command pilot, and his passenger, 15-year-old Jimmy Clarke, died on impact. Alcohol consumption was believed to be a factor in the crash and the Coroner's inquest found that Pynn died "through his own neglect and complete disregard for the Aeronautical Regulations of Canada." The wreckage is still there; however, most pieces are less than in length.
In 1964 the first pulp mill, Prince George Pulp and Paper was built, followed by two more in 1966, Northwood Pulp and Intercontinental Pulp. New schools and more housing were needed and the new subdivisions of Spruceland, Lakewood, Perry and Highglen were built. Then, in 1975, Prince George amalgamated and extended its borders to include the Hart area to the north, Pineview to the south and the old town of South Fort George to the east. In 1981, Prince George was the second largest city in British Columbia with a population of 67,559, narrowly edging Victoria out of the honour, whose population was then 64,379.
Low-lying areas adjacent to the confluence of the rivers, which can freeze, mean that those areas suffer recurring flooding. In late 2007 an ice jam formed on the Nechako River and soon grew to a length of more than , causing widespread flooding in the city. Faster runoff due to devastation of nearby lodgepole pine forests by the mountain pine beetle was identified as a contributing factor. A state of emergency was declared on December 11. On January 14, 2008, with the ice jam still present, the Provincial Emergency Program approved an unprecedented plan to melt the ice by piping water from a pulp mill steam plant to the jam area where it would be mixed with well water and poured into the river at a temperature of . In the interim an amphibious excavator was used for 10 days to move some of the ice.
Costing C$400,000 to build and C$3,000 per day to run, the "Warm Water System" was completed on January 29, by which time the ice jam had grown to long.
As a result of long-term lobbying from local groups (championed by local advocate Sheldon Clare, and members of 396 Air Cadet Squadron, 2618 Army Cadet Corps, 158 Sea Cadet Corps, 142 Navy League Corps, Branch 43 Royal Canadian Legion, and the Peacekeepers Association) in February 2011, Canadian Armed Forces 39 Canadian Brigade Group Headquarters announced that a detachment of the Rocky Mountain Rangers Army Reserve unit was to be formed in Prince George. In 2014, the Rocky Mountain Rangers increased recruiting efforts in the community to reach platoon and then company size.
Prince George hosted the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
Geography.
Prince George is located in the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George near the transition between the northern and southern portions of the Rocky Mountain Trench. Prince George proper contains several areas: South Fort George, the Hart, the residential and light industrial neighbourhoods north of the Nechako River; College Heights, the southern part of the city which contains a mix of residential and commercial areas, and the Bowl, the valley that includes most of the city and the downtown. There are also a number of outlying localities that are also part of Prince George, such as Carlson. The cutbanks of the Nechako River are one of Prince George's many interesting geological features.
Local wild edible fruit include bunchberries, rose hips, blueberries, huckleberries, cranberries, chokecherries, strawberries, raspberries, saskatoons, currants, gooseberries, and soapberries (from which "Indian ice cream" is made). Morel mushrooms are also native to this area.
Climate.
The area has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification "Dfb"), but is very close to (and once had) a subarctic climate ("Dfc") as May and September averages are both close to the threshold. Winters are milder than the latitude and elevation might suggest: the January average is , and there are an average of 38 days from December to February where the high reaches or surpasses freezing. Winter months in which Pacific air masses dominate may thaw on a majority of days, as in January 2006 when the mean daily maximum temperature was . On the other hand, Arctic air masses can settle over the city for weeks at a time; in rare cases, such as January 1950, the temperature stays well below freezing over a whole calendar month. Summer days are warm, with a July high of , but lows are often cool, with monthly lows averaging below . The transition between winter and summer, however, is short. There is some precipitation year-round, but February to April is the driest period. At the airport snow averages each year and is heaviest in December and January, usually, but not always, falling between October and May.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Prince George was on 17 July 1941. The lowest temperature ever recorded was on 2 January 1950 at Prince George Airport.
Sewer and water utilities.
Prince George's drinking water is taken from the Nechako and Fraser Rivers via ten wells. The raw water is disinfected with sodium hypochlorite. The local government treats sewage in a treatment facility in the Lansdowne area, on the west side of the Fraser River, or one of three other smaller treatment facilities on the east side. In the 2014 municipal election, the people of Prince George voted in favour of removing fluoride from their drinking water in a non-binding referendum. Prince George's new mayor and city council, at their first meeting, decided to follow the wishes of its voters. Fluoridation of the city's water supply ended in December 2014.
Air pollution.
The Prince George airshed has many local sources of various air pollutants including several major industrial sources (pulp mills, sawmills and an oil refinery), vehicle emissions, locomotives, uncovered coal cars, unpaved and paved road surfaces, vegetative burning and residential and commercial heating. Because a large part of the city and its local sources of air pollution are contained within a valley, there are often meteorological conditions that trap pollutants and result in episodes of poor air quality and unhealthy levels of air pollution exposure in some areas.
More people die in Prince George every year due to diseases associated with air pollutants than any other community in the province, according to data gathered by two BC physicians. Although, "Copes said it was difficult to definitively say certain deaths are caused by pollution because it's not a factor that is easily recognizable."
Demographics.
According to the 2001 Canadian Census, there were 72,406 people living in 27,605 households within the city. Of these households, 23% were one-person households, below the 27% average provincewide, and 31% married couples with children, above the 26% average. Prince George had a smaller proportion of married couples than the province, 47% compared to 51%, but very similar persons per households. With 90% of Prince George residents being Canadian-born, and 87% with an English-only mother tongue, the city has few visible minorities. However, 10% identified themselves as Aboriginal, much higher than the 4% provincewide. Only 14% of residents between 20 and 64 years of age completed university, almost half the provincial average, and 22% did not complete high school, similar to the 19% provincial average.
Crime.
For three consecutive years, from 2010 to 2012, "Maclean's" named Prince George the most dangerous city in Canada, with its crime rate being 114% above the national average. In 2011, the magazine cited gangs, drug-related crimes, and nine homicides as the reason for its high crime rate, although the magazine did state that the city's crime rate is declining each year. In 2016, Prince George was named #4 on the list of the most dangerous cities for violent crime in Canada.
Economy.
The economy of Prince George in the first decade of the 21st century has come to be dominated by service industries. The Northern Health Authority, centred in Prince George, has a $450 million annual budget and invested more than $100 million in infrastructure. Part of these investments was the 2012 opening of the BC Cancer Agency's Centre for the North, which includes for radiation therapy facilities and associated buildings for modern cancer care.
Education is another key dominant part of this city. With the University of Northern British Columbia, the College of New Caledonia and School District #57, education adds more than $780 million into the local economy annually.
Forestry dominated the local economy throughout the 20th century, including plywood manufacture, numerous sawmills and three pulp mills as major employers and customers. The Mountain pine beetle epidemic of the late 1980s and 1990s resulted in a short term boom in the forest industry as companies rushed to cut dead standing trees before the trees lost value. Sawmill closures and the creation of 'supermills' is already being seen in the area and more closures are expected.
Mining exploration and development may become the future of Prince George. Initiatives Prince George estimates that the Nechako Basin contains over of oil.
Other industry includes two chemical plants, an oil refinery, brewery, dairy, machine shops, aluminum boat building, log home construction, value added forestry product and specialty equipment manufacturing. Prince George is also a staging centre for mining and prospecting, and a major regional transportation, trade and government hub. Several major retailers are expanding into the Prince George market, a trend expected to persist. In recent years, several market research call centres have opened in Prince George.
Heritage, College Heights, Hart Highlands and St. Lawrence Heights are prime residential areas, both commercial and residential development are growing at an accelerated rate and more subdivisions are planned for St. Lawrence Heights, West Cranbrook Hill and East Austin Road.
Education.
Prince George's education system encompasses 40 anglophone elementary schools, eight secondary schools, and eight private schools. The anglophone public schools are all part of School District 57 Prince George. It is also home to a public francophone elementary and secondary school, both of which are part of School District 93 Conseil scolaire francophone, a province-wide francophone school district. Post-secondary education choices include the regional College of New Caledonia (CNC), which offers two-year university-transfer courses, plus vocational and professional programs. Several BC universities, British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and the Open Learning Agency have integrated their local programs with CNC. Prince George is also home to Guardian Aerospace Flight School.
The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), established in 1990, is the second-newest university in Canada. A total of 55 undergraduate programs, 15 masters programs and two PhD programs are now offered at UNBC, as well as the new Northern Medical Program, a joint program with the University of British Columbia intended to alleviate the shortage of physicians in the north. A degree-granting institution with regional teaching centres in nine BC communities and a sponsor for several research institutes, UNBC has recently completed the construction of the I.K. Barber Enhanced Forestry Laboratory. UNBC's hilltop campus overlooks the City of Prince George and has views of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the east. In 2015 and 2016 UNBC earned the top small university in Canada ranking by "Maclean's." UNBC has consistently been positioned in the top three for the last ten years. The University was first entered into the McLean's rankings in 2005 as the best small university in Western Canada.
The College of New Caledonia (CNC) is a post-secondary educational institution that serves the residents of central British Columbia. It was established in Prince George in 1969, and has since expanded across northern British Columbia, with campuses in Quesnel, Mackenzie, Burns Lake, Valemount, Fort St. James, Fraser Lake and Vanderhoof. CNC enrolls about 5,000 students each year in approximately 90 distinct programs in business and management, community and continuing education, health sciences, adult basic education / upgrading, trades and industry, social services, and technologies. About 75 of these programs are available at CNC Prince George. As well, CNC offers university classes leading to degrees and professional programs in more than 50 subjects, with excellent transferability to universities in BC, Alberta, and elsewhere. All university classes are available at CNC Prince George, and many are available at other campuses.
Sports and recreation.
Prince George's teams include the Prince George Cougars of the Western Hockey League (WHL), the Prince George Spruce Kings of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL), Youth Bowling Club (YBC) bowling teams (Nechako Bowling, 5th Avenue, and also a ten pin team), and Prince George Curling (Prince George Golf and Curling Club). Recently, the Duchess Park Secondary School Senior boys basketball team won the provincial AA title for the first time in 26 years.
The February 1978 Northern B.C. Winter Games hosted by Prince George and organized by John Furlong were highly attended by 5,600 participants from age 8 to 90 in 38 events.
The Spruce Kings hosted the 2007 Royal Bank Cup May 5–13 at the CN Centre
Prince George has been home to several National Hockey League players, including Murray Baron, Blair Betts, Tyler Bouck, Chris Mason, Ronald Petrovický, Justin Pogge, Dan Hamhuis, Sheldon Souray, Derek Boogaard, Dustin Byfuglien, Devin Setoguchi, Turner Stevenson and Darcy Rota. Eric Brewer and Zdeno Chára were also teammates on the Cougars in 1995 and 1996.
Prince George Citizen Field opened in the spring of 2006. The baseball facility has established itself as one of the most unusual diamonds in British Columbia.
Recreation facilities include 116 playgrounds and parks, baseball, soccer and lacrosse fields, eight golf courses, plus tennis courts, ice rinks and roller rinks, a new modern Aquatic Centre as well as an older swimming pool and the CN Centre, which is a 5,995-seat multi-purpose arena. For hikers there is an riverfront system of urban hiking trails called the Heritage Trails. Four provincial parks in the region provide downhill, cross-country and heliskiing.
Parks include:
North of Prince George is the Huble Homestead and Giscome Portage. The Otway Nordic Centre, operated by the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, is home to one of the largest Nordic ski clubs in the province, and boasts more than of groomed trails - of which are lit trails for evening skiing, a biathlon range, and a day lodge.
The Caledonia Ramblers Hiking Club offers weekly hikes in the city and surrounding countryside from May to October, as well as snowshoeing in the winter months; while the Prince George Section of the Alpine Club of Canada offers year-round hiking, scrambling, climbing, skiing and ice-climbing trips in the nearby Cariboo and Rocky Mountains and local crags. The Prince George Backcountry Recreation Society is an umbrella organization representing these and several other Prince George outdoor clubs.
For race fans, the Prince George Auto Racing Association (PGARA) offers a variety of racing events at the PGARA Speedway including the locally famous hit-to-pass races.
Prince George offers a Pride Centre for all LGBTQ and ally members in Prince George and the greater north. Located at the University of Northern British Columbia, the PC, an organization under the Northern Pride Centre Society, offers a safe space, resources, and support.
Prince George offers several nightclubs, sports bars, pubs and fine dining facilities.
The Treasure Cove Hotel and Casino is located at the junction of Highways 16 and 97.
Moviegoers can choose between the Famous Players, now Cineplex Entertainment, six-plex or the Park Drive-in Theatre, which also offers mini-golf facilities and a go-kart track. As well, 'Cinema CNC' hosts two arts cinema series each year in the fall and winter, as well as a moving pictures film festival of Canadian films each February.
As part of its 100th anniversary, the City of Prince George hosted the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
Arts and culture.
The off-road motorcycle community is a very large and old segment to the sports in Prince George, with multiple motocross tracks like the Blackwater motocross park and the BCR site and many networks of motorcycle trails, it is one of the largest recreational features for the city of Prince George.
Theatres.
Prince George Amusement Company opened the 550-seat-capacity Princess Theatre on the corner of Third Ave and Vancouver Street in 1914, which appears distinct from its namesake on Central Ave. The company's Rex Theatre opened on George Street that December. The Dreamland Theatre, which relocated to George Street from South Fort George in January 1915, staged some vaudeville, and charity concerts, and accommodated political, religious, and sundry meetings. Movie screenings were irregular prior to a 1918 reopening. Initially, while the Rex primarily screened movies, the Princess was largely vacant when not a venue for opera, charity concerts, and political and sundry meetings. The 1919 relaunch as a movie venue was short lived. The Rex also held wrestling, charity concerts, and political, religious, and sundry meetings.
Levi Graham (1879–1947), who took over the Rex Theatre in 1921, had gained industry experience since 1907. He also operated poolrooms. Further enterprises were movie screenings at select interior towns, refurbishing and managing the Royal Hotel, and operating club establishments.
Al Gardner and Jim Bord briefly managed the Dreamland Theatre in 1922. Acquired by Graham, the Princess Theatre reopened for movies in 1923. That year, Capitol Entertainments of Canada purchased the Dreamland Theatre, and renamed it the Capitol, with Adams remaining as resident manager.
Graham and two partners, operating as Prince George Theatres, acquired the Capitol two years later. Facing insufficient demand, it continued mainly as a venue for live performances and public meetings.
Graham moved the Rex to the corner of Third Avenue and Dominion Street. After gutting and upgrading, it opened in 1926 as the 500-seat Strand Theatre. Condemned as a safety risk, the Capitol was demolished in 1934. Adding a level floor above the existing one in 1935, the Princess served as a dance hall/ballroom, and community centre for indoor sports. After an extensive 1942 upgrade, it returned as a movie theatre. Graham built, briefly operated, and sold the Wells theatre. Selling his two local theatres to Herb G. Stevenson in 1944, Graham devoted his attention to his Six Mile (Tabor) Lake Lodge enterprise.
Odeon Theatres acquired the Strand and Princess in 1969, demolishing the former in 1975. Eighteen months later, the latter suffered the same fate, replaced by a three-screen complex on the site. Cinema Treasures appears reasonably accurate in covering later theatre developments.
Live theatre and symphony.
A 2005 cultural project that involved Prince George had 'Spirit Bears' placed throughout various locations around the city. The 'Spirit Bear' is a fiberglass statue of a bear that has various sceneries painted on it.
Monuments and art installations.
Mr. PG was first constructed in 1960 as a symbol of the importance of the forest industry to Prince George. That year he took part in the Prince George May Day parade and could speak and bow. In 1961, he was entered in the Kelowna Regatta and the Vancouver PNE Parade, and also travelled to Smithers. Two years later, he appeared in the 1963 Grey Cup parade.
Today, Mr. PG stands at the junction of Highway 97 and Highway 16. He is tall and his head is in diameter.
Transportation.
Located at the intersection of Highways 97 and 16, Prince George is the hub for northern British Columbia. Considerable truck traffic passes through Prince George, which also has extensive facilities for maintenance of trucks and heavy equipment.
The streets in the "Bowl" area of Prince George are laid out in a grid, with streets travelling north-south, and avenues travelling east-west. The streets are named after prominent citizens, and they are placed in alphabetical order, starting with "A" (Alward Street) near downtown, and continuing westward to "R" (Ruggles Street) in the western part of the city. Some avenues in the city are numbered. 1st Avenue is located the northern part of the Bowl, and the numbering increases southward until 22nd Avenue (the highest-numbered avenue in the city).
The grid in the downtown area is rotated so that avenues run from northwest to southeast, and streets run northeast to southwest. All avenues in downtown are numbered, while most of the streets are named after various cities and provinces of Canada.
Many streets in College Heights are named after various colleges and universities. However, College Heights streets are not laid out in a grid like the Bowl. Instead, many roads in College Heights are curved and/or winding, and most are called avenues or crescents.
There is an inland port to Prince Rupert in Prince George which is served by CN Rail.
Prince George Airport, located just within the southern boundary of the city, southeast. The airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The airport can handle aircraft with up to 30 passengers or 120 if they are unloaded in stages. In 2016, 462,007 passengers used Prince George Airport. The primary air connection to the rest of the world is provided by multiple daily flights to Vancouver International Airport on Air Canada Express and WestJet Encore. WestJet provides seasonal service with a weekly direct flight to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico during the winter months. Pacific Coastal Airlines offers a daily flight to and from Victoria International Airport. Central Mountain Air and Northern Thunderbird Air fly to regional and smaller centres. Horizon Air provided daily service to Seattle for a few months in 2008, but the service no longer exists as of 2009. Charter services provide flights to outlying areas primarily by floatplane, though helicopter service is also available. An expansion study to allow the airport to handle Boeing 747 cargo flights was completed. The airport was expanded and is listed as having the third longest runway in Canada but since it was opened in 2009 it has not seen expanded use by any new airlines or 747s other than the test use by one cargo flight.
CNR freight lines operate out of Prince George as well as Via Rail passenger service; the Jasper–Prince Rupert train overnights at the Prince George station.
Local public transportation consists of the PG Transit bus service.
Directions.
West of Prince George is Vanderhoof (), Fraser Lake (), Burns Lake (), Houston (), Smithers (), Terrace (), and Prince Rupert ().
East of Prince George is Giscome (), McBride (), Jasper (), and Edmonton ().
North of Prince George is Mackenzie () and Fort St. John ().
South of Prince George is Quesnel (), and Williams Lake ().
Government and politics.
Lyn Hall is the Mayor of Prince George and serves with eight councillors. Prince George holds four of the fourteen seats at the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George.
Tim Bennett is the Chair of the Board of School District 57, which includes not only the city of Prince George but a large, sparsely populated area to the east and north, and serves with six other elected school trustees.
Provincially, Prince George is divided into two electoral districts: Prince George-Valemount represented by Shirley Bond, and Prince George-Mackenzie represented by Mike Morris. Both are BC Liberals.
Federally, Prince George is divided between Cariboo—Prince George represented by Todd Doherty and Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies with Bob Zimmer. Both are federal Conservatives.


Fort Wadsworth

Fort Wadsworth is a former United States military installation on Staten Island in New York City, situated on The Narrows which divide New York Bay into Upper and Lower halves, a natural point for defense of the Upper Bay and Manhattan beyond. Prior to closing in 1994 it claimed to be the longest continually garrisoned military installation in the United States. It comprises several fortifications, including Fort Tompkins and Battery Weed and was given its present name in 1865 to honor Brigadier General James Wadsworth, who had been killed in the Battle of the Wilderness during the Civil War. Fort Wadsworth is now part of the Staten Island Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, maintained by the National Park Service.
History.
Early history.
The first use of the land for military purposes was as the site of a blockhouse built by Dutch settler David Pieterszen de Vries in 1663 on Signal Hill (now the site of Fort Tompkins),in 1655. The site is said to have been continuously garrisoned since another blockhouse was built in 1663, which survived at least through 1808. During the American Revolution the area became known as Flagstaff Fort; captured by the British in 1776, it remained in British hands and was expanded until the war's end in 1783. It became the responsibility of New York State in 1806, at which time four forts were built on the site with state resources, being ready for service in 1808 though incomplete. These included the red sandstone Forts Richmond (on the site now called Battery Weed) and Tompkins, on the sites of the current forts but of different design, and Forts Morton and Hudson, with positions for a total of 164 guns in the four forts. Fort Tompkins at that time included a red sandstone enclosure containing the 1663 blockhouse. Fort Richmond was initially semicircular while Fort Tompkins was a regular pentagon with circular bastions, both very different from their Third System replacements. Although these forts were contemporary with the federal government's second system of seacoast fortifications, they were not part of the federal program. Federal rebuilding of Forts Richmond and Tompkins did not begin until 1847.
Fort Richmond was named for Richmond County, in which Staten Island is located. Fort Tompkins was named for Daniel D. Tompkins, New York's governor in the War of 1812. Fort Morton was possibly named for Major General Jacob Morton, commander of the New York state militia in the War of 1812. Fort Hudson was named for Henry Hudson, a British-born explorer for the Dutch East India Company who explored the river named for him.
War of 1812.
During the War of 1812, New York State expanded Fort Richmond and its surrounding forts. In 1814, money was appropriated to complete Forts Richmond and Fort Tompkins, and by 1815, 900 cannons were reportedly amassed in the area. New York City was not attacked in that war (probably due to the vast number of forts and cannon in the city and harbor), so the forts never fired in anger.
Third System.
By 1835 Forts Richmond (now Battery Weed) and Tompkins had deteriorated to the point that they were declared unfit for use, and the next year the federal government began a decade-long process of purchasing them. In 1847 total reconstructions of both forts began, under the federal third system of seacoast fortifications, an across-the-board program of new forts sparked by the burning of Washington, DC in the War of 1812. Some sources state that the new Forts Richmond and Tompkins were initially designed by Robert E. Lee during his tenure as post engineer at Fort Hamilton in the 1840s. Fort Richmond had one landward front and three seacoast fronts, with an unusual four tiers of cannon totaling 116 guns to seaward, plus 24 flank howitzers on the landward front.
The four-tier arrangement was only duplicated in the United States by Castle Williams on Governors Island and Fort Point in San Francisco, California. Fort Tompkins provided the bulk of the landward defense in the area, with one seaward and four landward fronts. It was unusual in having no embrasures for cannon in the main fort. A seacoast cannon battery was mounted on the roof of the seacoast front, and the rest of the fort had only musket loopholes. It had a ditch on the landward sides with tunnels to counterscarp galleries providing additional musket fire against enemies in the ditch, supplemented by a few well-placed flank howitzers. Both forts were ready for service, though still incomplete, when the Civil War broke out in April 1861.
Civil War era.
New York City was not attacked by sea in the Civil War, so the forts did not have an active role. However, they were important as mobilization centers, including Smith's Cantonment near the forts. The North and South Cliff batteries were built flanking Fort Richmond, which was renamed Fort Wadsworth in 1865. Two small batteries of two and five guns were also built near Fort Tompkins. Following the war, it was determined that masonry forts were obsolete. In the 1870s a large-scale but short-lived program of building new earth-protected batteries near existing forts commenced. The new defenses were mainly armed with Rodman guns, large smoothbores of 15-inch and 10-inch caliber along with 8-inch converted rifles. At Fort Wadsworth, this included improvements to the batteries built during the Civil War, along with rebuilding Battery Hudson for new guns and a new mortar battery near Fort Tompkins that was never armed. Battery Hudson included an emplacement for the United States' first type of disappearing gun, a 15-inch Rodman on King's depression carriage, which was not widely adopted. A mine casemate for controlling an underwater minefield was built in Fort Richmond in 1875 and was later re-used when mines became a standard part of the harbor defenses. In the late 1870s funding for coast defenses was cut off, and it was 20 years before significant new defenses were completed.
Endicott period (1885–1916).
The 1885 Board of Fortifications, chaired by Secretary of War William C. Endicott and also called the Endicott Board, recommended sweeping improvements to US coast defenses, with a new generation of modern breech-loading rifled guns and numerous new gun batteries. Most of the Board's recommendations were adopted as the Endicott program, and that included major changes and improvements for Fort Wadsworth. The fort became part of the Artillery District of New York, renamed in 1913 as the Coast Defenses of Southern New York. Part of the Endicott Program included renaming the entire fort area as Fort Wadsworth, with the former Fort Richmond becoming Battery Weed, in General Order No. 16 of February 4, 1902. Battery Weed was named for Brigadier General Stephen H. Weed, killed at Gettysburg in 1863.
From 1896 to 1905 the following batteries were completed at Fort Wadsworth:
Facilities for planting and controlling an underwater minefield were also built. The unnamed battery of two 8-inch guns and the two sections of Battery Barbour were commenced shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in early 1898. At that time most of the Endicott batteries were still years from completion, and it was feared the Spanish fleet would bombard East Coast ports. The 8-inch guns were an expedient conversion of carriages for Rodman guns to allow the modern 8-inch M1888 gun to be brought into service. The 6-inch and 4.72-inch Armstrong guns were purchased from the United Kingdom, to rapidly deploy medium caliber quick-firing guns at the forts. The guns of the temporary 8-inch batteries were removed soon after the war ended (also in 1898), to be deployed in the new Endicott batteries, while the Armstrong guns remained in service until the 1920s. In 1901 the heavy artillery companies at all forts were redesignated as coast artillery companies, and in 1907 these units became a separate corps, the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. An unusual problem occurred with Battery Duane: it was made of inferior concrete which eventually deteriorated, and the battery was removed from service in 1915. In 1913 Batteries Turnbull and Catlin swapped their guns.
In 1910, the fort fired a 21-gun salute to former President Theodore Roosevelt as his ship passed through the Narrows on his return from a nearly year-long trip to Africa and Europe. In 1913, ground was broken by President William Howard Taft for a proposed National American Indian Memorial that was to be built on the site of Fort Tompkins. The monument was to include a statue of an American Indian on the bluff overlooking the Narrows, but difficulties in fundraising and the advent of World War I precluded fruition of the plan.
World War I.
Following the American entry into World War I, Fort Wadsworth's role as the largest fort guarding New York City was an important one. Some batteries were directed to be ready to fire 24/7. Most coastal forts in CONUS had their garrison reduced to provide crews for heavy and railway artillery units destined for the Western Front. This did not seem to occur at Fort Wadsworth. Also, a number of 10-inch and 12-inch guns were withdrawn from forts in 1917-1918 for potential use as railway artillery; at Fort Wadsworth most of these weapons were relatively promptly replaced by guns from less-threatened forts. Both guns of Battery Ayres, one gun of Battery Hudson, and one gun of Battery Upton were replaced in 1918 due to this program. However, Battery Barry's pair of 10-inch guns was removed and not replaced.
Between the wars.
Following World War I, a number of coast artillery weapon types were withdrawn from service. These included the 4.7-inch and 6-inch Armstrong guns of Battery Barbour, and the 3-inch M1898 guns of Battery Bacon, all in 1920. These were not replaced. By 1924, Fort Wadsworth had become an infantry post, with the coast artillery batteries in caretaker status, with only a few soldiers garrisoned for maintenance. The construction of long-range 12-inch gun batteries at Fort Hancock, New Jersey and a 16-inch gun battery at Fort Tilden had relegated Fort Wadsworth to the second line of defense for Greater New York.
World War II.
Although Fort Wadsworth was an important mobilization center, it received little new armament in World War II. New defenses for Greater New York in that war centered on Fort Tilden, the long-range 12-inch batteries at Fort Hancock, and a new 16-inch gun battery at the Highlands Military Reservation in Navesink, New Jersey. Fort Wadsworth's heavy guns were gradually scrapped during the war. Battery 218, a magazine bunker for a pair of 6-inch guns, was built but not armed. A 16-inch gun battery (Battery 115) was proposed for Fort Wadsworth but not built. Four 3-inch guns of Battery Turnbull were relocated to Battery New Turnbull, still at Fort Wadsworth. Battery Catlin's six 3-inch guns were sent to new batteries on the other side of the Narrows, four to Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat Battery (AMTB) 18 (also called Battery New Catlin) at Norton Point and two to AMTB 20 at Rockaway Point.
Post World War II through 1990s.
Following World War II all US coast artillery guns were scrapped. From 1948 to 1952 Fort Wadsworth was the Headquarters of the 102nd Antiaircraft Artillery Brigade (New York National Guard) for the air defense of New York City. From 1952 until 1960 it was the Headquarters of the 52nd Antiaircraft Artillery Brigade, until the Brigade moved to the Highlands Air Force Station. Although Fort Wadsworth was a Nike missile headquarters 1952-1964, no missiles were stationed at the fort. However, a 120 mm M1 gun battery was at the fort 1952-55. It then was the site of the United States Army Chaplain school, while also hosting the Fort Wadsworth Museum within Fort Tompkins, which displayed free exhibits depicting the history of the fort and the U.S. Army.
The base was turned over to the United States Navy in 1979, which used it as the headquarters of Naval Station New York. As a result of the Base Closure and Realignment Commission process, the Navy left and the property was transferred to the National Park Service as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1995. With the 1996 closure of the United States Coast Guard Atlantic Area headquarters and base at Governors Island, their New York-based operations moved to Fort Wadsworth, as tenants in some of the buildings and housing previously occupied by the Navy. As of 2007, they are occupied by the United States Coast Guard's Sector New York and Maritime Safety and Security Team 91106. The United States Army Reserve occupies several buildings on the fort. Other buildings house administrative and educational facilities for the National Park Service as well as operations of the United States Park Police.
Present.
Historic structures include Battery Weed, directly on the harbor, and Fort Tompkins on the bluff above. Both were built in the mid-19th Century and are open to the public on guided tours only. There are several smaller early 20th Century coastal artillery batteries and an overlook with panoramic views of the Upper Bay, Brooklyn and Manhattan. A memorial to Father Vincent R. Capodanno, a Navy chaplain from Staten Island who was killed serving with the 1st Battalion 5th Marines in Vietnam and received a posthumous Medal of Honor, is at the fort near the Father Capodanno Chapel. The National Park Service currently maintains a visitors' center on site and offers ranger-led tours of the facilities.
A 2020 article about the property provided additional specifics. Battery Weed and Fort Tompkins "are well maintained and partially occupied by the Coast Guard, Army Reserve, and Park Police, other sections are abandoned and remain off-limits to the public".
Annual events.
The New York City Marathon, an annual marathon () that courses through the five boroughs of New York City, starts on Fort Wadsworth. The Five Boro Bike Tour is an annual recreational cycling event in New York City that starts at Battery Park in Lower Manhattan and ends with a festival in Fort Wadsworth.
Neighborhood.
The name "Fort Wadsworth" is also sometimes used to denote the residential neighborhood surrounding the former fort, the neighborhood south of Rosebank, west of Shore Acres and north of South Beach. This neighborhood once had a station on the South Beach Branch of the Staten Island Railway; service on this branch ceased in 1953.
In popular culture.
In the , 's elite United States military counterterroism unit operated from "The Pit," a secret underground base concealed beneath the Motor Pool of the Army Chaplains' Assistants School at Fort Wadsworth. After The Pit was destroyed by a Cobra surprise attack, G.I. Joe relocated the headquarters to an undisclosed location. Although written in 1982, the book still depicted the fort as the home of the "Chaplain's Assistants School", due to Larry Hama's memories of the fort from his years in the service. Also, Ft. Wadsworth did not actually have a proper motor pool; its equipment was serviced at Fort Hamilton. The 2016 thriller film "Nerve" was partially filmed here. Fort Wadsworth served as the setting for the final scene of the movie.


Manitoba House

Manitoba House is the name of a Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post as well as a separate settlement adjacent to the post. The site is in the present-day Rural Municipality of Alonsa.
Trading post.
The first trading post at or near the Manitoba House site was operated for one season, 1797-98,by a Hudson's Bay Company servant, John Best, somewhere near the Lake Manitoba Narrows. The name in the post journal, "Doubtful Post", was likely chosen because of a lack of confidence in the survival of the post [Hudson's Bay Company Archives, B.53/a/1]. This post was indeed abandoned after this season, and the Company had no permanent presence in the district for many years. Manitoba House, which was intended to serve a large area, between Riding Mountain and Lake Winnipeg, was established on the west side of Lake Manitoba, about 15 miles south of the Narrows, in the 1820s. Treaty 2 was signed on August 21, 1871, at Manitoba House. A number of notable individuals served at Manitoba House, including Isaac Cowie, as fur trader, and Archibald McDonald, as clerk.
Settlement.
The Metis settlement adjacent to the trading post was referred to as simply the Manitoba House Settlement until 1889 when the name Kinosota was suggested by John Norquay for the local post office. The settlement consists of a number of long narrow lots strung out along the shore of Lake Manitoba. St. Bede's Anglican parish, located in Kinosota, was formed in 1842 by Reverend Abraham Cowley, and is one of the oldest Anglican parishes in Manitoba. The church building was constructed around the turn of the century, and was moved to higher ground in 1922.


Kakagi Lake

Kakagi Lake, also known as Crow Lake, is a lake in both Unorganized Kenora District and the township of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls, Kenora District, in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. It is just north of the community of Nestor Falls, and right across Ontario Highway 71 from Stevens Bay on Lake of the Woods. It also feeds Lake of the Woods through a series of lakes starting with Cedartree Lake.
Geography.
It is a body of water that is essentially not charted, and caution must be taken when navigating this body of water. Kakagi Lake is approximately in size, about long and up to wide. It is above sea level with an average depth and a maximum depth of . The lake has many islands such as Gold Point Island, Green Island, Mink Island, Bear-Beaver Island, Alora Island, Mosquito Point Island and Pine Island. There are several spots on the lake frequented by campers as well as several natural recreational areas such as Jumping Rock, Seagull Rock and Soft Sand Beach.
There are small number of private cabins mostly on Young's Bay, and several commercial fishing lodges and resorts. In winter, Kakagi is the gateway to a system of lakes and portages that stretches almost east of Nestor Falls by snowmobile. Young's Bay is named after Clyde Young who came to Canada from Chicago in 1932 and was founder of Crow Lake Camp.
The Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation lay claim to much of Kakagi Lake; their Sabaskong Bay 35D reserve is on the southwest shore of the lake.
The lake also has a history of gold mining.
Natural history.
Kakagi lake is well known for its lake trout fishing because of its many spawning reefs throughout the lake and deep water basins equally well distributed. Musky, smallmouth bass, northern pike and lake whitefish also inhabit Kakagi. Kagaki's forage fish include perch, rock bass, cisco, lake shiners and a variety of other minnow species.
Recreation.
Canoe Route.
There is a popular canoe route known as the Kakagi Lake-Cameron Lake canoe route. The loop is considered of moderate difficulty and starts and ends at Kakagi. Native pictographs and bald eagles exist on Stephen Lake. The length is 51 km and typically takes 4 days across 5 portages. The route typically starts at the Government Dock (), and moves north for to Emm Bay. Then move north through a narrows and then until the first portage to Cedartree Lake. The portage is long (). Then follow the west shore of Cedartree Lake into the river and continue the length of the river until the portage to Flint Lake. The portage is long () and passes over Cameron Lake Road. Next follow the rest of the river into Flint Lake and then go to the south shore until the next portage into Stephen Lake via Cameron Creek. The portage is long and is located on the east side of Cameron Creek. Move east down Stephen Lake via the narrows. The pictographs are found just after the narrows and to the left just around the bay. Move to the east on Stephen Lake into the bay until the portage to Cameron Lake via Cameron Creek. The portage is long () and follows a small creek to the south of the trail. Next move into Bog Bay through the narrows and into Cameron Lake and then follow the south shore for to the most southeasterly end of the lake to the portage back into Kakagi Lake. The portage is long (). Once on Kakagi Lake, follow the north shore, heading west for about the continue west back to the Government dock for .
Popular culture.
Although the book is set in Northern Ontario, Crow Lake is not actually about Kakagi (Crow) Lake.


Colen Donck

Colen donck (in English "Donck's Colony") was a 24,000 acre (97 km²) patroonship in New Netherland along the southern Hudson River in today's Bronx and Yonkers established by Dutch-American lawyer and land developer Adriaen van der Donck.
The land was granted van der Donck by controversial Director General of New Netherlands Willem Kieft in 1646 in return for van der Donck's role as an interpreter and peacemaker in conflicts between Dutch colonists and Native Americans. It is unclear whether van der Donck subsequently purchased the land from its Native American holders, a requirement of the West India Company before granting a patroonship.
Van der Donck's parcel began on the mainland directly to the north of the island (Manhattan), continued along the river for twelve miles, and carried eastward as far as the Bronx River, becoming much of what is today the Bronx and southwestern Westchester County.
He named his estate Colen Donck (or "Colendonck"; spellings vary, the latter being more consistent with Dutch construction) and built several mills along what is now called the Saw Mill River. The estate was so large that locals referred to him as the Jonkheer ("young gentleman" or "squire"), the source of today's name "Yonkers".
Records show Van der Donck to have been alive in August 1655. He is described as having died on Manhattan island in 1655 by "Who's Who in America". Records of the following January indicate there was a dispute between his relations over two bibles taken by Indians in the sacking of his home in the raids known as the Peach Tree War, leaving the cause of his death unknown.


Beverwijck

Beverwijck ( ; ), often written using the pre-reform orthography Beverwyck, was a fur-trading community north of Fort Orange on the Hudson River in New Netherland that was renamed and developed as Albany, New York, after the English took control of the colony in 1664.
History.
During the 1640s, the name "Beverwijck" began to be used informally by the Dutch for their settlement of fur traders north of the fort. The village of Beverwijck arose out of a jurisdictional dispute between the patroonship of Rensselaerswijck and the Dutch West India Company (WIC) over the legal status of the community of some two hundred colonists living in the vicinity of the WIC Fort Orange on the west bank of the Upper North River. In 1652, Peter Stuyvesant, director general of New Netherland, extended WIC jurisdiction over the settlers who lived near Fort Orange.
In the late 1650s, colonists built a palisade around Beverwijck, and it had become economically and politically successful, with large families living in the community. Despite its isolation on the frontier, a sign of Beverwijck's success was that it was never attacked by Native Americans. The Dutch built a collaborative relationship with both the Algonquian-speaking Mahican of the Hudson Valley and the Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk people to the west through the Mohawk Valley. By 1660, the Dutch relations with these two different Native nations had taken on differing characteristics, reflecting their different patterns of settlement and culture.
A large percentage of the Beverwijck population consisted of Europeans born outside of the Dutch Republic. Despite the ethnically mixed population which included Dutch, Scandinavian, German, and English individuals, institutions transplanted from the Republic gave the town a decisively Dutch character.
The fur trade was very lucrative and, when the village of Schenectady was founded in 1661 beyond Rensselaerwyck, the traders of Beverwijck were successful in getting governor Peter Stuyvesant to declare that they had a monopoly on trade. The settlers in Schenectady were forbidden to trade. This prohibition was affirmed by orders of Governor Nicholls through 1670 and later after the English took over the colony of New Netherland.
Although "Beverwijck" literally means "beaver district", its name might be of different origin than related to the fur trade. It could have been named for the Dutch city of Beverwijk.


Mountain bluebird

The mountain bluebird ("Sialia currucoides") is a small migratory thrush that is found in mountainous districts of western North America. It has a light underbelly and black eyes. Adult males have thin bills and are bright turquoise-blue and somewhat lighter underneath. Adult females have duller blue wings and tail, grey breast, grey crown, throat and back. In fresh fall plumage, the female's throat and breast are tinged with red-orange, brownish near the flank contrasting with white tail underparts. Their call is a thin 'few'; while their song is warbled high 'chur chur'. It is the state bird of Idaho and Nevada. It is an omnivore and it can live 6 to 10 years in the wild. It eats spiders, grasshoppers, flies and other insects, and small fruits. The mountain bluebird is a relative of the eastern and western bluebirds.
Taxonomy.
The mountain bluebird was formally described in 1798 by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein and given the name "Motacilla s. Sylvia currucoides". The specific epithet combines "curruca", from Carl Linnaeus's binomial name "Motacilla curruca" for the lesser whitethroat, with the Ancient Greek "-oidēs" meaning "resembling". The mountain bluebird is now placed with the two other bluebirds in the genus "Sialia" that was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1827. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
Description.
The mountain bluebird is in length, weighs , and has a wingspan of 11.0-14.2 in (28-36 cm). It is sexually dimorphic in the color of the plumage but the sexes are similar in size. An adult male is bright turquoise-blue above and somewhat lighter blue underneath but with a white lower belly. An adult female has duller blue wings and tail, grey breast, grey crown, throat and back. In fresh fall plumage, the female's throat and breast are brownish near the flank contrasting with white tail underparts. Their call is a thin 'few'; while their song is warbled high 'chur chur'.
Distribution and habitat.
Their breeding habitat is open country across western North America, including mountainous areas, as far north as Alaska. Although mountain bluebirds can be found in some states year-round, their range is expansive -- they generally migrate south to Mexico in the winter and north into western Canada and even Alaska in the summer. Depending on the time of year, they may be ubiquitous in mountain environments like grasslands or landscapes of sagebrush, where trees and shrubs are fairly spread out.
Behavior and ecology.
Breeding.
The male can be seen singing from bare branches. The singing takes place right at dawn, just when the sun rises.
Mountain bluebirds nest in pre-existing cavities or in nest boxes. In remote areas, these birds are less affected by competition for natural nesting locations than other bluebirds. Mountain bluebirds are monogamous. After the couple decides together on an ideal nesting site, the female will typically build their nest themselves out of thin, dry material from the surrounding landscape while the male protects the area, defending against unwelcome visitors. It is true, though, that both males and females fiercely protect the nest. Once the nest is built, the female will lay an egg a day. Eggs are pale blue and unmarked, sometimes white. The clutch size is four or five eggs and she will incubate them for about two weeks. Young are naked and helpless at hatching and may have some down. The young will usually take about 21 days before they leave the nest, and it can take up to two months to raise fledglings to a stage of development at which they are able to fend and provide for themselves.
Mountain bluebirds are cavity nesters and can become very partial to a nest box, especially if they have successfully raised a clutch. They may even reuse the same nest, though not always. These birds will not abandon a nest if human activity is detected close by or at the nest. Because of this, they can be easily banded while they are still in the nest. The threats of predation for those that dwell in nesting boxes are mostly from house cats, raccoons, and the parasitic blowfly, "Apaulina stalia".
Feeding.
During the summer, the diet of Mountain bluebirds predominately consists of insects; while, in the winter months they eat mostly berries (like Juniper berries, Russian-olive berries, elderberry, etc.) and fruit seeds (such as mistletoe seeds and grapes, just to name a few). These birds hover over the ground and fly down to catch insects, also flying from a perch to catch them. The first technique takes up to 8 times the energy of sitting on a perch and waiting. They may forage in flocks in winter, looking for grasshoppers. Mountain Bluebirds will come to a platform feeder with live meal worms, berries, or peanuts.
Relationship to humans.
The mountain bluebird is the state bird of Idaho and Nevada. More generally, the bluebird has lived in writers’ and poets’ imaginations as age-old bearers of joy and reverie.
Status.
Mountain bluebirds are fairly common, but populations declined by about 26% between 1966 and 2014, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population of 4.6 million, with 80% spending some part of the year in the U.S., 20% breeding in Canada, and 31% wintering in Mexico. The species rates an 8 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score. Mountain Bluebird is a U.S.-Canada Stewardship species, and is not on the 2014 State of the Birds Watch List. These bluebirds benefited from the westward spread of logging and grazing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the clearing of forest created open habitat for foraging. The subsequent waning of these industries, coupled with the deliberate suppression of wildfires, led to a dwindling of open acreage in the West and the decline of the species. More recently, as land-use practices have stabilized, so have Mountain Bluebird populations. Construction of nest boxes in suitable habitat has also provided a population boost. Populations are declining in areas where trees are too small to provide natural nesting cavities, and where forest and agricultural management practices have reduced the availability of suitable nest sites. Among birds that nest in cavities but cannot excavate them on their own, competition is high for nest sites. Mountain, Western, and more recently Eastern bluebirds compete for nest boxes where their ranges overlap. House Sparrows, European Starlings, and House Wrens also compete fiercely with bluebirds for nest cavities.


Jacques Le Tort

Jacques Le Tort (c. 1651 – c. 1702) was a French-Canadian fur trapper, trader, explorer and entrepreneur who spent much of his life in the Province of Pennsylvania engaged in the fur trade. He collaborated with other French-Canadians living there at the time, including Peter Bisaillon and Martin Chartier, as well as the future mayor of Philadelphia, James Logan. By the late 1690s he had become wealthy and somewhat notorious; the Provincial authorities had his wife arrested on suspicion of conspiring with the French to take control of Pennsylvania territory, although no charges were ever proven. He disappeared following a trip to England in 1702 and is presumed to have died at sea. His wife Anne Le Tort and his son James Le Tort took over his business after his death.
Birth and immigration to America.
Le Tort was born in Bonnétable (dept. of Sarthe). He became a Huguenot refugee who arrived in New France in 1686. A letter of recommendation dated 1 January 1686 gives his age as 35, so it is inferred that he was born in 1651. The letter also refers to him as "Sieur" ("Lordship"), a title generally used for landowners of elevated social status. Several Pennsylvania documents refer to him as "Captain Le Tort," although the reasons for this are unclear. His wife Anne, his young son James, and two uncles came from France with him, spending a few months in London before embarking for Quebec. A second son, Francis was born soon after their arrival.
Early career.
Le Tort was hired by Daniel Coxe and Matthias Vincent, who attempted to establish a colony of French Huguenots in East and West Vincent Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania and who planned to create an empire in the Indian trade on the south shore of Lake Erie. In 1696 Provincial Governor William Markham wrote that "Le Tort is a Protestant, who was sent over in the year 1686 with a considerable cargo and several French Protestants, of whom he had the charge, by Doctor Cox, Sir Mathias Vincent...to settle 30,000 acres of land up the Schuylkill, that they had bought of Mr. Penn." The colony failed because Huguenot families did not want to move from Philadelphia to wild lands along the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers, although Le Tort and his wife Anne built a homestead there, leasing 400 acres from Coxe and establishing a trading post on the Schuylkill, near the present site of Spring City, Pennsylvania. Coxe founded the New Mediterranean Sea Company in hopes of expanding his business, but could not secure authorization from William Penn, as the British were concerned that competition would reduce fur prices and affect their profits. In 1687 Coxe sent a large quantity of trade goods from England to stock Le Tort's trading post, writing to his agent in Philadelphia:
Sir, I had ordred a Cargoe of Sortable Commodities...which Cargoe Cost here in England att best hand above six hundred pounds...I desire you would lett Monsieur Le Tort and those on my Plantation know that...I have sent all necessaries both for themselves & Indian Trafick and I have ordred my Agent to intrust Mr Le Tort with goods to a considerable vallue...Mr Le Tort hath desired mee to intrust him wth some goods & hath faithfully promised returne of furrs to a good vallue in ye Spring.
Anxious to establish relations with Native American tribes further west, Coxe encouraged Le Tort and his neighbors to make contact with communities in the Ohio Valley and along the upper Mississippi.
Journey west.
 In 1687 or 1688 Le Tort and two other men, probably Huguenots, made their way by canoe up the Susquehanna River, portaged to the Allegheny River, descended the Ohio River to the Mississippi and ascended the "great yellow river," probably the Missouri River. Little is known of the journey as the venture was kept secret to prevent interference by the government of New France or by rival businesses, and Le Tort's journal and map were eventually lost. Coxe later wrote:
I Encourag'd severall to attempt further discoveries whereupon three of my Tenants in a birchen Canoa went up School Kill (a River comes into Delaware River at Philadelphia) above one hundred Miles then a Branch of the same River to its head, & Carrying their Canoa over some small Hills entred the Great River Hohio, which after a great Course of Six hundred Miles Joynes the Mischacebe [Mississippi], and going up that River went up the great yellow River three days Voyage, which River Comes from ye Hills which separate New Mexico from Carolana. They went & Returned Through above forty Nations of Indians who all treated them very kindly & gave them many furs for Indian Trade they Carried with them. I had from them a Large Journall written & a Large Mapp, very Exact, abating the want of Latitudes which [they] had not skill nor Instruments to Take.
Coxe published a report which he submitted in 1719 to the Lords of Trade, but which does not describe the events of the journey or name the three explorers. Le Tort's journal and the map were loaned to William Penn and disappeared. One of Le Tort's two companions on this journey may have been his fellow countryman Peter Bisaillon, who had traveled down the Mississippi in 1686 with Henri de Tonti. In 1688 Le Tort hired Bisaillon to assist him at his trading post in Pennsylvania.
Journey to Europe, 1690.
King William's War erupted in 1688 over competition between England France for trade routes and territory, which affected Le Tort's business by interfering with travel and reducing access to Native American hunters who supplied fur. In 1690, Le Tort decided to make a dangerous journey to England to meet with Coxe to discuss opening new areas of business. He left his trading business in the capable hands of his wife Anne Le Tort. The journey was a difficult one, as described by Provincial Governor William Markham to Governor Francis Nicholson of Maryland in a letter of 26 June 1696:
This Letort was going for England in the ship with Governor Hamilton but he was taken. Letort was carried to Tholoun and narrowly escaped the galleys but after a long and hard usage got into England, where he became acquainted with the West Jersey Company and they understanding that his house stood upon the Schuylkill upon a convenient place for trade with the Indians, contracted with him to trade for them there and wrote to their agent to supply him with goods.
Le Tort evidently did not arrive in England until after 4 March 1692, when Coxe had sold all of his land holdings in North America, and had sold his business interests to the London Company. Le Tort was able to negotiate a contract with the West Jersey Society of London, and returned to Pennsylvania, probably in early 1694, with new business opportunities.
Trial of Anne Le Tort.
Pennsylvania authorities including William Penn suspected that Le Tort and other "coureurs des bois" such as Peter Bisaillon were spying for the French, that they were "very dangerous persons" who "kept private correspondence with the Canida Indians and the French," who "entertained strange Indians in remote and obscure places," and who "uttered suspicious words." They were harassed, arrested and imprisoned, often on false or minor charges.
During Le Tort's absence, his wife was summoned to Philadelphia (together with Peter Bisaillon, and another Huguenot named Captain John Dubrois) and accused on 19 December 1693 before the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania of having carried on a secret correspondence in the year before with "the strange Indians called the Shall-Narooners (Shawnees) and the French of Canada." Anne Le Tort was given until February 6 to respond before the council, during which time her husband Jacques returned from England and appeared with her in Philadelphia. The accusation, by Thomas Jenner and Polycarpus Rose, stated that Anne Le Tort had predicted that the French would come "to take away land from the English," that she had frequent visits from "strange Indians whose language they could not understand," and that she had left a mysterious packet wrapped up in a blue linen cloth, which was then picked up by "James the Frenchman." They also stated that on one occasion she had assaulted Polycarpus Rose with a horsewhip. Le Tort countered the accusations, denying that she had uttered any statement about the French, admitting that she had visits from "strange Indians" as she was operating a fur trading business, identifying the packet as her account book showing the debts owed to her by the Indians, and justifying the attack on the grounds that Rose and Jenner were stealing business from her by trading liquor to the Indians for furs. The Council resolved that Captain Le Tort should give sureties "that hee shall acquaint the governmt with all matters hee can hear of or observe concerning the Natives & the enemies of the countrie, and that he take the oaths appointed by act of parliamt..." He and his wife were then released.
Rivalry with other fur traders.
In 1694 Le Tort established a partnership with Martin Chartier, another French-Canadian who had arrived in Pennsylvania with a band of Shawnee Indians, including his wife Sewatha Straight Tail (1660–1759) and his son Peter Chartier (1690—c.1759). Martin Chartier was an old friend of Peter Bisaillon and had lived with the Shawnee since 1685. By the late 1690s the Canadian fur trade network had become so well-developed that there was a glut of furs coming into Quebec, leading to a drop in prices. For a few years Bisaillon, Chartier and Le Tort ran a smuggling operation, bringing furs from Detroit to Albany and Pennsylvania, where the English paid a higher price for them. Using their connections with Native American communities, Le Tort, Bisaillon and Chartier posed a threat to other local fur traders, and soon there were complaints. In 1702 Robert Quary, Surveyor General of the Customs for New Jersey and Pennsylvania, informed the Provincial Council that "the French are settling themselves on the back of Pennsylvania, about four days journey from New Castle, and...offered this Article to show the danger of the Country for want of a due provision for their defence."
Second journey to Europe and death.
On 4 May, 1696 Casperus Augustine Herman, son of Augustine Herman and Lord of Bohemia Manor, wrote to the Maryland Provincial Council that "Peter Basilion does now live at St. John's, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, but formerly lived thirty miles backwards from any inhabitants, where he treated with the Indians, and was then reported that...Capt. Le Tort, a Frenchman, does now live back in the woods in the same place where the said Basilion formerly lived, and trades with the Indians." This indicates that Bisaillon decided to move out of the backcountry, closer to a town such as Downingtown, while his colleague Jacques Le Tort took over the direct trade with the Native Americans who supplied most of their furs.
On June 26, 1696 Governor Markham wrote to Governor Francis Nicholson of Maryland that "It is not many days since that [Le Tort] went to Burlington to make up his account with the agent [of the West Jersey Company], intending to soon as conveniently can for England." Le Tort was planning to accompany another shipment of furs to London for sale. One source reports that on this journey Le Tort's ship was captured by pirates and he may have been killed but a letter from Le Tort dated 4 March 1702 appears among William Penn's correspondence and indicates that Le Tort was in London at that time, and had gone to Penn's home there in hopes of meeting with him. A second letter dated 4 May 1702, is signed by Jacques Le Tort. He addresses a controversy over Penn's commerce with "French Indians" in Pennsylvania, opening his letter with:I thought it my duty to write
to you, since no one is better qualified than I, after 16 or 17 years since the persecution in France forced me to your Province, especially as regards the affairs of the Indians, amongst whom I have lived and traded all that time.
Jacques Le Tort is known to have testified at a hearing, on behalf of William Penn, in London on 9 June, 1702, in regard to accusations that Peter Bisaillon was a French spy. No further record of Jacques Le Tort exists, and it is presumed that he died at sea on his return to America.
Family.
Le Tort's elder son James Le Tort spent the years 1692 to 1697 in service to a Canadian sea captain and returned to Pennsylvania to take part in his father's fur trading business. He too was arrested and imprisoned several times between 1701 and 1711, but eventually became a prosperous trader and in about 1720 established a trading post at Le Tort's Spring, close to what is now Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and another on the Allegheny River.
Le Tort's younger son Francis Le Tort was apprenticed or indentured to the Swedish-American trader, John Hansson Steelman (1655–1749) (also referred to as Stelman or Tillmann), and in 1711 stole several slaves and fled into the forest. Steelman offered bounty to some Shawnee warriors to bring him back dead or alive, and Francis was killed.
James Logan maintained a good friendship with Anne Le Tort until the end of her life, and in 1719 he asked Isaac Taylor to survey land as a gift for her, on the Susquehanna River near Conewago Creek, with an additional plot of land for her son James. Logan's letter to Taylor says, in part:
 Loving ffriend. Thou wilt receive from Peter Bizaillon himself the warrants on orders for surveying a thousand acres of land...in executing of which I doubt it will be difficult to reconcile his and Anne Le Tort's expectations, but I request thee to use thy endeavours...I am very desirous the old gentlewoman should have some land that she may be fixed, and leave something to her grandchildren. Pray see that it be laid out of a sufficient depth; I think a mile and a half or a quarter, at least, is little enough, but this is left to thee...J. Le Tort is to have 500 acres laid out in the same manner. Thy real friend, J. LOGAN.
Anne Le Tort died some time after 1720. Her son James lived until at least July, 1742 when Lieutenant Governor George Thomas received a letter from him about the murder of two white settlers.


Jean-Baptiste Faribault

Jean-Baptiste Faribault (October 19, 1775 – August 20, 1860) was a trader with the Indians and early settler in Minnesota.
His father, Barthélemy Faribault, a lawyer of Paris, France, settled in Canada towards the middle of the 18th century and served as military secretary to the French army in Canada. After the occupation of the country by the English, he retired to private life in Berthier and he held the office of notary public.
Faribault was born in Berthier, Lower Canada, and received a good school education; after several years of mercantile employment in Quebec, he entered the fur trade, most probably in the employ of Parker, Gerrard, and Ogilvy. In May 1798, he went with others to the island of Michilimackinac or Mackinac, one of the depots of this company. For over ten years, he traded with the Pottowatomic Natives at Kankakee, with the Dakota or the Sioux, Natives at Redwood, on the Des Moines river, and at Little Rapids, on the Minnesota River just upstream of present-day Carver, Minnesota, on behalf of the Northwest Fur Company.
During his residence at Little Rapids, in 1805, he was married to Elizabeth Pelagie Ainse, a half-Dakota daughter of Joseph-Louis Ainse, a British superintendent at Mackinac. In 1809, he settled in the small village of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and commenced trading, on his own account, with the Indians of the Winnebago, Fox, and Sioux tribes. In addition to that, he conducted an exchange of lead with Julien Dubuque, at the point now occupied by the city of that name.
During the War of 1812, Faribault refused to enlist in the British army, and suffered imprisonment and the loss of all his goods in consequence. After the conclusion of the war, in 1815, he became a citizen of the United States, and recommenced his trade at Prairie du Chien. In 1819, he removed to Pike Island in the Mississippi River, which his wife received ownership of under an 1820 treaty, and in 1826 to "St. Peter" (Mendota, Minnesota), opposite the military post of Fort Snelling. There he remained until the last years of his life, which were spent with his children in the town of Faribault, Minnesota, which is named for his eldest son. Faribault County in southern Minnesota was named after Jean-Baptiste.
He was much attached to the Roman Catholic faith of his childhood and presented a house for a chapel to Father Lucien Galtier, the first resident missionary in Minnesota (1840). He died at Faribault, Minnesota, on August 20, 1860.


Minisink

The Minisink or (more recently) Minisink Valley is a loosely defined geographic region of the Upper Delaware River valley in northwestern New Jersey (Sussex and Warren counties), northeastern Pennsylvania (Pike and Monroe counties) and New York (Orange and Sullivan counties).
The name was derived by Dutch colonists from the Munsee name for the area, as bands of their people took names after geographic places which they inhabited as territory throughout the mid-Atlantic area. Originally inhabited by Munsee, the northern branch of the Lenape or Delaware Indians, the area's first European settlers arrived in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and were Dutch and French Huguenot families from colonial New York's Hudson River Valley. The term "Minisink" is not used often today. It is preserved because of its historical relevance concerning the early European settlement of the region during the American colonial period and as an artifact of the early "first contact" between Native Americans and early European explorers, traders and missionaries in the seventeenth century.
Much of the historical Minisink region has been incorporated into the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area after defeat of a controversial dam project proposed to be built by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Delaware River near Tocks Island.
Meaning of the name "Minisink".
The name Minisink comes from the Munsee dialect of Lenape, a group of similar Algonquian dialects that were spoken by the various groups of Lenape, Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians who inhabited the region before European colonization. "Minisink" means "at the island" from the Algonquin root word "minis", meaning island.
During the colonial period, the Minisink was also an area of significant skirmishes and raids between British and French-allied forces in the French and Indian War (the North American front of the Seven Years' War). In response to attacks by larger forces of Delaware, Benjamin Franklin ordered the construction of a series of forts along the Pennsylvanian side of the Delaware River. These forts included Fort Hyndshaw, Fort Dupuy, Fort Norris, and Fort Hamilton, among others.
Earlier historians posited that Minisink meant "people of the stony country" or "where the stones are gathered together." However, Smithsonian linguist Ives Goddard states that any of the attempts to derive either "Minisink" or "Munsee" from words meaning "stone" or "mountain," as proposed by these writers (including Lenape scholar Daniel G. Brinton), are incorrect.
Geology and geography.
Defining the Minisink area.
The Minisink has never been known as a region with distinct, set boundaries. It generally has been conceived as the valley of the Delaware River going northward from the Delaware Water Gap and including the valley of the Neversink River (a tributary entering the Delaware near Port Jervis, New York). According to Vosburgh, "The 'Minisink county' consists of the valley of the Neversink west of the Shawangunk Mountains, and the Delaware valley, as far as the Delaware Water Gap." Some sources imply that it was confined to the width of valley of the Delaware and its surrounding hillsides.
Other sources define the region as an area extending for 20–30 miles to the east and west of the river. This latter definition would include parts or all of the Kittatinny Valley to the east of Kittatinny Mountain in New Jersey, and westward deep into northeastern Pennsylvania. East of the Shawangunk ridge, in New York are the Town of Greenville and the Town of Minisink, both often included as part of the Minisink region. Their residents attend Minisink Valley Central School District.
Course of the Delaware River.
The Delaware River was often referred to as the "Minisink River" in early Dutch colonial documents and on early maps. The Delaware River constitutes part of the boundary between Pennsylvania and New York, and the entire boundary between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The middle section of the Delaware River's course, roughly between Port Jervis, New York and the Delaware Water Gap (a break in Kittatinny Mountain where the river runs through) constitutes the north and southern points of the Minisink or Minisink Valley. The river flows down a broad Appalachian valley. The Minisink is a buried valley, where the Delaware flows in a bed of glacial till that buried the eroded bedrock during the last glacial period.
At Port Jervis, New York, the river enters the Port Jervis trough. At this point, the Walpack Ridge deflects the Delaware into the Minisink Valley. It follows the southwest strike of the eroded Marcellus Formation beds along the Pennsylvania–New Jersey state line for to the end of the ridge at Walpack Bend in Walpack Township, New Jersey in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. It skirts the Kittatinny ridge, which it crosses at the Delaware Water Gap, between nearly vertical walls of sandstone, quartzite, and conglomerate.
Appalachian Mountains.
The features of the Ridge and Valley province were created approximately 300–400 million years ago during the Ordovician period and Appalachian orogeny—a period of tremendous pressure and rock thrusting that caused the creation of the Appalachian Mountains. This physiographic province occupies approximately two-thirds of the county's area—the county's western and central sections. Its contour is characterized by long, even ridges with long, continuous valleys in between that generally run parallel from southwest to northeast. This region is largely formed by sedimentary rock.
Kittatinny Mountain is the dominant geological feature in the parts of the Minisink located within New Jersey. It is part of the Appalachian Mountains, and part of a ridge that continues as the Blue Ridge or Blue Mountain in Eastern Pennsylvania, and as Shawangunk Ridge in New York. It begins in New Jersey as the eastern half of the Delaware Water Gap, and runs northeast to southwest along the Delaware River. Elevations range from 1,200 to 1,800 feet and attains a maximum elevation of 1,803 feet at High Point, in Montague Township. Between Kittatinny Mountain and the Delaware River is the Walpack Ridge, with elevations of 500 to 800 feet. It is a smaller ridge that parallels Kittatinny Mountain between the Walpack Bend and Port Jervis, New York, and encloses the watershed of the Flat Brook which is also called Walpack Valley.
The Kittatinny Valley lies to the east of Kittatinny Mountain and ends with the Highlands in the east. It is largely a region of rolling hills and flat valley floors. Elevations in this valley range from 400 to 1,000 feet. It is part of the Great Appalachian Valley running from eastern Canada to northern Alabama. This valley is shared by three major watersheds—the Wallkill River, with its tributaries Pochuck Creek and Papakating Creek flowing north; and the Paulins Kill watershed and Pequest River watershed flowing southwest.
Kittatinny's valley floor is part of the Ordovician Martinsburg Formation (shale and slate) which make up most of the valley—and the Jacksonburg Formation (mostly limestone). The mountain is of the Silurian Shawangunk Conglomerate which is mainly composed of quartz. Due to the hardness of the quartz, the mountain is extremely resistant to weathering.
History.
The Lenape and other cultures.
This area was occupied for thousands of years by succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. At the time of European encounter, the historic Lenape ( or ), a Native American people, also called Delaware Indians after their historic territory along the Delaware River, inhabited the mid-Atlantic coastal areas and inland along the Hudson and Delaware rivers. As a result of disruption following the French and Indian War (1756–1763) the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, the main groups now live in Ontario (Canada), and Wisconsin and Oklahoma in the United States. In Canada, they are enrolled in the Munsee-Delaware Nation, the Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and the Delaware of Six Nations. In the United States, they are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes, the Delaware Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians located in Oklahoma, and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, located in Wisconsin. The Ramapough Mountain Indians and the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, recognized as tribes by the state of New Jersey, identify as Lenape descendants.
Condemnation.
The Delaware River is prone to floods—some resulting from seasonal snow melt or rain run-off from heavy rainstorms. However, record flooding occurred in August 1955 in the aftermath of two separate hurricanes (Hurricane Connie and Hurricane Diane) that passed over the area within the span of one week. On 19 August 1955, the river gauge at Riegelsville, Pennsylvania recorded that the Delaware River reached a crest of 38.85 feet (11.84 m) above flood stage.
A project to dam the river near Tocks Island was in the works before the 1955 floods. But several deaths and severe damages resulting from these floods brought the issue of flood control to the national level. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed the construction of the dam which would have created a 37-mile (60-km) long lake between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with depths of up to 140 feet. The area around the lake would be established as the "Tocks Island National Recreation Area" under the oversight of the National Park Service to offer recreation activities such as hunting, hiking, fishing, and boating. In addition to flood control and recreation, the dam would be used to generate hydroelectric power, and provide a clean water supply to New York City and Philadelphia.
Starting in 1960, the present day area of the Recreation Area was acquired for the Army Corps of Engineers through eminent domain. Approximately 15,000 people were displaced by the condemnation of personal property along the Delaware River and the surrounding area through eminent domain. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 dwellings and outbuildings were demolished in preparation for the dam project and subsequent flooding of the valley. This included many irreplaceable historical sites and structures connected with the valley's colonial and Native American heritage. The plan was embroiled in controversy and protest by environmental groups and embittered displaced residents. Because of considerable opposition from environmental activists, the unavailability of government funding, and a geological assessment of the dam's safety given its location near active fault lines, the federal government transferred the property to the National Park Service in 1978 and the project's land holdings were reorganized to create the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.