"All the historical books which contain no lies are extremely tedious." Anatole France (1844-1924).

The history of Hudson's Hope needs no lies to make it interesting.  Where else can one tread in the paths - even in the very footsteps themselves - of three-storey high dinosaurs?  Follow the raging river that transported Alexander Mackenzie to his destination of the Pacific Ocean . . . . even paddle a canoe over the now placid Dinosaur Lake which covers the Rocky Mountain Canyon where Mackenzie had to arduously haul his canoe up the steep cliffs when he realized he would not win against the river's wrath?

And then come the legends . . . . of mysteries so complex many have never been solved . . . . the mysterious slaying of the "Danes" in 1918 . . . . one body found in the cabin shot 10 times with a 303 British rifle, the other found much later on the flat west of Hudson's Hope, burned almost beyond recognition . . . the death of the astronomer whose body was found in the spring by tracing his footsteps that eerily resurfaced as the snow melted . . . the mysterious disappearance of Bob Porter, fur buyer, in the Black Canyon.  When his body was found months later his money belt containing $2,000 fur buying money was gone, although he was still wearing the trousers the belt had been attached to . . . . then there's the tale of George Clark who defied Death by water one fine October day, the 22nd to be exact, at 10:00 in the morning . . . . only to have Death claim Her due exactly three years later, on October 22nd.  Time of death?  10:00 in the morning.

These and other legends are preserved in the Museum in Hudson's Hope.  Housed in the old Hudson's Bay Company store, the same walls that once supported supplies for trappers, guides and outfitters, the store that once sold the bright ribbons to Indians whose decorated horses then raced up and down the flat in front of the old store, now displays our legends for all visitors to see.
Let me tell you a little of our history . . . .

The first white explorer through the area was Alexander Mackenzie in 1793 on his journey up the Peace River, the only watercourse that completely traverses the Rocky Mountains.  By the early 1800s the Peace had become established by the Nor'Westers as a major trade route through the Rockies to their posts at Fort McLeod and Fort St. James in New Caledonia.  The economy of the area was based on the lucrative fur trade.

Alexander Mackenzie found only a few Indian tepees dotting the banks of the river when he made his epic trip in 1793; even then, though, the area amazed him for its beauty, its ruggedness, and, with an eye to commerce, its vast quantities of excellent coal.  The Aylard Mine, once located part way between Hudson's Hope and the Bennett Dam, worked on a coal seam eight feet thick, composed of top quality semi-anthricite, which left only 3 per cent ash.  The old donkey boiler from this mine can be seen in the Museum's display yard.  Mackenzie, and others who followed, saw these coal seams in the rock cliffs . . . they saw the available lumber, the agreeable climate and the great river for transportation and power.  Mackenzie's diary also commented on another of our singular features: in the area of the Gething and Aylard Creeks, it was noted that one could burn a shoe while standing on certain cracks in the earth, from which emitted heat, smoke and a stench of sulphur.  These rose coloured sandstone areas are the result of low burning underground fires, and can still be seen below the Bennett Dam.  Where else can one's eyes view Heaven, while one's feet are smoking from the fires of Hell?

Fort Hudson's Hope was originally known as Rocky Mountain Portage Fort, built by Simon Fraser in the autumn of 1805 at the foot of the Rocky Mountain Canyon on the north bank of the river.  Operated for a time by the Hudson's Bay Company after its coalition with the North West Company in 1821, it was abandoned for a time in 1825 to punish the Indians for a massacre at Fort St. John in 1823.

New Hudson's Hope was built about 1875 on the south bank about 12 miles further upstream near the east end of the canyon, at its foot.  Some time after 1880 this post was again moved to its present location on the north side, on a seven-acre site surveyed out and still remaining in the name of the Hudson's Bay Company, except for portions sold to the Anglican Church and the Hudson's Hope Historical Society.  The town of Hudson's Hope is situated on an unbroken flat of land running parallel to the peace River for five miles, with an average width of two miles.

The name "Hudson's Hope" has been recorded as early as 1869.  Although the origin of the name is another of our unsolved mysteries, there are several conjectures as to how the name was given: it was named after an old prospector named Hudson or Hodgson who "hoped" to make a strike here.  It was named for the Hudson's Bay Company in their establishment of a post here, the farthest point of navigation before the portage.  The word "hope" has also been traced to an old meaning, (SOED, NED, Hope, sb2) being "a small enclosed valley, especially a smaller opening branching out from the main dale and running up to the mountain ranges; the upland part of a mountain valley; a blind valley."  These meanings were used to the end of the 19th century and place names ending "hope" were quite common in Scotland and north-eastern England.  Whatever its origin, people here like the name and don't worry too much about from whence it came.  Hudson's Hope is not a town that seeks out pedigrees.  The losing of our "apostrophe S" is another matter, however.  All throughout our historical documents, the name has been recorded as "Hudson's Hope."  Somehow (again subject to legend) around 1915 the postal authorities omitted the " 's" on their rubber stamp and continued to omit it, although the postmaster, mining recorders and Hudson's Bay Company continued to use it for many years thereafter.  We are now legally the "District of Hudson's Hope, Hudson's Hope, B.C.".  A queer lot, to be sure.

Hudson's Hope continued to be an important navigational point because of the impassable rapids above the town.  Settlers and supplies were freighted in from Lake Athabasca at first, then later from Peace River Crossing when the railway reached that point.  The sternwheelers, beginning with Bishop Grouard's 'St. Charles' in 1903 broke the eternal silence of the North with their sharp whistles and easier ingress of settlers.  This boat operated the 525 miles between the rapids called Vermilion Chutes to Hudson's Hope.  In 1905 the Hudson's Bay Company put their sternwheeler, SS Peace River, into operation; it was a 110' long vessel that could carry 40 tons of freight.  The book, "North With Peace River Jim" written in 1910 and recently published by the Glenbow Foundation of Calgary, gives us a flavour of those days:

"Lying up against the far bank, when we arrived, was the little white Hudson's Bay steamer, Peace River, 'Coaling up' with cordwood, slid down a 200' chute to the river bank and packed on board by the half-breed hands.

". . . . As the boat pulled out, the citizens and entire population of Peace River Crossing gathered on the bank and gave us god-speed and good wishes.  We responded with three cheers and a tiger.  Three half-breeds with load rifles knelt on the bank and fired the royal salute, with rifle muzzles pointed skyward and the butts on the ground.  Again we cheered and again the salute crackled out, then the steamer swung wide and took the big turn, and the current and the sternwheeler paddles soon took us from the sight of the beautiful Peace River Crossing."

The SS Peace River (a model of which may be seen at the Peace Canyon Dam Visitors Center), was replaced by the Athabasca River in 1915, which could carry 100 tons, and again by the famous D.A. Thomas which ran the river from 1919-1929.  Built at a cost of $119,000, she could carry 100 passengers and more than 200 tons of freight.  Optimism about the Hudson's Hope coal fields convinced her owner, Baron Rhondda, a Welsh coal millionaire, so that he had oil tanks installed into the boat.  However, in its entire career, the D.A. Thomas burned only cordwood cut in four-foot lengths, and lots of it.

Several smaller boats navigated the Peace, most belonging to sawmill companies such as the Diamond P's "Grenfall" and Peterson's "Pine Pass".  From 1920 to 1952 the Hudson's Bay Company operated a fleet of motorships on the Peace.  The first was the Weenusk, which operated from 1920 to 1940 on diesel engines.  In 1940 it was replaced by the Weenusk II, which operated until 1951.

Another unique enterprise in Hudson's Hope was Jack Pollon's lime kiln situated on the lime bed beneath the spring that gushes out, summer and winter, on the riverbank below the present town water pump.  The first batch of lime was burned in 1932, and by the 40s it was being shipped by the Hudson's Bay boats to all points in the Peace and north to the Bering Sea.  One can still see the base of the old rock kiln, although local residents will never again smell the carbon burn-off smoke from the kilns, nor will the Hudson's Bay Company house ever again feel the rattle of falling pebbles from the blast of black powder.

The boats no longer come, although many people still living in Hudson's Hope remember clearly the excitement of the shrill call of the boats, for it indeed represented not only transportation and freight shipments, but a reassurance that Hudson's Hope was part of the ever-quickening pace of the outside world.  Sometimes we still need that assurance, but the whistle will no longer come from the river, but from the great silent black caves of coal that have waited for other aspects of development to catch up, or slow down, so its tremendous potential can once again be realized.

In 1901 Neil Gething and W.J. "Steel" Johnson discovered this coal in the Peace Canyon but had to wait until 1908 before the "Peace River Block" was opened by the Federal Government to mineral staking.  By 1911 and 1912 the Peace region was gradually being settled by homesteaders, who recognized the resources of the country.  The problem . . . . transportation.  As early as 1878 a rail line was proposed through the Peace River Pass to the Skeena area.  In the early 1900s it was again proposed and a Federal Charter was taken out to construct a railway from the Peace River Block west through the Peace-Finlay area to Stewart (approximately 120 miles north of Prince Rupert).  D.A. Thomas had taken out leases on the coal deposits of Carbon Creek and also had a rail charter from Edmonton to the Pacific via either the Nass or Skeena Rivers.  In 1915 the Dominion Telegraph reached Hudson's Hope from Fort St. John and a wagon road was extended from Hudson's Hope to East Pine.  World War I put a stop to local progress

In 1923 the first load of coal was barged downstream to Peace River Crossing, the head of the Edmonton-Dunvegan and BC Railway.  But it wasn't until the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942 that Hudson's Hope coal was in demand.

Dawson Creek was allocated as the railhead of the Northern Alberta Railway.  In 1952 the Hart Highway was extended north through the Pine Pass to link the Peace with the southern portion of the province, leaving Hudson's Hope somewhere in the middle.  It was Axel Weenergren's resource development plans that centred Hudson's Hope in the picture of progress by his plan to harness the power of the Peace.  The rest is modern history.