Hurst Creek, North Hurst Creek, Hurst Creek Road

Jack Hurst was “a versatile man, able to do all the jobs on the ranch… He played the fiddle and was a good story teller.”³³

John (Jack) Milton Hurst was born around Damascus in Stephenson County, Illinois on 2 April 1862.¹ He had an older sister, Margarete (1857-1930), and a brother, Martin (1859-1860), who had died young.² According to family genealogies (on Ancestry.com) their mother, Prudence Meacum, passed away in September 1863.

There is not a lot known about Jack’s early life. Census records indicate that he and his father, Amos, worked as farmers in Iowa in 1880 and 1885.³ Amos passed away 17 March 1891 in Afton Iowa.⁴ Later sources also point to Hurst as having hunted and guided in Wyoming.⁵

Canada Bound

John Hurst immigrated to Canada in about 1899.⁶ When he later applied for his certificate of naturalization in the summer of 1902 he was required to have lived in Canada for a minimum of three years. This certificate, awarded in August 1902, gave Hurst British citizenship, and suggests his intention to stay in the country (Canadian citizenship was only established as separate from British citizenship in 1947).⁷

It’s unknown why Hurst chose the Windermere Valley. The first trace I was able to find of him is a note of his doing work on the trail up to Jumbo Creek, including building two bridges.⁸ Soon after, Hurst, along with John Bonander and W.W. Robinson, staked the Leora group up Jumbo Creek on 15 August 1900.⁹ Hurst would eventually apply for a crown grant on these claims in 1917 (along with Leonard Rees), which were then known as the Clara (Lot 12502) and the Ida (Lot 12501), then described as being up Leora Creek (a tributary of Jumbo Creek – this creek now has no official name, and is one valley west from Leo Creek).¹⁰

By 1901 Hurst seemed to be settling into the community, being added as a trustee to the Windermere District Hospital board in Wilmer,¹¹ and filing a pre-emption for Lot 7907 located up what is now Frances Creek (then No 3 Creek).¹² Later newspaper reports suggest that Hurst initially had a partner on this ranch, Tom C. Conners, but Conners sold out his interest in the summer of 1903.¹³

Ranching up Frances Creek

Hurst was the first settler to take up land for farming up in the Frances Creek valley. He called his ranch “Fairview”, but it later became better known as Hidden Valley Ranch.¹⁴ Early access to the ranch was via a trail from Wilmer. According to Hurst’s daughter, all goods and implements had to be taken in by pack horse, including all of the farm machinery.¹⁵

This lack of road limited Hurst’s ability to sell products from his ranch, just as prospectors further up the creek were also limited in their activities (notably on the Isaac, the Lead Queen, and the McLean group).¹⁶ Money was finally awarded by the provincial government in 1906 to extend the wagon road from Firlands up to Hurst’s ranch, and Hurst himself was given the task of laying down the route.¹⁷

The Hurst ranch became the most productive and successful of the many properties staked up Frances creek, described in 1906 as having, “All kinds of grain, hay, vegetables and even fruit trees are already to be seen growing luxuriantly.”¹⁸ In 1909 Hurst purchased an additional piece of land (Lot 6369), located some distance from his first.¹⁹

Even after staking his ranch, Hurst continued to be listed through 1903 in provincial directories as a prospector living in Wilmer.²⁰ In 1903 Hurst also worked for “a long time” (likely through the winter) up at the Ptarmigan Mine,²¹ immediately followed by a trip with prospector Tom Brown up Frances creek.²² This seasonal mix of prospecting and ranching was not uncommon for many living in the valley at the time.

A Bear Story

Hurst had his fifteen minutes of fame in autumn 1903 with a story of a bear encounter that was re-printed in newspapers across the province. For the squeamish: enough to say Hurst killed a bear by shooting it then pelting it with rocks. Feel free to leave it there and scroll on down to the next heading. As for the full story:

Guiding

This newspaper story seemed to help boost Hurst’s popularity in hunting circles. The summer following the bear incident he was employed as a guide for a group of eastern hunters. Hurst reported planning to bring the hunters down into the States,²⁴ but in subsequent years he would use his ranch as a guiding outpost, continuing to put up both hunters and local travellers.²⁵ Hurst’s reputation as a guide became “world wide,”²⁶ and he was “recommended as an excellent guide and outfitter,” for travellers wanting to get into the mountains.²⁷

Family Life

John Hurst married relatively late in life, at age 53 (his marriage certificate lists him as age 42), to Ursula Agnes Ferreira on 20 April 1915 in Wilmer.²⁸ The couple had three children, Enid Laura Hansen (1916-2008),²⁹ Vera Adella Wikman (1918-2011),³⁰ and Mervyn (unknown dates).³¹

Jack passed away on 1 December 1924 of rheumatic fever, and is buried in the Windermere Cemetery.³² He was remembered by his daughter, Vera, as, “a versatile man, able to do all the jobs on the ranch… He played the fiddle and was a good story teller.”³³

Gravestone of John Milton Hurst at the Windermere Cemetery. Photo: Alex Weller

See Also

Lead Queen Mine
Isaac Mine

Footnotes

Other Resources