Dunbar Creek, Dunbar Lake (local name for Big Fish Lake)

Other names: South Fork of Salmon River

Dunbar’s real estate dealings in the Windermere Valley are rather murky, and it is unknown how or why his attention was drawn to the area.

Dunbar Creek, flowing into Templeton River to the west of Brisco, was named after Charles Trott Dunbar, a Vancouver based land and timber speculator, “who held land interests here in the 1910s.”¹ Dunbar’s connection with the area is somewhat tenuous, and questions remain as to why his name was chosen for the creek.

Brief Biography

Charles Trott Dunbar was born in Rhode Island, U.S. in about 1862.² By 1885 he was living in the city of St Paul’s, Minnesota,³ where he worked initially for the National German American Bank, and later as a general agent for the Union Land Company, a real estate company later described as “one of the largest in the country.”⁴

This was the beginning of Trott’s long and varied career centered around land and real estate speculation, in which he made numerous investments in a variety of companies. In Saint Paul, under the name Chas T Dunbar & Co, he acted as an investment broker,⁵ with a large portion of business going towards sales of Union Land Company stock.⁶

Dunbar was also elected to the governing committee of the newly formed St Paul Stock Exchange in May 1887.⁷ At the end of that year he was on the first board of directors of the Grand Marais and Vermillion Iron & Land Company,⁸ and a few months later (in May 1888) was one of the incorporators of a land syndicate company based in St Paul named the Burlington Heights Improvement Company.⁹

Vancouver Interests

Dunbar’s eagerness to invest in real estate and other ventures brought him to Vancouver B.C. in either 1888 or 1889,¹⁰ where he “invested largely in real estate”, purchasing property in the West End including a large portion extending from Burrard Street to the edge of Stanley Park.¹¹ He also promoted and was a large stock holder in the then-new townsite of North Vancouver.

Vancouver in the late 1880s was something of a real estate speculator’s paradise, and in 1891 Dunbar was described as “one of the most successful real estate men in the city,” with, “the most abiding faith in the future of Vancouver as a great commercial, shipping, railway and manufacturing centre.”¹²

Through the 1890s, Dunbar continued to take on new investments. In 1895 he is listed as a director and mine owner of the newly formed Lillooet Fraser River and Cariboo Gold Fields Company Ltd, formed to acquire and work gold claims in and about Lillooet, and promoted for investment in London.¹³ He also purchased an option in 1896 on a mining claim near Trail,¹⁴ and was vice president of a mining company formed near Springer Creek in the New Denver area called the Bondholder Mining Co Ltd.¹⁵ This company may have been re-consolidated into the Two Friends Mine Ltd shortly after (both companies were on Springer Creek – it’s unclear if they were separate or different iterations of the same).¹⁶

Dunbar Leaves and Returns

News of gold found in the Yukon prompted Dunbar to join the early rush up north in 1897, and he spent the next decade in Dawson City engaging in mining and real estate.¹⁷

By 1907 Dunbar had returned to Vancouver, where he began to apply for timber licenses up the Mamquam River near New Westminster.¹⁸ This resulted in his holding extensive timber rights.¹⁹

Dunabr’s investment ventures continued, including with applying for a charter for the Vancouver & Northern Railway in February 1909 to construct a line from Vancouver north to Pemberton Meadows, likely to aid access to his timber properties up Mamquam River.²⁰ A year later the Port Moody, Indian River & Northern Railway company was incorporated with Dunbar as a promoter (both railways were proposed along similar routes, but it is unclear if these were the same company).²¹ Announcements were made in May 1910 that construction was beginning on the Port Moody line, but nothing more is heard about the project.²² Dunbar is later reported to have leveraged this charter for a significant payout from the CPR.²³

At around this time, Dunbar also purchased additional land on Granville Street and in the Point Grey district of Vancouver.²⁴ He also became a director of a real estate, loans and shipping company out of Vancouver known as Lefurgey & Company Ltd,²⁵ the president of the Mayflower Consolidated Mining Company in Rhyolite, Nevada,²⁶ and an early investor and director in a California oil drilling company (Maricopa 36) that, for a time, seemed to have struck it rich.²⁷ Dunbar also purchased land in New Orleans, Louisiana, and proposed construction of an electric railway (this proposal was turned down by residents).²⁸

Charles Trott Dunbar passed away 5 April 1927 in Vancouver at the age of 65. In his obituary, it is noted that Dunbar Heights, Dunbar Street, and Dunbar Park, all located in Vancouver, were named in his honor.²⁹

Investment in the Windermere Valley

Dunbar’s real estate dealings in the Windermere Valley are rather murky, and it is unknown how or why his attention was drawn to the area.

The first mention found of Dunbar is in September 1909, when it was reported that James Johnston and Peter Michselsen had sold their ranches, “to an agent named Dunbar.”³⁰ Dunbar’s name again pops up in 1913 with a legal action by him against the Kootenay Central Railway, protesting against a right of way being cut through his property (this was likely Lot 107).³¹

Dunbar had other dealings in the valley as well, and these likely include many that I have been unable to trace. A legal action against Dunbar by a man named Cowdry in February 1921 resulted in the sale of of a number of the properties in which Dunbar seems to have had an interest.³² The lots that Dunbar had some interest in that I was able to uncover are recorded on the map at the top of the page.

Why Dunbar Creek?

The properties mentioned above are all located around Windermere Lake, and do not explain how Dunbar’s name got attached to what was then known as the South Fork of the Salmon River. To explain this, it is necessary to consult the paperwork for certain land grants in the northern area.

In 1911, applications for at least five parcels of land, including three in close proximity to what would become Dunbar Creek, were filed by local residents with Dunbar’s name included on the receipt. Perhaps there’s someone out there with experience in property law to help explain the relevance: Dunbar’s signature appears below that of the applicant’s with the word “per” before it.

Receipt for Crown Grant No 1993/286, with signatures of Marguerite Barbour and Chas T Dunbar. British Columbia. Crown Land Registry and the Office of the Surveyor General. Crown Grant No 1993/286 (Marguerite Barbour, 9 Aug 1911), British Columbia Crown Land Grants Vol 286 (no 1901/0286-1996/0286), 1911, img 887.

Nearly all of these properties went on to be put up for sale for unpaid taxes in 1921, with two of them being in the care of Dunbar Investment Co,³³ a real estate firm owned by Chas T Dunbar.³⁴ By 1925 all five were owned outright by Dunbar Investment Co (and were again up for taxes).³⁵

Dunbar’s co-signature on a handful of real estate grant applications does not fully explain why or how Dunbar Creek came to be named after him. Although his name appeared on the receipts issued, he did not own any of the land himself in 1914 when the creek itself was named. It is possible that he had other real estate connections in the area that we do not know about. Regardless, the motivations of whomever it was that decided on the name “Dunbar Creek” remain very unclear, particularly as to why the name of a land speculator was chosen in preference to some other person who lived or worked in the area.

The re-naming of the South Fork of Salmon River to Dunbar Creek was made official in January 1915, at the same time as the abrupt re-naming of Salmon River to Templeton River.³⁶ The reason for that latter name change is even more obscure, and we’ll get to that chestnut in next post. For now, it seems likely that surveyors were desperate for new names, and were perhaps only tangentially concerned about local relevance when choosing them.

What was then known as Salmon River, flowing close to Big Fish Lake, on a 1911 survey. Survey of Lot 9458 for John S Barbour. British Columbia. Crown Land Registry and the Office of the Surveyor General. Crown Grant No 1992/286 (John S Barbour, 9 Aug 1911), British Columbia Crown Land Grants Vol 286 (no 1901/0286-1996/0286), 1911, img 876.

Big Fish Lake

Although not actually connected with Dunbar Creek, since at least 1949 Big Fish Lake has been known by locals as Dunbar Lake.³⁷ Land lots adjoining the lake had been purchased in 1908/1909, with John Hopkins Taynton and his wife, Lydia Taynton, applying to purchase one lot each on the east of the lake in December 1908, and John Smith Barbour and wife, Marguerite Barbour, each applying to purchase a lot to the west in March 1909 (Dunbar’s name appears on the receipts for the lots purchased by the Barbours).³⁸ As best as I can tell, all of this land eventually reverted to the Crown.

In 1946, a tract of land alongside the lake (in Lydia Taynton’s lot) was set aside by the Provincial Government as a recreational park, recognizing its long popularity as a fishing spot.³⁹ Leases to, “certain Crown lands” at the lake were also given in 1966 by public auction (I assume these resulted in the cabin lots up there today).⁴⁰ A resort, the Westmorland Resort, was also present alongside the lake at around the same time.⁴¹ I would bet there are some locals that know more about all of this – please share!

An Early Description

As a final, more esoteric point, Dunbar Creek and Dunbar Lake are interesting in that they have widely different reputations among the locals. On one hand, Dunbar Lake is viewed as a peaceful and enjoyable retreat, whereas the ascent of Dunbar Creek has an extremely unfavourable reputation in hiking circles. Both of these perspectives are captured in a 1915 article in the Canadian Alpine Club Journal describing the first ascent of Mount Ethelbert. Note that, although the name for Dunbar Creek had officially been set at the beginning of 1915, this name change had clearly not yet become common knowledge.

See Also

Mount Ethelbert For those not on the mailing list, this post has just been completely rewritten based on further research – check it out
The Taynton Family

Footnotes

Other Resources