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.
The first Duchess was sixty feet long with cabin accommodation for eight and an ability to carry forty tons of freight. She was flat bottomed, and could “get along… where there was a heavy dew, or if the ground was a little damp.”
Other names:
Spallumacheen, Spallumcheen, Speylumacheen, Spillamachene, Spillemacheen, Spillemachene, Spillemachine, Spillemcheen, Spill-e-mu-chem, Spillimacheene, Spillimachine, Spillimachene, Spillimachin, Spillomochene, Spillumacheen
“[W]e had lunch and rested the horses after which we started out for ‘Spillimacheen.’ I have spelt the name as above but it is open to any one wishing to spell it any other way to do so if he likes, the only part of the work about which there is any agreement being ‘Spil.'” 4 I would disagree. From the list of spellings I’ve encountered, I would argue that the most anyone has agreed upon on is “Sp.”
Bugaboos / n / a nemesis; a real or imagined obstacle that cannot be overcome; something that always causes failure or bad luck.
Associated Names: Named after the Red Line group of mines at the head of the creek. The Red Line (1898-c.1902) was also known as the McDonald Mines (1902), the Ptarmigan Mines (1903-1920s), and Selkirk Ptarmigan Mines Ltd (1958-1964?)
“There is no doubt that the mine will never be reopened again, and there is also no doubt that a great deal more money was spent on the property than ever its showing of ore warranted.” (Report to the Minister of Mines, 1915)
“Jim considered the proposal with drunken gravity and when I mentioned that there was still a bottle of whiskey… he handed Kelly over on my promise that I would lock him up. I had to keep my hands on him until inside the government buildings and then the old brute abused me like a pickpocket. I’ll never forget the figure of fun he made, sitting behind his desk with a muzzle-loading Colt revolver in each hand.”
Armstrong quickly developed a reputation in the valley as, “one of the most energetic little men I ever met.” Described as, “Short, compactly but cleanly built, with iron-grey hair, square, determined jaw and piercing black eyes,” Armstrong was also described as “the biggest little man on the Upper Columbia.”
“We… coast[ed] along the low rush-grown shore [of Columbia Lake] towards the south-western corner … We soon became aware that this marshy waste of rushes, grass, willows, and water swarmed with every sort of moisture-loving bird, from geese down to sand-pipers. … we began to paddle up what we guessed to be the arm leading to the landing. More than a mile we followed this delusive stream, remarkable for the numerous springs which everywhere gushed up from crater-like basins at the bottom, while round them grew the most beautiful and luxuriant water-weeds ever seen, their delicate filigree-work of many-hued leaves and tendrils all clearly defined in the limpid water.” (Lees and Clutterbuck, B.C. 1887: A Ramble in British Columbia, p 178-179.)
This prominent peak was the first mountain in the Windermere Valley to be named by a European. It was then renamed, renamed, and renamed again before the powers that be finally decided to return back to that first European name: after a heroic British naval commander who was also known for an extended affair with another woman while both were married.
After the canal flats project failed to succeed, the entire venture was titled as “The Grohman Canal Swindle” and Baillie Grohman himself was shouldered with much of the blame for it.
In The Windermere 