CALL NUMBER: T0399:0001
RECORDED: Hope (B.C.), 1963-03-24 & 25
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Martin Starret, born July 17, 1888, describes his family background, starting with his maternal grandfather, Captain Henry Smith. His grandmother's family name was Stevens. He describes a trip with his uncle, C.V. Smith, to Hazelton in 1909 to learn the fur trade. He discusses a shipment consisting of seventy tons of alcohol for a man called Blackjack MacDonald. He offers a description of Hazelton and his first recollections upon landing there including specific people and events. He discusses his mother and his father, born in 1850 in Brampton Ontario, who was a surveyor. His father also mined gold with a man named Metcalf, and Jack Kerkup who later became the Gold Commissioner at Rossland. His father and a man named Flood, who was from Woodstock Ontario, and a man named Corrigan went from Hope to Skagit in Washington to mine gold. He describes their adventures on the trail to Skagit. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret continues with the story. One of the men began to miss a few things out of his bag such as salt and bacon. The man accused was a Chinese miner and he was required to cut off his hair to be set free. His father returned to Silver Creek, a couple of miles below Hope. Mr. Starret describes Hope, BC, and its residents in the 1890s. Stories of Bill Bristol who had the contract of cutting cords of wood for the steamboat company for a dollar and a quarter per pile. Bristol was born in Syracuse, NY. He worked in the mines in San Francisco in 1849 and came to Hope in 1858. Mr. Starret describes the naming of Catz Landing, Bristol's Landing and a few more places. Bristol used to carry mail from Westminster to Yale in the season when the boats could not run. More stories about Bristol.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0002
RECORDED: Hope (B.C.), 1963-03-24 & 25
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret describes cattle drives and cattle trains near Hope in the 1890s. He offers anecdotes about William Yates who was a worker for Hudson's Bay Company, the man for which Yates Street in Victoria is named. He describes work at the Whitworth Ranch in the Skagit Valley in 1907, a man named Bob Hume who claimed that he was the first white man born in BC, who also worked there. Hume told Mr. Starret the story of Simon Gun-an-noot, an Indian outlaw who killed two white men in Hazelton, including Alec MacIntosh, in October 1907. Gun-an-noot eventually gave himself up because there were no witnesses. Starret tells stories of the famous packer Cataline, whose real name was Jean Caux, and discusses Cataline's drinking habits. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret tells a story about Cataline taking the horseshoes off a horse who was carrying eggs, so that the horse's feet would get sore and he would walk lightly, so as not to break any eggs. More anecdotes about Cataline. Steve Tingley was an old timer who owned a ranch and his wife was killed on a horse. Stories about other packers and old timers such as Ned Stout, Bob Steveson, and John Allway who died in September 1908. He discusses W.W. Walkem who wrote about the first Fraser River bars, and mentions a man named Pete Toye. Mr. Starret offers anecdotes about his mother's experience as a school teacher, and a hike with his father to Eureka mine near Silver Creek in 1897.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0003
RECORDED: Hope (B.C.), 1963-03-24 & 25
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret discusses early white settlers in the Babine Lake region. Stories about Walter Williscroft who lived outside Hazelton, and had to turn back along a trail to find his dog. A story about contractor Duncan Ross and his dealings with a Chinese blacksmith. A packing contest which a Mongolian won. A story of the "Bell Mare", an Indian woman who carried a bell and when the bell would ring the horses would think there was another horse up ahead and rush to get there. Mr. Starret offers a detailed description of packing methods. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret discusses early settlers at Hope in 1900: Yates, Alvarez and Wardel. Feed for the horses was the biggest drawback of Hope. The benefits of Hope from a geographical point of view. Hazelton got busy in 1910 because of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Men from Ontario seemed to be best adjusted to life out west. More on Hope. A story of Bill Miner, a famous train robber and a Robin Hood type figure, who was also a prospector. After one train robbery, Bill Miner rode a split-hoofed horse from the scene; the police tracked the horse and caught Miner in 1903. More stories about Miner and his generosity. Mines in the area are overviewed. A description of the survey of Allison Pass in 1906.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0004
RECORDED: Hope (B.C.), 1963-03-24 & 25
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret continues with his story about surveying Allison Pass near Princeton around 1905/1906. He describes the Whitworth Ranch in the Skagit Valley in 1907 at the time of a gold strike. He mentions several prospectors and discusses how Indians burned off the sides of the mountains to create easier passage to Gibson Pass. Whitworth lived in the Skagit Valley from 1903 to 1910. More stories about prospecting for gold around Yale and taking up land and prospecting at Stuart Lake. He describes what kind of man a prospector is: an optimist. The weather around Hope and how it affects the people working. The "Mill Run" around Hope is a ditch which runs at the foot of the mountain for irrigation. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret continues with more on Hope. He describes the school at Hope with stories about families such as the Bears, how the children dressed, and stories about what the day consisted of. Mr. Starret offers other childhood memories such as milking cows, learning to hunt, sapping trees, a particularly harsh winter, and life in the summer as a child.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0005
RECORDED: Hope (B.C.), 1963-03-24 & 25
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret continues with more stories about growing up in Hope in the 1890s, such as planting potatoes, riding horses, getting water for his mother with his brother Bill, turning hay and swimming. Then he tells a story about going up to the Nicola country to turn hay with his brother when he was twenty-one. He eventually got a job for Harry Gibbs at the Babine Salmon Hatchery in 1911. He tells a story about ordering a pipe to repair a leak and life at the hatchery that summer. Mr. Starret describes how flat boats took supplies all over the province. Mr. Starret tells the Indian (Babine Tribe, Stuart Lake Tribe) story about the legendary figure Astace and the creation of the Skeena River, as it was told to him. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret continues with his narrative about the origin of the Skeena River. Mr. Starret describes the landscape around Hazelton and the Skeena River. He discusses the differences in how white people and Indians treat their animals, such as pack dogs and horses. He talks about native people greeting Father Nicholas Coccola at Babine, and the schools, people and reserves in the area.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0006 track 1
RECORDED: Hope (B.C.), 1963-03-24 & 25
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret discusses boats: every boy knew how to row; all the fishing boats passing through Hope to get to Westminster; and native people's boats. More on mining in the area and the origins of names of places in the Hope region, with a description of the geography and people. He supposes that Hope was established before Yale and offers an explanation as to why. Soon after Yale became a more significant town. Mr. Starret tells stories of crossing lakes with Indians as guides. [end of 1963 interview]
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0006 track 2
RECORDED: Silver Creek (B.C.), 1964-07-02
SUMMARY: TRACK 2: Mr. Starret tells stories about Bill Bristol, a mail carrier from New Westminster to Yale, who employed an Indian crew to work with him. Mr. Starret describes Bristol's physical appearance and the way he acted. Mr. Starret tells a story Bristol told him about Mr. Starret's father as a young prospector who discovered a lead near Hope. More stories about Bristol.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0007
RECORDED: Silver Creek (B.C.), 1964-07-02
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret describes Bill Bristol's daughter, Maisie, who was sent to a private boarding school in Hope; she later married an old sailor named Bears and had six or seven children, all boys but one. He discusses Bristol's death in early winter 1909/1910. Mr. Starret offers anecdotal material about residents of Hope in the 1890s, such as Mrs. Flood (a school teacher), and physical features of Hope, such as the characteristics of picket fences. Mr. Starret offers further description of the Babine region while he lived there from October 1909: the Hudson's Bay posts and activities such as fur trading, the gold rush on McConnell Creek in 1908, stories of old timers; stories of getting into the area along the Fraser River and Dewdney Trail; more about the geography around Babine; mail carriers and what was involved in such an enterprise, a story about an old time prospector named Jim May who worked on Tom Creek and more old timers. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret talks about trading posts on the Skeena; the Babine Indians and times they had been attacked, raids, and a story an Indian woman told his mother about catching a wolverine. Mr. Starret tells an involved story of a trip he took one spring near Hazelton to locate a homestead, and experiences with Indians, including detailed geography. Then he tells the story of a journey to Round Lake to look at some land for his uncle which was being sold, including characters he met along the way and some geography.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0008
RECORDED: Silver Creek (B.C.), 1964-07-02
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret tells a story about 'Blaze' Rogers who blazed all the roads around Hazelton, and trips around the Babine region in all kinds of weather. Stories about life with his uncle, C.V. Smith, in Hazelton in 1909, including stories his uncle had told him about the Indians at Babine. [TRACK 2: blank.]
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0009
RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-08-13 & 14
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret describes the landscape and roads around Hope in 1900 by comparing it to what it is like in 1964. In his description, he offers several anecdotes including one about a Chinese man who died, Cariboo Joe Tunnel near Chapman, a dig of ninety feet below water to get to bedrock, men, Bill and Joe Lapworth and the Johnson family, who worked on the railway at Hope Station when he was a child in the 1890s, and stories involving the boat that the Johnson family used to get to school. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret continues his stories about the boat in which the family thought one of their uncles had died, but he returned. Mr. Starret describes the first roads built in the 1870s at Hope which went around the lake to Chilliwack, and the first settlements he can remember including Jones Hill, and names of local Indian reserves. Mr. Starret tells the story of how Catz Landing got its name by Captain John Irving and the story of Murderer's Bar in 1858. Stories of old timer Manuel Alvarez, who was from Chile and married an Indian woman, and his eldest son Tom Alvarez, and the first mail carriers in the area. The history of mail carrier Bill Bristol including his real first name, events in his life, land given to him as a wood yard, his route from Westminster to Yale until the railway came in 1885.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0010
RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-08-13 & 14
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: More stories about Bill Bristol and how he used to canoe to Yale before the road was built, and how he disliked paddling downstream. As a testament to Bristol's faithfulness as a mail carrier, he was given a watch with an inscription when he retired. Anecdotes about Steve Tingley who worked for the Barnard Express. Mr. Starret tells a story about the log cabin in the Otter Valley where Ed Tingley (Steve's nephew) lived. Mr. Starret learned to dance there in 1905. More on Bill Bristol and his problems taking a canoe upstream. More stories told to Mr. Starret by Bill Bristol, such as a bear shooting a man in a tree in Tete Jeune Cache during the gold rush. He describes the area where he believes Simon Fraser first landed. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret tells the story of a Hudson's Bay company worker named Greenwood, the man whom Greenwood Island is named after, and a story of Mr. Yates who was a clerk in the 1880s. Stories of reactions to the first telephone in the area, followed by a description of Mr. Yates and more stories about him. Mr. Starret describes the development of Hope and the migration route. He discusses cattle drives on the Yale road, and the need to burn timber to create land to feed the cattle in the 1860s.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0011
RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-08-13 & 14
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret continues with more on cattle drives near Hope in the 1890s including how the cowboys dressed. Mr. Starret discusses the layout of Hope from his earliest memories, his family's ranch outside of Hope, old timers, the mill at Hope, and wagons used at the time. He describes the oldest hard rock mine in BC, which is nine miles outside of Hope, mined in the 1860s and called Silver Creek, and the trails nearby. The twenty-mile belt-line from Silver Creek to the railroad was built in 1906 by a man who died on the Titanic. Mr. Starret describes sporting events in the area, such as the horse races on May 24th. He tells a story of how sixteen-year-old Luke Gibson, of the Chilliwack Gibson family, was racing a horse whose leg broke in the race. More stories about race-day and killing a bear in Hope. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret tells a story about waiting for a steamboat and he mentions several characters in Hope such as Mr. Wardel. More on Murderer's Bar and the river nearby, the Walkum family and their land on Murray Creek; a ditch that collapsed and killed some Indians; Hope Mountain and the surrounding landscape. Mr. Starret offers his first impressions of Silver Creek and stories of how ore was discovered in the 1860s; Hugh Stoker was one of the first investors. A description of the mountains, Silver Peak and Holy Cross, and how they were named. Mr. Starret describes a hike up to the Eureka Mine with his father and his neighbor Fred Bears in August 1897, including details of the supplies they brought with them, plants they encountered such as hemlock bark, the campsite, the trail they traveled, and a stump they encountered which had a mark in it (which was still there when he revisited 50 years later).
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0012
RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-08-13 & 14
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret continues with his story up to the Eureka Mine with details of the meals they ate, more on the forks and geography of the trail, the cabin at the mine, dynamite and how to light it, spending the night in the cabin, morning at the cabin, the trail to the Victoria mine, Fred slipping on the hard snow, finding crystallized quartz and copper ore, searching out the Eureka tunnel, going home and details about Fred Bears. Mr. Starret discusses other camping trips and other thoughts looking back on the Eureka trip. He discusses how his father spent time looking for an ore vein, and the differences in the smells from a hay field to the timbers of the mountains. Mr. Starret discusses other mountains and roads near the Mr. Starret ranch. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret discusses weather: clouds on the mountains as compared to those in the northern interior, and a story about a dance and a hard snowfall of four feet, eight inches. Mr. Starret tells a story about being afraid of animals at night and details of beds, bedding, night clothes and customs when he was a child. He offers insight into freedoms and restrictions of his life as a child, such as what would be eaten for breakfast and the tap used for water.
CALL NUMBER: T0399:0013
RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-08-13 & 14
SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Starret continues describing a typical day of what life was like in Hope as a boy in the 1890s: his father would get up and light a fire first thing in the morning and make coffee, shoes they wore as compared to shoes of the 1960s, feeding the chickens and ducks, and breakfast. Mr. Starret digresses and discusses his father's eating customs and his appearance, and Mr. Starret's impressions of his father when he was a child. Mr. Starret then discusses his mother's appearance, and her life as a teacher. Mr. Starret describes what life was like while he lived alone on the ranch with his father while his mother taught in Victoria. TRACK 2: Mr. Starret tells a story about when he and his brother Will were working on a ranch in September 1909 when his mother asked one of the boys to join her in a trip to Hazelton to stay with her brother. Mr. Starret joined his mother and explains details about the trip and what Hazelton was like in 1909, when he was twenty-one, his uncle's home, stories about what his life was like in the area, and traveling in the winter to establish a ranch.
