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"Windy Joe" (Joseph Hilton) was one
of Manning's 1st park rangers who helped realize the vision
of making this great provincial park available for everyone
to enjoy.
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Long before fur traders and gold seekers arrived to exploit the country's resources, First Nations people made the Similkameen valley their home. The present Skyline Trail was a well-used travel route.
When the Oregon Treaty established a new international
boundary between the United States and Canada and prevented
the Hudson's Bay Company fur traders from continuing their
use of the Columbia River as a transportation route, it
was necessary for the traders to open up overland communications
between the interior and the coast. The company commissioned
Alexander C. Anderson to find a route over the Cascade
Mountains, which he did with the assistance of First Nations
guides creating a fur brigade route from east of Hope
to the Tumaneen River.
After gold was discovered along the Similkameen River
and Rock Creek, the major influx of fortune seekers created
a need to keep goods and money flowing exclusively on
the Canadian side of the border. Hence, in 1860, British
Columbia's Governor Douglas commissioned the surveyor
Edgar Dewdney and the Royal Engineers to build a pack
trail that would be entirely on Canadian territory.
After one year, the Dewdney Trail was completed from Fort
Hope to Rock Creek and became an invaluable transportation
route for the next twenty years. Packloads of provisions
moved inland and the interior's riches in fur and gold
were moved out. Today's Hope-Princeton Highway (Highway
#3) closely follows the general direction of the Dewdney
Trail.
By the 1890's the gold rush was over and the next wave
of traffic came into the area, namely homesteaders and
trappers, men and family who wanted to live off the land.
Paul Johnson was the first white man to trap extensively
in the Manning Park area and over the next three decades
the trapping rights to this area was passed on to others.
The present day rights belong to the Hilton family, modern
day pioneers of Manning Park. Joseph Hilton, one of the
Parks first Park Rangers, held it for the longest time
and eventually passed it on to one of his grandsons who
still maintains the trapping rights to this day. |
Manning Park was commemorated in 1939 -
this
monument is still present in the park today.
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In 1949, the Hope Princeton Highway (#3)
was officially opened.
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The next phase of this history begins with the establishment
of Manning Park. In order to save the alpine meadows from overgrazing
by domestic sheep, the Three Brothers Mountain Reserve was created
in 1931. Five years later the area was partially included in
a new game reserve. Finally in 1941 the reserve was declared
a provincial park and named "Ernest C. Manning Park" in memory
of the then Provincial Chief Forester who had been killed in
a plane crash. Manning was a dedicated conservationist who spent
his life working for the preservation of the Canadian natural
heritage. Because of his foresight in recognizing the recreational
value of forested areas, all park lands came under the jurisdiction
of the Forest Service. This northern Cascade park contains more
than 71,300 hectares (176,000 acres).
Robert H. Boyd was the first Park Ranger and he and the dedicated
rangers who followed him initiated the many projects that helped
to form the park as it is today.
When the Hope-Princeton highway opened in 1949, it not only
provided a major transportation link between the coast and interior,
it also made accessible to people everywhere, the premier provincial
park in British Columbia. Thus the dreams of Manning, Boyd,
Hilton and many others were realized: the creation of an alpine
wilderness available for all to see and enjoy.
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