At the site is a BC Stop of Interest marker which relates a bit of the story of the Dewdney Trail. Fittingly, this marker stands quite near where the Dewdney Trail passed and five kilometres directly south of Mount Dewdney, named in honour of the trail's builder,
Edgar Dewdney.
450 miles long, the major portion of the Dewdney Trail was engineered and built beginning in 1865 by
Edgar Dewdney, (November 5, 1835 - August 8, 1916), his having won the contract from the territory of British Columbia.
After the discovery of gold in the Similkameen region, the government deemed it necessary to connect the area with the coast, and Dewdney and Walter Moberly were awarded the contract, at $496 per mile, completing the first section of the trail, from Hope to Princeton in 1861.
Then, in 1863, gold was discovered at
Wild Horse Creek, in the East Kootenays, and it became necessary to extend the trail to Wild Horse Creek, near
Fort Steele. Dewdney completed the second, larger, section, from Princeton to Wild Horse Creek, in just seven months, at a cost of $75,000.
In truth, the marker here isn't entirely factually correct. The trail was only used for a couple of years before the gold seekers moved on and wagon roads were built to other destinations where gold and silver were found. Within five years the trail east from Princeton fell into disuse and nature began to reclaim it. Today, however, much of the Crowsnest Highway follows the original route.
THE DEWDNEY TRAIL
A bold venture, this trail crossed the mountains of southern B.C.,and kept the wealth of a new land from flowing to the U.S.A. Planned by the Royal Engineers, and built in 1860-61 by Edgar Dewdney, a young engineer, it led over the mountains to Princeton. After completion to the Rockies in 1865 it served for 25 years as a vital route to the Coast.
DEPARTMENT OF
RECREATION & CONSERVATION
In 1864 a gold rush at Wild Horse Creek, 12 miles from the present city of Cranbrook, led the residents of lower British Columbia to demand access overland in British territory. Governor Seymour in New Westminster — Vancouver Island was still a separate colony — went to Edgar Dewdney, a 30-year old professional civil engineer, who a few years before had built the trail from Hope to Princeton with fellow surveyor, Walter Moberly. Dewdney agreed to locate and construct a trail, four feet in width, and over 400 miles in length and to do it in 1 year, 1865, for a lump sum payment of $50,000. He had to find his own route over three ranges of the Monashee and the Selkirk mountains. His final location, close to the U.S. border throughout, was the forerunner of 80% of the route of the present Highway No. 3. In May of 1865 he reached the Eholt Summit and there fully realized the magnitude of his task. The trail was completed that year.
From a Roadside Plaque near Boundary Falls, BC
