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29-580: It was named the Turn-Again River by Samuel Black of the Hudson's Bay Company , who in 1824 journeyed to the river before turning back. It was also known as Black River and Little Muddy River before its current name was adopted on 1 June 1937. Its name in the Kaska language is Gacho. The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) operated a trading post (also known as Lower Post) on the river from 1888 to 1892, when

58-529: A gunboat at the mouth of the Fraser River in order to obtain licence fees from prospectors seeking to travel upstream. The British colonial office was prompted into action, and legislation was passed designating New Caledonia a crown colony on August 2, 1858. The name given the new entity was the Colony of British Columbia , and a new capital, New Westminster , was established on the southern reaches of

87-610: A river in British Columbia , Canada is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Samuel Black Samuel Black (May 3, 1780 – February 8, 1841) was a Scottish fur trader and explorer , a clerk in the New North Nest Company (XYC) and Wintering Partner in the North West Company (NWC), and later clerk, chief trader, and chief factor in the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) for

116-705: Is thought that Finlay may have decided to probe the northern branch of the Peace in order to determine if it afforded a better route to the Pacific than the one taken by Mackenzie. Nonetheless, it would appear from the information Black had that Finlay had only made it as far as the Ingenika River , about 130 km north of the Finlay River's confluence with the Parsnip (where the Peace begins). The journey up

145-578: The Athabasca Department (mostly in present-day Alberta ) in 1805, Black served as a clerk there for fifteen years. For much of this time, he took an active role in the sometimes violent competition between the NWC and the HBC. In 1816, Black was made a NWC Wintering Partner. By 1820, Black's violent activities against Hudson's Bay Company employees had so imperiled his safety that he withdrew across

174-700: The Columbia District . In 1824, he explored the Finlay River and its tributaries in present-day north-central British Columbia , Canada , including the Muskwa , Omineca and Stikine for the HBC. His journals were published by the Hudson's Bay Record Society in 1955. Black was born in Tyrie, Aberdeenshire , Scotland, the oldest and only son to John Black, from the parish on Tyrie, and Mary Leith, from

203-930: The Mackenzie River , which empties into the Arctic Ocean . A notable tributary is the Cassiar River , which flows north to joins the Turnagain southeast of Cry Lake and which was the focus of the Cassiar Gold Rush of the 1870s. Other major tributaries are the Major Hart River and the Dall River . Part of the river flows through the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area . This article related to

232-699: The Oregon Trail led to the Oregon boundary dispute . The signing of the Oregon Treaty in 1846 ended disputed joint occupation of areas west of the Rocky Mountains pursuant to the Treaty of 1818 . The southern boundary of the district was shifted north to the 49th parallel , and administration shifted to Fort Victoria . Nonetheless, in popular parlance, the entire British-held mainland north of

261-715: The Oregon Treaty in 1846, New Caledonia was often used to describe anywhere on the mainland not in the Columbia Department, such as Fort Langley in the Fraser Valley. The explorations of James Cook and George Vancouver , and the concessions of Spain in 1792 established the British claim to the coast north of California . Similarly, British claims were established inland via the explorations of such men as Sir Alexander Mackenzie , Simon Fraser , Samuel Black , David Thompson , and John Finlay , and by

290-562: The Peace , Stuart and Bulkley river systems. The origin of the name is generally attributed to Simon Fraser and his companions, to whom the hills and woodlands were reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands . The boundaries of the department were vague, and changed over time. For all practical purposes, New Caledonia extended as far as the economic relationships enjoyed by its designated trading posts , which greatly expanded over

319-598: The Rockies to the North West Company fort at McLeod Lake in New Caledonia , as an arrest had been sworn out for him. At the merger of the NWC and HBC in 1821, Black violent opposition against the HBC caused him to be one of the few NWC men, along with Peter Skene Ogden , not included in the merger. But in 1823, Black was appointed as a clerk and then Chief Trader to the post at Fort St. John . In

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348-697: The Russian fur trade from the west. The river had been partially explored by John Finlay , a colleague of Alexander Mackenzie , in 1797. In 1793, Mackenzie had ascended the Peace River to the point where it is formed by the Finlay flowing from the north, and the Parsnip River from the south. Mackenzie had taken the Parsnip, and from there completed a complicated route to the Pacific Ocean. It

377-704: The Stikine River and so reaching the boundary between the Arctic and Pacific drainages. Journeying north-eastward, Black crossed another divide — this time between the Stikine and Liard Rivers — and rafted some way down the Kechika by way of its tributary, the Turnagain River , before returning again down the Finlay. Black's vivid journal account of the expedition conveys the extreme hardships faced by

406-661: The Finlay River's 450 km length and up its tributaries, the Toodoggone River and the Firesteel River , took Black and his men to what is considered the ultimate source of the Mackenzie River at Thutade Lake (at the head of the Firesteel). Proceeding sometimes on foot, sometimes by raft, Black and a smaller crew explored the region of the Spatsizi Plateau , there finding one of the sources of

435-696: The HBC sold off all its interests in the Cassiar District . It reacquired the post in summer 1897, but shut it down again two years later due to poor returns and the re-establishment of Fort Nelson . The Turnagain River starts at Turnagain Lake, and flows generally east and north before joining the Kechika River . The Kechika River is a tributary of the Liard River , which is in turn tributary to

464-643: The US boundary and west of the Rockies was known as New Caledonia. In 1849, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia were designated a crown colony in their own right, the Colony of Vancouver Island . New Caledonia continued over the next few years to be administered by the HBC, whose regional chief executive, James Douglas , also happened to be governor of Vancouver Island. This situation

493-434: The crew, and what Black believed was the general privation of the country — both as a source of food and of furs. Two of his men deserted in the course of the expedition, giving Deserters Canyon its name. The river proved to be a rough and difficult to traverse, and Black's assessment was that this fact — coupled with what he perceived to be the general absence of marketable furs or a healthy First Nations population — made

522-525: The junction of the Fraser and Nechako rivers, Fort Fraser on Fraser Lake , Hudson's Hope , near the Peace River Canyon, Fort McLeod on McLeod Lake, north of Fort George, and the administrative headquarters of the district, Fort St. James , on the shore of Stuart Lake . In its proper sense, New Caledonia at first thus comprised the territory of the northwestern Interior Plateau drained by

551-607: The north-central portions of present-day British Columbia , Canada. Though not a British colony , New Caledonia was part of the British claim to North America. Its administrative centre was Fort St. James . The rest of what is now mainland British Columbia was called the Columbia Department by the British, and the Oregon Country by the Americans. Even before the partition of the Columbia Department by

580-551: The parish of Bodichell. Black also had two sisters, Ann and Mary. His baptism was witnessed by George Leith and Janet Black. It is noted in the baptism record that Black was "illegitimate," though, on June 24, 1781, John Black and Mary Leith are noted in the parish marriage records in Pitsligo as "having been contracted and claimed were married" prior to the birth of Samuel. Black's father died four years after Black's birth. Black came to Lower Canada (present day Quebec) in 1802 in

609-721: The service of the XY Company as a clerk, perhaps encouraged by his maternal uncle and fur trader, George Leith, and probably joined the firm of Leith, Jamieson and Company, part of the XYC. He already had relatives living in Canada at the time of his arrival. At the joining of the XYC and NWC in 1804, Black "passed with the Company's organisation," and went to work for the North West Company , headquartered in Montreal . Assigned to work in

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638-409: The subsequent establishment of fur trading posts by the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). However, until 1849, the region which now comprises British Columbia was an unorganized area of British North America . Unlike Rupert's Land to the north and east, the departments of New Caledonia and its southern neighbour, Columbia , were not concessions to HBC. Rather, the company

667-511: The summer of 1824, at the behest of Sir George Simpson , governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, Black was assigned to set out with a crew of ten from Rocky Mountain Portage (now Hudson's Hope ) "to the Sources of Finlay's Branch [the Finlay River ] and Northwest Ward." The purpose of the expedition was to assess the region's suitability for extension of the fur trade, and to check the advance of

696-617: The territory impracticable for the extension of the fur trade or as a northern route to the Pacific. Nonetheless, Black and his crew had completed an extraordinarily extensive survey of what is now north-central British Columbia. They had not only journeyed to the source of the Mackenzie River, but had travelled over the Arctic-Pacific divide, and to the sources of two major watersheds — the Stikine and Liard Rivers. After an interval at Fort Dunvegan and York Factory , Black

725-765: The years. The eastern boundary had been considered to be the Rocky Mountains , the northern boundary the Finlay River , and the southern boundary the Cariboo or the Thompson River drainage. The region south of the Thompson River and north of the then Mexico border, the 42nd parallel north , was designated as the Columbia District . The Columbia Department was governed first from Fort Astoria , then from Fort Vancouver (present day Vancouver, Washington ). Westward migration of American settlers by

754-416: Was appointed Chief Factor of Fort Nez Percés (near present-day Wallula, Washington ) in 1825. This posting allowed Black to exercise his renowned vigour in opposing competition, in this instance from American traders. His difficulties in maintaining a good relationship with the local Nez Perce clients led to Black's transfer to the company's Thompson's River Post (now Kamloops ) in 1830. In 1837, Black

783-459: Was appointed as Chief Factor in charge of the inland posts of the Columbia . Here Black was murdered on February 8, 1841, shot by a nephew of Chief Tranquille of the local group of Secwepemc (Shuswap) following a minor quarrel. He is interred near Kamloops. New Caledonia (Canada) New Caledonia was a fur-trading district of the Hudson's Bay Company that comprised the territory of

812-552: Was manageable, so long as the European population remained small (about 100, mostly Company employees and their families). All this changed in 1858, however, with the discovery of gold north of Yale , prompting the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush and the influx of twenty to thirty thousand people, mostly American. Douglas, who had no legal authority over the region, felt compelled to exert British sovereignty by placing

841-464: Was simply granted a monopoly to trade with the First Nations inhabitants after its merger with the North West Company in 1821. For all intents and purposes, New Caledonia came into being with the establishment of the first British fur trading posts west of the Rocky Mountains by Simon Fraser and his crew, during their explorations of 1805–08. These were Fort George (later Prince George ) at

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