Podcasts about crown colony

Episode 211 - the year is 1857 heading into 1858. Lots the talk about! The original frontier republics and wildlands were being transformed - turning into governed territtories. In 1856 Natal was created a Crown Colony by Royal Charter, Legislation there was entrusted to a council of four officials and 12 members elected every four years by ballot. By the way, this was not only a first for South Africa, but for Great Britain itself. An experiment in election power, although the Crown retained considerable powers of veto. A civil list of those who could vote was more than modest, although the low franchise meant most were eligible to vote. Most English and Dutch, that is. What really angered the elected members was that five thousand pounds for administration was earmarked by the Crown for the benefit of black Natalians. Still, the New and unique Natal Legislative Council sat for the first time in March 1857 and its first job was to authorise the new Crown colonies stamps. By 1857 there were eight, three colonial and five republican, that is of the Cape Colony, British Kaffraria and Natal, on the other hand, the Orange Free State, Utrecht Republiek, Lydenburg, the Zoutpansberg and Pretorius' South African Republic. This was what really clever historians call Balkanisation. Little entrepots, squabbling states, spread out across the southern African landscape, sometimes working together, often competing. Natal was a kind of detached district of the Cape until it was declared a Crown Colony, an inconvenient way to run a territory. IN Natal, most of the Boers had gone, except for the northern parts. IN their place came other Europeans, like the Germans. A few had taken to market gardening around Durban, while Joseph Byrne and other speculators had launched various schemes for British Immigrants. As you know by now if you've listened to the series, quite of few of the new arrivals left almost immediately. Living in Natal is not for the squeamish, even today. Still, the villages of Pinetown, Verulam and Richmond owe their existence to these English immigrants, and so too those of Ladysmith. By 1857 there were only 8000 whites in Natal, 150 000 blacks and what they lacked in size, they made up for by being vigorous, a plethora of religious sects existed, each had its own education system, associations sprang up, and the Natal Bank opens its doors. Soon there were six newspapers in Natal including the Witness in Pietermaritzburg and the Mercury in Durban. There was almost zero industry — and both coffee and cotton had failed. The first sugar cane was imported from Mauritius and seemed to offer more, but the problem was labour. But for many years hence, the main export from Natal was ivory. And as we know, they were being shot out of existence at break kneck speed. If we glance at Southern Africa as a whole in 1857 we would notice that government had become more elaborate and less subordinated to the Cape Authorities. Local Justice was in the hands of local magistrates. Lieutenant Governors changed with bewildering rapidity, but their powers were growing as these little states began to emerge, blinking like undersized infants, into the African sunshine. Federation instead of Balkanisation was in the air at least in the mind of Cape Governor Sir George Grey. The boers were of course not thinking of anything of the sort, let alone Federation. After the wars, the settlers in the Cape were dead set against reserves, the Theopolus Shepstone plan, these drained off labour, and said the nervous English immigrants, it was dangerous to mass blacks in the heart of the Colony. The effect of the Battle of Ndondokusuka didn't help Shepstone. Thousands of amaZulu refugees of the Civil War across the Thukela led to Natal's Immigrant rules. Further inland, the policy of the Republiks was even more blunt.

Episode 211 - the year is 1857 heading into 1858. Lots the talk about! The original frontier republics and wildlands were being transformed - turning into governed territtories. In 1856 Natal was created a Crown Colony by Royal Charter, Legislation there was entrusted to a council of four officials and 12 members elected every four years by ballot. By the way, this was not only a first for South Africa, but for Great Britain itself. An experiment in election power, although the Crown retained considerable powers of veto. A civil list of those who could vote was more than modest, although the low franchise meant most were eligible to vote. Most English and Dutch, that is. What really angered the elected members was that five thousand pounds for administration was earmarked by the Crown for the benefit of black Natalians. Still, the New and unique Natal Legislative Council sat for the first time in March 1857 and its first job was to authorise the new Crown colonies stamps. By 1857 there were eight, three colonial and five republican, that is of the Cape Colony, British Kaffraria and Natal, on the other hand, the Orange Free State, Utrecht Republiek, Lydenburg, the Zoutpansberg and Pretorius' South African Republic. This was what really clever historians call Balkanisation. Little entrepots, squabbling states, spread out across the southern African landscape, sometimes working together, often competing. Natal was a kind of detached district of the Cape until it was declared a Crown Colony, an inconvenient way to run a territory. IN Natal, most of the Boers had gone, except for the northern parts. IN their place came other Europeans, like the Germans. A few had taken to market gardening around Durban, while Joseph Byrne and other speculators had launched various schemes for British Immigrants. As you know by now if you've listened to the series, quite of few of the new arrivals left almost immediately. Living in Natal is not for the squeamish, even today. Still, the villages of Pinetown, Verulam and Richmond owe their existence to these English immigrants, and so too those of Ladysmith. By 1857 there were only 8000 whites in Natal, 150 000 blacks and what they lacked in size, they made up for by being vigorous, a plethora of religious sects existed, each had its own education system, associations sprang up, and the Natal Bank opens its doors. Soon there were six newspapers in Natal including the Witness in Pietermaritzburg and the Mercury in Durban. There was almost zero industry — and both coffee and cotton had failed. The first sugar cane was imported from Mauritius and seemed to offer more, but the problem was labour. But for many years hence, the main export from Natal was ivory. And as we know, they were being shot out of existence at break kneck speed. If we glance at Southern Africa as a whole in 1857 we would notice that government had become more elaborate and less subordinated to the Cape Authorities. Local Justice was in the hands of local magistrates. Lieutenant Governors changed with bewildering rapidity, but their powers were growing as these little states began to emerge, blinking like undersized infants, into the African sunshine. Federation instead of Balkanisation was in the air at least in the mind of Cape Governor Sir George Grey. The boers were of course not thinking of anything of the sort, let alone Federation. After the wars, the settlers in the Cape were dead set against reserves, the Theopolus Shepstone plan, these drained off labour, and said the nervous English immigrants, it was dangerous to mass blacks in the heart of the Colony. The effect of the Battle of Ndondokusuka didn't help Shepstone. Thousands of amaZulu refugees of the Civil War across the Thukela led to Natal's Immigrant rules. Further inland, the policy of the Republiks was even more blunt.

Part 4 continues with the aftermath of the 1824 Treaty of London. John Crawfurd takes over from a disgraced William Farquhar as First Resident. Singapore commences its never-ending building and infrastructure process. The Straits Settlements are created in 1826. With a spike in labor demand and with slavery recently abolished, the East India Company comes up with a novel solution. Up in Johor, Daing Ibrahim takes over as the new Temenggong and becomes a ruler that the East India Company can work with. The majority Teochew and Hokkien communities start to organize around their own community leaders. Gutta-Percha is discovered and for the first time Singapore gets to surf a nice wave of prosperity as this raw material's discovery coincides with a massive demand from a new technological innovation. Alongside all this growth in commerce emerges several secret societies who, like their overseas counterparts, provide a mixture of good and evil across Chinese society. Tin is discovered in 1848 in Perak State. Singapore gets a piece of this action as well. With the EIC's fortunes sinking, Singapore's leaders start to lobby Parliament in London for Crown Colony status and to scrape the despised East India Company management from the bottom of their shoe. Communal strife starts to break out with regularity. This will continue in various forms all the way into the 20th century. We close things out by presenting the life and career of William A. Pickering, an extraordinary person in his day.  I invite you to support me and my work by subscribing to my Patreon Page at https://www.patreon.com/c/TheChinaHistoryPodcast You'll get all these episodes long before they're released to the podcasting public. I also produce occasional bonus content. I don't post too much to social media. But I am extremely active chit-chatting with Patreon members and CHP friends of the show all day and night on the Patreon site, on WeChat, WhatsApp, email, Signal, and a bunch of other platforms. Thanks for considering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 4 continues with the aftermath of the 1824 Treaty of London. John Crawfurd takes over from a disgraced William Farquhar as First Resident. Singapore commences its never-ending building and infrastructure process. The Straits Settlements are created in 1826. With a spike in labor demand and with slavery recently abolished, the East India Company comes up with a novel solution. Up in Johor, Daing Ibrahim takes over as the new Temenggong and becomes a ruler that the East India Company can work with. The majority Teochew and Hokkien communities start to organize around their own community leaders. Gutta-Percha is discovered and for the first time Singapore gets to surf a nice wave of prosperity as this raw material's discovery coincides with a massive demand from a new technological innovation. Alongside all this growth in commerce emerges several secret societies who, like their overseas counterparts, provide a mixture of good and evil across Chinese society. Tin is discovered in 1848 in Perak State. Singapore gets a piece of this action as well. With the EIC's fortunes sinking, Singapore's leaders start to lobby Parliament in London for Crown Colony status and to scrape the despised East India Company management from the bottom of their shoe. Communal strife starts to break out with regularity. This will continue in various forms all the way into the 20th century. We close things out by presenting the life and career of William A. Pickering, an extraordinary person in his day.  I invite you to support me and my work by subscribing to my Patreon Page at https://www.patreon.com/c/TheChinaHistoryPodcast You'll get all these episodes long before they're released to the podcasting public. I also produce occasional bonus content. I don't post too much to social media. But I am extremely active chit-chatting with Patreon members and CHP friends of the show all day and night on the Patreon site, on WeChat, WhatsApp, email, Signal, and a bunch of other platforms. Thanks for considering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 4 continues with the aftermath of the 1824 Treaty of London. John Crawfurd takes over from a disgraced William Farquhar as First Resident. Singapore commences its never-ending building and infrastructure process. The Straits Settlements are created in 1826. With a spike in labor demand and with slavery recently abolished, the East India Company comes up with a novel solution. Up in Johor, Daing Ibrahim takes over as the new Temenggong and becomes a ruler that the East India Company can work with. The majority Teochew and Hokkien communities start to organize around their own community leaders. Gutta-Percha is discovered and for the first time Singapore gets to surf a nice wave of prosperity as this raw material's discovery coincides with a massive demand from a new technological innovation. Alongside all this growth in commerce emerges several secret societies who, like their overseas counterparts, provide a mixture of good and evil across Chinese society. Tin is discovered in 1848 in Perak State. Singapore gets a piece of this action as well. With the EIC's fortunes sinking, Singapore's leaders start to lobby Parliament in London for Crown Colony status and to scrape the despised East India Company management from the bottom of their shoe. Communal strife starts to break out with regularity. This will continue in various forms all the way into the 20th century. We close things out by presenting the life and career of William A. Pickering, an extraordinary person in his day.  I invite you to support me and my work by subscribing to my Patreon Page at https://www.patreon.com/c/TheChinaHistoryPodcast You'll get all these episodes long before they're released to the podcasting public. I also produce occasional bonus content. I don't post too much to social media. But I am extremely active chit-chatting with Patreon members and CHP friends of the show all day and night on the Patreon site, on WeChat, WhatsApp, email, Signal, and a bunch of other platforms. Thanks for considering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 4 continues with the aftermath of the 1824 Treaty of London. John Crawfurd takes over from a disgraced William Farquhar as First Resident. Singapore commences its never-ending building and infrastructure process. The Straits Settlements are created in 1826. With a spike in labor demand and with slavery recently abolished, the East India Company comes up with a novel solution. Up in Johor, Daing Ibrahim takes over as the new Temenggong and becomes a ruler that the East India Company can work with. The majority Teochew and Hokkien communities start to organize around their own community leaders. Gutta-Percha is discovered and for the first time Singapore gets to surf a nice wave of prosperity as this raw material's discovery coincides with a massive demand from a new technological innovation. Alongside all this growth in commerce emerges several secret societies who, like their overseas counterparts, provide a mixture of good and evil across Chinese society. Tin is discovered in 1848 in Perak State. Singapore gets a piece of this action as well. With the EIC's fortunes sinking, Singapore's leaders start to lobby Parliament in London for Crown Colony status and to scrape the despised East India Company management from the bottom of their shoe. Communal strife starts to break out with regularity. This will continue in various forms all the way into the 20th century. We close things out by presenting the life and career of William A. Pickering, an extraordinary person in his day.  I invite you to support me and my work by subscribing to my Patreon Page at https://www.patreon.com/c/TheChinaHistoryPodcast You'll get all these episodes long before they're released to the podcasting public. I also produce occasional bonus content. I don't post too much to social media. But I am extremely active chit-chatting with Patreon members and CHP friends of the show all day and night on the Patreon site, on WeChat, WhatsApp, email, Signal, and a bunch of other platforms. Thanks for considering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dans cet épisode, Les Survenantes enfilent imperméables et verres fumés pour se glisser dans la peau d'enquêteuses sympathiques. Annabelle, Kathryn et Renée ont tendance à se méfier des romans policiers. La misogynie, la violence spectacle, la femme objet… des thèmes perturbants qui s'invitent trop souvent dans ces pavés sombres qui les rebutent. Peut-on repenser cet espace littéraire pour y inclure plus de bienveillance envers toustes? C'est la question que se sont posées vos Survenantes en plongeant dans les mystères douillets! Annabelle nous présente un petit historique du genre policier et nous explique comment sont construits les mystères douillets. Renée, véritable mordue du genre, nous présente The Frangipani Tree Mystery, le premier tome de la série “The Crown Colony” de Ovidia Yu. Annabelle nous propose ensuite de rallier l'Angleterre avec Chou à la crim', le premier tome de la série “Les thés meurtriers d'Oxford” de H. Y. Hanna. Kathryn, quant à elle, nous invite dans une petite communauté du Sud des États-Unis avec Can't Judge a Book By Its Murder de Amy Lillard.

The Resource for the Insurance Claims and Insurance Fraud Professionals What a Great Country! This article a fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud from an Expert who explains why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is posted to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the ­­­Perpetrators than any Other Crime. How Insurance Fraud Can Succeed Wo Ping Chen was trained as a physician in Hong Kong. Until Hong Kong was returned by the United Kingdom to the Peoples Republic of China, he was the best-known Orthopedist in the Crown Colony. Fearing problems with the new government he emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as a citizen of the commonwealth. He worked as an employee of the National Health Service for a year and then obtained a work visa to the U.S. and crossed the border into the U.S. only to find he could not work as a physician without a license from a U.S. state and attended a U.S. based medical school. After one year of medical school, one year of internship in a Seattle hospital and one year as a resident Chen was able to restart his life. Read this article and the full 20 pages of this issue at ZIFL in pdf at http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uplo... More McClenny Moseley & Associates Issues This is ZIFL's seventeenth installment of the saga of McClenny, Moseley & Associates and its problems with the federal courts in the State of Louisiana and what appears to be an effort to profit from what some Magistrate and District judges indicate may be criminal conduct to profit from insurance claims relating to hurricane damage to the public of the state of Louisiana. Access Restoration Services U.S., Inc. and MMA Scheme Alleged in Detailed New Orleans Court Pleading and more. Read this article and the full 20 pages of this issue at ZIFL in pdf at http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uplo... After Avoiding Prison Fraudster Appeals Unsuccessfully False Lightning Strike Claim Results in Fraud Conviction Read this article and the full 20 pages of this issue at ZIFL in pdf at http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uplo... Health Insurance Fraud Convictions Tampa Pain Management Physician Edward Lubin Agrees to Pay $1.5 Million To Settle False Claims Act Liability for Receiving Bribes and Writing Unnecessary Fentanyl Prescriptions Read this article and the full 20 pages of this issue at ZIFL in pdf at http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uplo... Other Insurance Fraud Convictions Claims Adjuster Will Serve Prison Time for Fraud Scheme Paul Richard Massey, of Shady Spring, West Virginia, a former Allstate claims adjuster, will spend one year and a day in prison, forfeit his beach house and pickup truck to the federal government after pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. Read this article and the full 20 pages of this issue at ZIFL in pdf at http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uplo... Other Insurance Fraud Convictions Claims Adjuster Will Serve Prison Time for Fraud Scheme Paul Richard Massey, of Shady Spring, West Virginia, a former Allstate claims adjuster, will spend one year and a day in prison, forfeit his beach house and pickup truck to the federal government after pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. Read this article and the full 20 pages of this issue at ZIFL in pdf at http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uplo... (c) 2023 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc. Please tell your friends and colleagues about this Newsletter, blog and the videos and let them subscribe to the blog and the videos. Read this article and the full 20 pages of this issue at ZIFL in pdf at http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uplo... --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barry-zalma/support

Why cover one topic, when I can cover three!?I talk about the energy crisis, always on trend for fans of 1974's The Man With the Golden Gun, and how I'm being charged £700 for one month's worth of electricity. Even taking into account accumulation payments, that's more than a family of four or five in a five-bedroom house. Something is clearly wrong. Happily, my local member of Parliament is taking an interest. The second topic is a perennial favourite of mine; local newspapers. I take a look at stories in the 'Fleet and Yateley News & Mail' and 'The Reading Chronicle'. My favoruites being a journalist who doesn't like cheese being sent to a cheese festival and her writing the report, a man who stole meat from M&S (I suppose rather than go to budget-friendly Aldi), and a woman who stole £81.75 worth of paint from a shop.The final subject is Haworth 1940s weekend, a historical reenactment event with the audience (mostly) in period wear. I hope to do a Youtube video on this very shortly, so do keep an eye out on my channel there, same name as this podcast. There was plenty to see, including a Winston Churchill lookalike (not soundalike), and a Spitfire flyover that thrilled. Lots going on here in the UK, and more real deep dives coming up soon. That includes a (triumphant) return of my very first guest, and man behind many deep dives... Caine! He gives us an insight into a Crown Colony which was featured in a very memorable James Bond sequence. In fact, his insight so good, it cannot be contained in just one episode, so a double-bill is one the way. If you have topics for the last remaining letters in 'The Alphabet of Britishness' then do message me, as I slowly prepare episodes for U, V, W, X, Y, and Z.  Message me anytime on Instagram, or e-mail: AlbionNeverDies@gmail.comCheck out my https://www.youtube.com/britishcultureCheck out my Red Bubble shopSeveral subscribers have their postcards and other little 'thank you's in the post, randomly drawn from the list, and one has a free mug on the way!Subscribe to my newsletter: https://youtube.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b3afdae99897eebbf8ca022c8&id=5165536616   Support the show

The founding of Maryland was contentious, because its territory falls within the original mandate of the Virginia Company.  Longstanding and attentive listeners may recall that the patent from James I in 1606 conferred the right to settle along the Atlantic coast between 34 and 40 degrees, or from roughly Wilmington, North Carolina to Seaside Heights, New Jersey.  The Crown revoked the Virginia Company's charter in 1624, after the catastrophe of Opechancanough's war, and thereafter it was a Crown Colony with a royal governor. On the one hand, that changed the legal rights of the colonists, as they would eventually find out. On the other, it seemed like a mere governance change, because in the revocation of the charter and the establishment of the Crown Colony, James wasn't very clear about the borders changing. That would become a problem when his son, Charles I, granted Cecil Calvert, the Second Lord Baltimore, the right to settle around the middle and northern Chesapeake for the annual rent of "two Indian arrows." Virginians, who were already there, were more than a little grumpy about that. Lawsuits would be filed, shots would be fired, and men would be hung. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode George Bancroft, History Of The United States Of America, Volume 1 Timothy B. Riordan, The Plundering Time: Maryland and the English Civil War, 1645–1646 Manfred Jonas, "The Claiborne-Calvert Controversy: An Episode in the Colonization of North America," Jahrbuch für Amerikastudien, 1966. J. Herbert Claiborne, "William Claiborne of Kent Island," The William and Mary Quarterly, April 1921.

What a Great Country! Wo Ping Chen was trained as a physician in Hong Kong. Until Hong Kong was returned by the United Kingdom to the Peoples Republic of China, he was the best known Orthopedist in the Crown Colony. Fearing problems with the new government he emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as a citizen of the commonwealth. He worked as an employee of the National Health Service for a year and then obtained a work visa to the U.S. and crossed the border into the U.S. only to find he could not work as a physician without a license from a U.S. state and attended a U.S. based medical school. After one year of medical school, one year of internship in a Seattle hospital and one year as a resident Chen was able to restart his life. His first effort upon receiving a license was to apply to the U.S. Government's Medicare and Medicaid systems for a medical provider number which would give the government the ability to deposit funds electronically into his bank account without having to wait for a check to be received and collected --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma/support

I read from crown colony to CRT.     Watch a CRT TV in slow-motion: https://youtu.be/3BJU2drrtCM     The word of the episode is "crow's foot".     Merchandising! https://www.teepublic.com/user/spejampar     "The Dictionary - Letter A" on YouTube   "The Dictionary - Letter B" on YouTube   "The Dictionary - Letter C" on YouTube     Featured in a Top 10 Dictionary Podcasts list! https://blog.feedspot.com/dictionary_podcasts/     Backwards Talking on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmIujMwEDbgZUexyR90jaTEEVmAYcCzuq     dictionarypod@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/thedictionarypod/ https://twitter.com/dictionarypod https://www.instagram.com/dictionarypod/ https://www.patreon.com/spejampar https://www.tiktok.com/@spejampar 917-727-5757

In the first episode of The Kenyanist, Kamau Wairuri (host) talks to Melissa Wanjiru-Mwita, a lecturer in Spatial Planning at the Technical University of Kenya in Nairobi. Melissa argues that street names reflect what those in power want us to remember or forget.   In the first segment, we go back in time to trace the emergence of Nairobi City around the Railway Depot and how the streets were named. Noting that after Kenya became a Crown Colony in 1920, the British were more deliberate about naming the streets. One of the ways of claiming a space is to imprint a name on it. Melissa notes that the Africans were marginalised while some Asians got recognition.   In the second segment, we trace the renaming of the streets in Nairobi in the post-colonial period. We note that many streets took the names of Kenya (such as Dedan Kimathi and Harry Thuku) and African nationalists (such as Albert Luthuli and Kwame Nkrumah). However, many of the freedom fighters, including the Kapenguria 6 who had been detained by the colonial government were not honoured in this way. We also note that many streets were named after people who had close ties to Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya, even where their contribution to the struggle for independence may not be commensurate with the honour. We examine the politics of naming a street after Tom Mboya, the charismatic politician who was assassinated in Nairobi in 1969, especially the refusal to rename Government Road after him. The street was then renamed 'Moi Avenue' after Daniel arap Moi took over as the second President of Kenya. In this section, we also discuss the gender dynamics of street naming noting how women heroes of the liberation movement such as Field Marshall Muthoni Nyanjiru are not recognised.   In the third segment, we look at the contemporary period. We contrast the processes of renaming of streets in Nairobi after Prof Wangari Maathai and Wambui Kenyatta. We examine the more heated debates on the renaming of streets. We note that some renaming of street such as the renaming of Accra Road after Kenneth Matiba and Cross Street after Charles Rubia have been widely accepted. However, the renaming of a street after Fidel Odinga in Mombasa and Francis Atwoli in Nairobi have been met with resistance. Similarly, the failure of the County Government of Mombasa to rename the Mama Ngina Waterfront after Mekatilili wa Menza also raised some acrimony. the Melissa calls for a better legal framework to address the issues of street naming, including outlawing the naming of streets after a living person. She also calls for better recognition of women and go beyond politicians to also honour athletes and cultural icons.  Mentioned: Melissa Wanjiru-Mwita. Nairobi's street names reveal what those in power want to remember, or forget. The Conversation. (July 30, 2020). (02.09.2021) Melissa Wanjiru. Street Toponymy and the Decolonisation of the Urban Landscape in Post-Colonial Nairobi, Journal of Cultural Geography, 34, 1 (2017), pp. 1-23. 

Crown Colony Country Club: http://crown-colony.com/ Social links Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stingersanddingers Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stingersanddingers-102391104499538 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Stingersanddin1 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stingersanddingers/support

Charles inherited three kingdoms, each different in politics, administration, and culture. We also hear about the 1622 Massacre, the transformation of Virginia into a Crown Colony, and the marriage between Charles and Henrietta Maria, Princess of France. Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPax In this episode I made particular use of the following publications: - The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire. Oxford University Press - Bottigheimer, K. S. (1978). ‘The westward enterprise : English activities in Ireland, the Atlantic and America, 1480-1650' - Canny, N. (2001). Making Ireland British, 1580-1650. Oxford: Oxford University Press - Kishlasnky, M, A Monarchy Transformed: 1603-1714 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The great race to connecting with air cargo customers on a real-time and all day basis, is nice work if you can get it. Enter Vanya Bukova and Jennifer Haigh. Both are part of an account executive team that reports to Helen Kristensen, United Cargo’s Manager Strategic Accounts. When writing of the Hong Kong conflict going on right now in the former Crown Colony, (now a special district) we cannot help but wonder what’s next for air cargo? So, we figure why not go to someone who carries the credentials of experience, knowledge, passion and air cargo building, Stan Wraight, CEO of Strategic Aviation Solutions (SASI). www.sasi.com.hk Ex-DSV executive Steve Walker called on FIATA to “become a safe haven for forwarders to discuss a wider new industry strategy,” in the face of vertical consolidation by shipping lines, and the attempt to control data via platforms such as TradeLens, a join partnership between IBM and Maersk. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geoffrey-arend/support

Canada 150 Visitation Unless you've been living under a rock this past year, you know that 2017 represents the 150th birthday of Canada. As a nation, we were born just 150 years ago on July 1, 1867. Now this wasn't the Canada we know today, but a teeny tiny Canada with a lot of well, wilderness. Canada, such as it was, was made up of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and that's it. Upper Canada then became Ontario and Lower Canada, Quebec. Looking at the rest of what would become the rest of Canada, in the far west, there was the Crown Colony of British Columbia, but it would be 4 more years before it became a province on July 20, 1871. The vast majority of what is now Canada though, remained as either Rupert's Land or the Northwest Territories. If the water's flowed into Hudson Bay, it was part of Rupert's Land, and if it flowed north into the Mackenzie River system, it was part of the Northwest Territories. Alberta and Saskatchewan did not join Canada as full provinces until 1905. Canada's National Park system began with the 10 sq km Banff Hot Springs Preserve in 1885, with just a tiny section protected around the Cave and Basin Hot Springs. It sowed the seeds of Canada's National Park system though and was the third National Park in the world behind only Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. and Royal National Park in Australia. Today Canada's National Park system includes 47 National Parks and 970 National Historic Sites. These include the Cave and Basin, Abbots Pass Refuge Cabin, Banff Park Museum, Banff Springs Hotel, Howse Pass, Skoki Ski Lodge, and the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station. Other sites across the Mountain National Parks include Athabasca Pass, Yellowhead Pass, the Jasper Park Information Centre, and the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton. Across Alberta, you can add Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Calgary City Hall, Nordegg, Atlas No. 3 Coal Mine, Coleman, Fort Edmonton, Fort Macleod, Fort Whoop-Up, and the Turner Valley Gas Plant. 2017 was a year steeped in history but also steeped in tourism. The Trudeau Government decided to make all visitation to National Parks and National Historic Sites free for 2017 and this led to huge fears that the parks would be inundated. I have been a strong critic of Parks Canada's focus on bringing more and more cars through the park gates for the past decade while allowing the backcountry to wither. All the marketing has focused on 4-5 million visitors pointing their cars and buses towards the same 2% of the park. Over the past few years, I have watched the park get swarmed by more and more and more visitors. In iconic locations like Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, and Peyto Lake, I've witnessed the crowds growing to levels unimaginable just a decade ago. Many of the park roads, like Sulphur Mountain, Lake Louise, and Moraine Lake, are one lane in and one lane out. This creates finite limits on the amount of traffic the roads can accommodate. In past years, I experienced wait times as long as 2-1/2 hours driving the 3 km or so between the Village of Lake Louise and the actual Lake. With traffic jams like these, nobody is having a good experience. Over the past year, after the announcement that park passes would be free this year, there was well-justified fear that these delays would just get longer and longer. Parks was regularly criticized by Banff and Jasper town counselors for their lack of transparency and discussion on how to deal with the influx of traffic. As the season approached, though, the pieces began to fall into place. Parks Canada made some very bold moves that dramatically reduced the congestion within Banff National Park. Some of these moves included: Permanent parking boundaries along narrow roads such as the approach to Moraine Lake, Johnston Canyon and Lake Minnewanka. These reflective pylons made sure that narrow sections of road weren't choked by cars parking in the driving lanes and making it very difficult for cars and buses to negotiate the road. Free shuttle buses between Banff and Lake Louise, Banff and the Lake Minnewanka Loop as well as from the Lake Louise Overflow Campground and both Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. These buses proved to be incredibly effective with some 280,000 people using these new shuttles. An additional half a million people took advantage of the local Roam bus routes during July and August. The Calgary to Banff bus averaged 260 people per day when it was running. This brought it into Banff where visitors could connect with other regional options. The free Lake Minnewanka shuttles average 470 people/day The free shuttle between Banff and Lake Louise has been averaging 200 people/day while The shuttles between the Lake Louise Overflow Campground and Lake Louise has moved over 150,000 people this summer. In an interview with Gord Gillies of Global News, Park Superintendent Dave McDonough indicated that Parks Canada was planning: "to continue and improve that shuttle service as we go forward because as we continue to see we anticipate we'll continue to see increases in visitation over time, and this is a great way to get people out of their cars and eliminate some of that congestion issues that are associated with those increases." This was just one prong of the traffic management in the park this summer. Parks also had an army of traffic control personnel at all the intersections in the Lake Louise area this summer. They were part of ATS Traffic from Calgary and they did a superhuman job of keeping the vehicles flowing. Not once this years did I experience the huge delays that I have had in past years trying to get from the Village of Lake Louise to the actual Lake. Moraine Lake Road was much easier to negotiate without miles of cars parked half-way into the traffic lanes. On most days, by 9 am, the Moraine Lake Road was simply closed to most vehicles. Buses were given a priority but most private cars where SOL by 9 or 9:30 am. With all of the shuttles, traffic cones, flag people, and free park passes, what are the actual numbers this year? In the end, the increases were lower than many of us anticipated. In July and August, Banff had 1.7 million cars enter and exit the park. This was up 7% over 2016 and overall the vehicle numbers are up 3.5%. The town of Banff counted 4.6 million cars so far this year which is an astounding increase of 21% over 2014. A full 1.7 million of those were during the summer. While the maximum vehicle count was 34,275 on July 2, the average count was 27,512. This means that almost every day was above the congestion point of 24,000 cars. The town helped to alleviate this by manipulating the traffic lights to bias busier sections of road. The main bottleneck within the town of Banff is Sulphur Mountain Road. Cars come into Banff, drive Banff Avenue, cross the Bow River Bridge and then head up Sulphur Mountain. On the way down, they descend the road and hit a traffic light on Spray Ave where the traffic begins to stack. They then turn left for a short distance to wait to turn right onto Banff Avenue. The traffic continues to back up here. The challenge of biasing the lights to move this traffic up and down the mountain means that the Mount Norquay exit into Banff can backup. I June this year, I had to call the Park Wardens as the offramp coming from the east had backed up into the traffic lanes of the Trans Canada, setting up a dangerous situation. For 2017, as much as I didn't think I'd be able to do this, I need to give Parks a gold star for pulling some rabbits out of their hats at the eleventh hour. They were pilloried in the media for the simple fact that they didn't communicate with local communities, nor offer any additional support to help them deal with the realities of massive potential increases in tourism. Overall, it looks like Banff will see no larger increase in numbers then it has over the past few years. Visitation has been growing at a rate of around 5%/year and this year will fit right into that trend. Visitors seem to have gotten the message that things would be busy and so they are taking advantage of early and late season to try to avoid the biggest crowds. Did everything go smoothly, nope! However, I was impressed with most of the traffic control. With tightly controlled traffic at sites like Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, the parking at Lake Louise and the road to Moraine were simply closed when they reached capacity. This meant that all the cars that wanted to visit were simply turned away. They had the option to head back to the highway and use the shuttles, and thousands took advantage of that option. To a certain extent, it actually reduced the number of bodies swarming the shoreline of these two iconic sites. Here is my call to action! There is a fear that much of the critical work that ATS Traffic did this year may have been a one-off, with funding coming from the Canada 150 funds. We simply can't go back to the chaos of past years. If you support the work this amazing group did this year, be sure to contact Parks Canada and make your voices heard. I for one, want to make sure that, at the very least, this is the new norm. Why were the increases in visitors not even higher? It has to do with the simple fact that there are only so many hotel rooms in the region. As the season got busier, so did the hotels get more expensive. There is a point at which there is simply no way for more people to access the mountains. When the rooms and campsites are gone, then people are limited to day trips from larger centres like Calgary. That being said, the current 4% increase in visitation still represents an additional 200,000 people visiting Banff this year. These are unsustainable growth numbers. At some point, park managers will need to begin to say yes to saying no! We are nearing the moment when we need to begin to say "NO, you can't visit Lake Louise". We are too close to beginning to love this place to death! Farewell to Bear 148 If you're a regular listener to this podcast, you've heard me talk time and again about grizzly 148. This 6-1/2-year-old daughter of Bears 66 and 122, better known as the Boss, ran out of luck this summer when she wandered outside of Banff National Park just one too many times. This summer, the buffaloberry crop in Banff was not very strong, but in Canmore, we had fabulous berry patches. This attracted 148 out of the park and into the area around Canmore. In episode 38, I talk about the translocation of Bear 148 to northern Alberta and Kakwa Provincial Park. You can listen to the episode at www.mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep038. Essentially, after returning back to Canmore she had another run-in with people illegally violating a closure and bluff-charged them. This was the final straw for Alberta Environment and Parks, and she was trapped, trucked and translocated far from her home range. With a distant translocation like this, the odds of her surviving were very slim in the first place. Bears become intimately connected to their home ranges. They need to know where all their seasonal foods can be found and at what time of year. Moving them to a new territory is like being forced to shop in a new grocery. Not only is it difficult to find things that you usually eat, but it may not even have the same foods. There may also be other shoppers pushing you away from the best selections. Near the end of September, 148 wandered across the border with British Columbia, likely in search of late season foods, when she was legally shot by trophy hunters. Ironically, B.C. is set to ban grizzly hunting permanently as of Nov. 30. She had the misfortune of crossing the border just over a month too early and it cost 148 her life. Over the past few years, 148 became a symbol of what's wrong in Canmore. What good are wildlife corridors if animals are punished for using them? What good are corridors if people ignore the closures and put themselves and the wildlife in jeopardy? On Oct 7, well over 100 Canmore residents came out to say goodbye to 148 and to pledge to do better in the future. This has also become a major election issue and many of the presentations really focused on the need for political will if we are to keep grizzlies on the landscape. I was lucky enough to record the presentations during the event and I want to present them here. Please keep in mind that I was recording speakers using an old-fashioned bull-horn so the audio quality is not perfect - but their message is! First up was Harvey Locke, co-founder of the Yellowstone to Yukon and long-time conservationist. Following Harvey was Bree Todd, Bree is one of the co-creators of the Bear 148 Appreciation Page on Facebook and has been a strong voice advocating for viable wildlife corridors. Local NDP Member of the Legislature, Cam Westhead followed Bree. He vowed to help the province work harder to improve the situation for bears in the Bow Valley. Following Cam's presentation, the group marched through Canmore towards the Civic Centre for the final two speeches. First was Bill Snow of the Stoney Nakoda. He is the Stoney Consultation Manager and was instrumental in spearheading a Stoney grizzly study in 2016. The last speaker was Kay Anderson, another outspoken advocate of bears and corridors in Canmore, and one of the main organizers of the march. In addition to the presentations, I had the opportunity to speak to a few people outside of the presentations. First up is Mayoral candidate Ed Russell. Finally, I had the opportunity to ask Jeff Laidlaw a few questions. Jeff is looking to be elected to Canmore's town council in the upcoming election. Overall, this was a great event for Canmore. I showed that local people really care about our bears and keeping our corridors wild. This is our last chance to make the right decisions for wildlife. Let's hope that Bear 148 is the last bear to die because of local apathy. And with that, it's time to wrap this episode up. Don't forget that Ward Cameron Enterprises can offer you the expertise and local knowledge to make your visit to the Rockies a memorable one. Don't forget to check out the show notes for links to additional information and photos from this week's event. Drop me a line using the contact page on this site if you'd like to book a step-on or hiking guide, workshop facilitator or speaker. If you'd like to connect with me personally, you can hit me up on Twitter @wardcameron or at www.facebook.com/wardcameronenterprises. And with that said, the hills are snowy white so it's time to tune up the snowshoes - snowshoe animal tracking season is just around the corner. I'll talk to you next week.

Look Out Bears, There's a Train Coming In episode 34 I talked about the incredible success that Banff National Park has had in terms of reducing the number of animals, such as grizzly bears, that are being killed along our highways. The system of over and underpasses that have been pioneered here are now serving as a template for many new areas that are trying to emulate Banff's successes. You can listen to the full episode at www.mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep034. While the highways have been getting safer and safer as the system of fencing and crossing structures are expanded, the one area that still shows little improvement is the Canadian Pacific Railway line through the mountain parks. Canadian Pacific has worked closely with Parks Canada over the years to look at a variety of ways to try to reduce the numbers of animals that perish along tracks. Back in episode 19, I described some of the principle research being done on bear impacts along the tracks. You can listen to it at www.mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep019. In this episode, researchers looked into the timing and location of fatalities. They found that, while more bears use the tracks in the western end of Banff, more bears were being killed in the eastern portions of the park. One of the conclusions was that the eastern portions are often closer to the busy highways which may have made it difficult for bears to hear the approach of trains. The bears also may need to have better sightlines so that they can see approaching trains from a greater distance. Another study proposed another theory as to why bears in the west edge of the park fare better than those farther east - The Boss - Bear 122. The Boss is a regular visitor to the tracks in the western portions of Banff and into Yoho National Park and he's even been bounced off a freight train and walked away unharmed. One theory is that the Boss is so protective of the tracks that other bears simply don't feel safe approaching his turf. Since he has been patrolling the tracks, no confirmed bear death has occurred since 2012. However, between 2000 and 2012, 14 grizzlies were killed along the tracks within Banff's east border and the west end of Yoho. Perhaps the Boss is helping to keep the tracks safer. Another study that I discuss in Episode 19 showed that an estimated 110 metric tonnes of grains are spilled along the tracks within Banff and Yoho every year - enough to support the annual food needs of some 50 grizzlies! This week, I want to look at a new study that has been looking into just how much bears use the tracks as well as what foods were making the tracks so attractive. While there are obvious attractants, like grain spills and carrion, researchers did not know what the relative importance of each of these were to the bears. Between 2011 and 12, they placed satellite collars on 21 different bears. The collars provided information on their position every 2 hours. In addition, they analyzed 230 grizzly scats collected between May and October over the years 2012 to 2014. Surprisingly, of the 21 grizzlies, only 4 were regular visitors to the CPR main line. These bears visited the tracks in excess of 20% of the days on which their movements were monitored. Scat samples from these four bears all occasionally contained grain. In fact, 43% of all grizzly scat samples found within 150 m of the tracks contained some grain. Beyond 150 m, the incidence of grain dropped to a mere 7%. It appears grain is a more important food in the fall, as 85% of the scat samples found near the tracks contained grain at this time as compared to only 14% in the summer and 17% in the spring. This makes sense when we look at the seasonally available food sources and behaviour of bears during the summer. Earlier in the season, there is a wider variety of available foods. In late summer, the buffaloberry crop disappears with the first frosts and then food becomes more scarce for the remainder of the season. An easy feed of grain would be a strong attractor for bears, just like unharvested crabapple and cherry trees in communities can serve to attract bears. Grain wasn't the only thing bringing these 4 bears to the rail lines, scat found close to the tracks was also more likely to contain the hair of elk, deer and moose. According to the study's results, three of the four bears visiting the tracks were quite young. researcher Cassady St. Clair was quoted in a CBC news story: "We learned that eating grain is something only a few bears specialized in doing." Cassady St. Clair says, "Three could be put into one category, they were teenagers and skinny and probably having a tough time making a living." The fourth bear, the Boss was being attracted, not by grain, but by the carcasses of elk, deer and moose that had been killed by the trains. This report shows that it's especially important to reduce or remove grain spills later in the season, as well as removing the carcasses of other rail killed animals. Since 1982, 1,256 large animals have been killed by trains in Banff and Yoho National Parks including five different types of hoofed animals and four different carnivore species. Since 1998, train collisions have become the number one cause of death for grizzlies within these parks. This most recent study has provided some great additional information as to what is attracting the bears, and just how important those foods are on a season by season basis. Researchers are now getting a much better understanding about the role train tracks play in attracting animals and at the same time, some of the challenges that animals face when suddenly encountering a rapidly moving train. Some animals freeze when they see the train, others futilely try to outrun the train. Better sightlines can help, but what if there was another way - a wildlife alarm that sounded early enough to startle the animals off of the tracks, before the train becomes a danger? Johnathan Backs is a PhD student and he is working on just such a system. He has developed an innovative way to create an loud shrill beeping sound for a full 30 seconds before a train approaches. The battery operated device senses the vibrations of an oncoming train and then emits its warning sound. While this may not frighten a bear, the hope is that the bears will learn from experience that the sound indicates that a train is approaching and that they should move away from the tracks. The fact that small numbers of bears are regular visitors may also help to increase the devices effectiveness. Since bears learn through experience, a repetitive warning may help to give them plenty of time to move to safety. It's so important that research like these studies continue to be supported within the mountain west. The more we understand the behaviour of our local animals, the better we will be able to coexist with them. Perhaps one of the most useful things that would help reduce animal mortality would be to slow trains down as they move throughout the parks, just like we do with cars. However, that's a decision that would come with a great deal of resistance by CP who's tracks are ever-busier. Next up…The Cariboo Gold Rush becomes a Bonanza The Cariboo Part 2 Last week I introduced you to the first discoveries of gold in British Columbia, and described how it led to the creation of the Crown Colony of British Columbia, while also necessitating the development of the first wagon roads into the interior of the future province. By the summer of 1860, there were more and more seasoned miners arriving on the scene. These were miners that had been part of earlier rushes and learned the tricks of the trade, including how to read the signs and had a great sense for where to look for gold. George W. Weaver, William Ross Keithley and John A Rose arrived on the Fraser this same year and convinced Ranald MacDonald to guide them into the area where gold had been discovered. As they explored the area north of Cariboo Lake, they found gold along a small creek that they dubbed Keithley. While Rose and MacDonald decided to move on, Keithley and Weaver remained to work the creek. In the end, they decided that the creek just wasn't yielding enough and left the area to follow their comrades. While they were on the creek though, less experienced miners began to crowd the creek with claims and before long, a small hamlet called Keithley sprang up. Today, it's yet another ghost town left behind when the last miners moved on to other sites. For Keithley and Weaver, they followed the creek for a while and then crossed a small divide to another creek where they caught up with MacDonald and Rose. The creek became known as Antler Creek. They were beaming from ear to ear about the potential of the creek and showed them some rusty-coloured gold nuggets. For the moment, they had this spot to themselves. It was only a matter of time before others arrived at the site because secrets never stayed secret in the Cariboo. They were each entitled to one claim, as well as a second 30 x 30 metre claim as the discoverers of the site. They decided to survey the area for the best sites, stake their eight claims, and then work the other areas until they began to run short of supplies. Keithley and Weaver were selected to head back to Keithley Town to gather winter supplies. They had to be very careful though. If word slipped out about the new discovery, they would be inundated with gold-hungry greenhorns all looking to strike it rich. The gold from this new creek had a definitely reddish colour, so they would use gold leftover from Keithley Creek to buy the supplies. They didn't want the gold's colour to betray their plans. They put on their best poker faces and headed to Keithley Town. Unfortunately, they were too well known. Heading back to a town named after you it turned out was a poor way to remain unnoticed. A large group of men already kitted out and wearing snowshoes was waiting for them as they tried to sneak out of town. At the same time, fresh snow had made sure that it would be easy for scads of miners to follow their fresh tracks in the snow and so it was that the Antler Creek discovery became known far and wide. Antler Creek produced fabulous amounts of gold with some claims being as high as $450/day and another bearing $300/day per miner. By June of 1861, Antlertown had 60 buildings including a sawmill, saloons, stores, homes and many tents. With gold comes robberies. On August 17, 1861, a story in the British Colonist reported: “Robberies are not infrequent in Antler. Recently, $130 in gold dust and two pistols were taken from Cameron’s Golden Age Saloon. A slight stabbing affair is also noted. Watson and Taylor’s Minstrels are still performing at Antler.” Hopeful miners continued to arrive, and as Antler Creek became claimed out, many fanned out to other creeks. New discoveries occurred along Williams, Lightning, Lowhee, and Grouse Creeks. Antlertown became the service centre for these new sites. During the winter of 1860-61, there was a party of six miners sharing a single camp. They included Murtz j. Collins, Michael Costin Brown, John "Kansas" Metz, Wilhelm Dietz (a Prussian ex-sailor), James Costello, and Michael Burns. Costello, Burns and Dietz had wandered off to prospect and suddenly returned wide-eyed to report a new discovery in a creek not too far distant. Brown, Dietz and Costello headed back to the creek. Here is Brown's accounting of the discovery: "We crossed the divide, eventually making the headwaters of the creek and after some time we travelled to a place near a little gulch or canyon, where we camped for the night, building a little shelter. On the following morning we separated to prospect the stream, agreeing to meet again at night to report progress. The story of that day's prospecting, which we recalled over the campfire, has become a  matter of mining history in British Columbia. "Dutch Bill" made the best prospect, striking pay dirt at $125 a pan. Costello and I had done pretty well, finding dirt worth a dollar or so a pan. You can well imagine we were well pleased with the day's exertions and each man in his heart felt that we had discovered very rich ground. I shall not forget the discussion that took place as to the name to be given to the creek. Dutch Bill was for having it called "Billy Creek" because he had found the best prospects of the three. I was quite agreeable, but I stipulated that Mr. William [sic] Dietz should buy the first basket of champagne that reached the creek. This appealed to Costello and so the creek was then and there named - not Billy Creek, but William's Creek. " In a story reminiscent of so many before them, as they tried to secretly record their claims, and purchase supplies, the news leaked out and the tracks in the snow once again led a pilgrimage of panners to their diggings. As the fickle finger of fate would have it, the original six discoverers didn't pick the best claims and one by one, they sold out and moved on, six more disappointed souls amidst a bonanza lottery. Thousands came to the Cariboo with the hope of easy wealth, most left broken and broke…and some never left at all, but were buried in lonely graves in places long forgotten. Around this time, another American party led by Richard Willoughby accompanied by Asa and Thomas Patterson and Hanson Tilton arrived. As they explored upstream of Williams Creek and descended into a valley where they came across a lake that they named Jack of Clubs Lake. From Jack of Clubs Lake, they found a stream that flowed through a narrow canyon and almost immediately they came across promising gravels. They had it all to themselves - for the moment, and so they didn't rush the process of staking out their claims. They decided to take as much time as it required to find the very best gravels. This was a canny plan for, as had happened so often in the past, when they did finally head back to civilization for supplies, the multitudes followed them back to the Lowhee. Lowhee was not only incredibly gold rich, but it was an easy creek to work. It represented the start of hard rock mining as the gravels, rather than being panned, were removed to expose the bedrock little more than a metre below. In the bedrock were embedded huge nuggets of gold. Willoughby's group mined for just five weeks and left the area with four thousand ounces worth of nuggets. George Weaver and William Keithley also joined the miners at this site and had to build a 6 km long flume in order to carry water to their site, but the gold was far richer than any expense. Ranald MacDonald also walked away with a fortune before selling his claim to John Rose for a 320-ounce poke of gold. As the stories began to spread, miners that had been working played out creeks further downstream on the Fraser and Thompson Rivers abandoned them and headed to the Cariboo. Of all the creeks thought, Williams Creek was the richest. Towns began to spring up along its length with names like Richfield, Barkerville and, dear to my heart, Camerontown.  As the miners began to look deeper into the gravels of Williams Creek, they began to find the real paydirt. Above the Williams Creek Canyon, the gravels were shallow, usually less than 2-3 metres before the miners would reach a layer of hard blue clay. This was where the gold nuggets lay. On one claim, owned by two men named Abbot and Jourdan, Abbot managed to find 48 ounces in just 36 hours. Further downstream, deep shafts of up to 24 metres along with dense cribwork were required. Isaiah Diller, an American found vast wealth in his claim after reaching bedrock. His crew sook somewhere in the neighbourhood of 11.3 and 45.3 kg of gold in the first few days. Diller claimed that he wouldn't leave the mine until he had mined his weight of 109 kg as well as the weight of his rather weighty dog at 45.3 kg. Unlike most of the miners, Diller didn't squander his riches and some of his original gold is still in the Diller family. Perhaps the most well-known name in the Cariboo is that of William or Billy Barker. Hailing from Norfolk, England, Barker had abandoned his wife and daughter in order to follow the siren song of easy riches in the California gold fields. While he was in the States, his wife passed away and so he followed the news of new discoveries in the Cariboo. His first claim provided enough gold to allow him to buy several others by selling shares in his mine. As winter arrived, he left the frigid shores of Williams Creek for the more gentle climates of Victoria B.C. In the spring of 1862, the Puget Sound Herald reported: The excitement respecting the Cariboo mines is fast reaching fever heat in this vicinity. People will not think of or talk about anything else, even the battles of the Rebellion are forgotten or cease to interest them, so engrossing is the subject of the new mines. Everybody talks of going to the Cariboo diggings in the spring. We may, therefore, confidently look for a rush to these mines next season, equaled only by the Fraser River excitement of '58. So far as we can learn every miner from this new gold field has brought with him from $5,000 to $20,000, all of which has been obtained in the short space of two or three months." By the end of May, some 6,000 miners had arrived at the Cariboo, many hoping to be able to claim workings abandoned by miners that had hadn't returned to their claims. Barker partnered with 6 other miners and headed back to the Cariboo to found the Barker Company. They staked 7 claims further downriver, despite ridicule from other miners who thought their decision folly, thinking he would have to go impossibly deep before finding paydirt. Barker did have to go deep - almost 16 metres before hitting bedrock. He was getting $5 for each pan of dirt. Working close to Barker was John "Cariboo" Cameron, but he moved even further down the creek where he found rich diggings. By the end of the season, Barker had found clays that gave them an ounce for every three pans. As they went even deeper, they found a small crevice that gave them 60 oz of gold. By the end of the season, his 7-claims had produced $600,000 of gold. He headed back to Victoria and married Elizabeth Collyer. She would be his undoing. Over the course of 1862, the colonies produced $2,656,903 worth of gold, but that was just a prelude to 1863 which really showed the riches of the Cariboo. The wealth of the area led to a townsite rising from the muds that was known as Barkerville. Before long, it claimed to be the largest city west of Chicago and north of San Francisco. Elizabeth was in her element and enjoyed the attentions of all the men much younger than Billy. Elizabeth was allowed to spend freely and became a regular at the saloons. His gold production couldn't keep pace with her spending habits and bit by bit, he sold off shares of his company. It wasn't long before the mine was played out and the party was over for Billy and Elizabeth. He left the Cariboo as he had arrived - pennyless. Cariboo Cameron was staked by Bob Stevenson, after meeting him in the Royal Hotel in Victoria. Stevenson was taken by Cameron and they headed to the gold fields along Williams Creek. Along the way, Stevenson bought supplies and hired packers to ferry them to the gold fields where they could be sold for a tidy profit.  Stevenson, along with Cameron and 6 other partners claimed an area below Billy Barkers claim. Next to this claim, Henry Beatty and John Wilson staked a claim that brought them a fortune. Beatty invested in shipbuilding. Wilson became known as the 'Cattle King' of Kamloops. Cameron's party had a difficult time at the beginning, but after sinking a new shaft. Stevenson later related: "On 22 December we struck it very rich at 22 feet. It was 30 feet below and Dick Rivers called up from the shaft: 'the place is yellow with gold. Look here boys,' at the same time holding up a flat rock the size of a dinner plate. I laid down on the platform and peered into the shaft. I could see the gold standing out on the rock as he held it. He sent a piece up and I got one ounce of gold. Then Cameron started down the shaft, and while he was down, I took my pick and went through some of the frozen stuff that had been sent up that morning and got another ounce before he came up again. Out of three 12-gallon kegs of gravel I got $155 worth of gold. Sinking, we found bedrock at 38 feet. It was good all the way down to here, but the richest was at 22 feet strange to say". By this time, winter was upon them and further mining was going to have to wait for warmer temperatures. They returned in April of 1863 and between July and August, they employed 75 miners as yet another townsite arose from the mud to be christened Camerontown. On October 22, 1863, Doc. Walter Cheadle and Viscount William Milton passed through the area. Dr. Cheadle wrote: "We met a small bullwork wagon escorted by about 20 men on foot. This proved to contain 630 pounds of gold, the profits of Mr. Cameron, and the principal shareholder of the noted Cameron claim. The gold, worth about 30,000 pounds, had been amassed in the short space of three months and represents less than one-half of the actual production of the mine during that time. " The mine made a fortune and Cameron left at the end of the season. During the summer of 1863, the mine produced between 40 to 112 ounces each of three daily shifts. Cameron personally left with $150,000 for his three months at the mine. Unfortunately, his later investments outside of the gold fields never panned out and by 1886 he was broke. He was buried in Barkerville in 1888. 1863 was the biggest year for gold production in the Cariboo. This summer the mines produced far more gold than California's gold fields at their peak. In total, 1863 officially yielded up $3,913,563 worth of gold although some estimates were  as high as 6 million dollars. 1863 also brought continuing improvements to the road access into the interior. As the government began to widen the main Cariboo Wagon Road. The government planned a much wider, 5.5 m wide road that would allow wagons to easily pass. The project ended up being much more difficult than originally planned and the contractors, men like Walter Moberly, Thomas Spence and Gustafus Wright took the narrow mule trails and created a permanent link into the wild interior of the future province of British Columbia. The gold rush, along with Governor James Douglas really helped to create the conditions that would bring a new province into the fledgling country of Canada. In less than a decade, on July 20, 1871 it joined Canada as a full province. The promise of a railroad would link this new nation from coast to coast and become the tie that binds Canada together. James Douglas really does deserve the moniker of the "Father of British Columbia" due to his tireless efforts to manage the gold fields, the filing of claims and the reporting of each mines takings. The roads he spearheaded changed the nature of the province forever. Today, you can still visit many the old sites that were important during the heyday of the Cariboo including Barkerville, Williams Lake, Horsefly, and Quesnel. I'll leave a link in the show notes to a good driving tour brochure to help guide your explorations (http://cariboord.ca/uploads/heritage/drivingFINALweb.pdf). For more detailed travel and exploration information, visit www.goldrustrail.ca   And with that, it's time to wrap this episode up. If you're looking for a guide to help you experience the stories behind the mountain scenery, our expert guides are ready to help you explore. To book your tour, guided hike, wildlife biology safari or speaker, drop me a line at info@wardcameron.com. You can visit us at www.WardCameron.com or hit me up on Twitter @wardcameron. And with that said, the sun's out and it's time to go hiking. I'll talk to you next week.

Wolves are a grizzlies best friend - at least in Yellowstone Yellowstone has become a world renowned laboratory for what can happen when long absent carnivores are returned to the landscape. For decades across North America, predators were seen as the enemy, and targeted for extermination. Bounties were paid for the pelts of wolves, coyotes and other carnivores in order to make the wilderness a more human friendly place. The program resulted in a natural system that ran amok. Food chains evolved over millions and in some cases 10s of millions of years. Every hoofed animal was partially designed by its need to escape predators that were in turn designed to eat them. In some cases, as in the case of snowshoe hare and lynx, both predator and prey evolved the same strategies. Snowshoe hares gradually developed huge back feet to enable them to stay atop deep snows and escape the lynx. In time, the lynx evolved to also have huge feet, negating the hare's advantage. As biologists, we call that co-evolution - two species evolving in concert with each other in the age-old chess match of hunter and hunted. Over time, the predator control programs were very effective over much of their range and wolves were long ago extirpated from places like the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. In their absence, nature didn't rest on its laurels. It continued to evolve based on the now more limited numbers of actors on the stage. In a 2013 study, a research study looked into what impacts removing wolves from Yellowstone may have had on other species, in particular grizzly bears. Normally, we think of animals like wolves and bears as adversaries, both competing for similar prey. Hop onto Youtube and you can find countless examples of wolves and grizzlies battling over carcasses. However when you remove the wolf, might the entire equation change? This study tried to look at what how the Yellowstone ecosystem was impacted by the removal of wolves and how it was further impacted with their return. Looking at mountain landscapes is not all about the pretty pictures that we as visitors take home. Less wolves meant, more elk. Tourists love to take photos of elk. They are one of the main large, charismatic animals that bring tour bus after tour bus into the mountain west. However we also need to remember one important fact. Elk are…what's that word again…oh yah…food! Elk are here not because they are cute and charismatic. They are here because they are made of meat. Ecosystems are a combination of predator and prey. Pressure from predation stimulates adaptation and evolution in their prey animals. This in turn forces the predators to also adapt. Take away the predator and the prey population simply explodes. This is what happened in Yellowstone. With an absence of wolves for more than 70 years, elk and deer numbers had exploded. Everything that was edible was, well, eaten. During this same time, the population of Yellowstone grizzlies also suffered. Could there be some relationship between wolves, elk and grizzly population? This study looked to quantify this relationship. We like to think of bears as carnivores, but in reality, they are omnivores. Most of their diet is made up of plants rather than meat. Uncontrolled elk numbers may have impacted the bears by simply grazing on the plants that produced berries important to those bears. This study examined the idea that taking wolves off the landscape simply changed the landscape to make it less suitable to bears. Grizzlies thrive in forests of aspen, poplar and willow because they tend to have a diverse understory of berry-producing plants like buffaloberry, Saskatoon or Serviceberry and chokecherry.  Too many elk, meant that these shrubs, and even the new shoots of aspen, poplar and willow trees were mere fodder for the endless appetite of the ever growing elk population. In the early days of the absence of wolves, the park did some elk reductions but they stopped those in 1968 with a population of some 3,000 elk. With the programs cancellation, by 1994 the population had grown to a high of approximately 19,000 elk.   New growth of trees and shrubs essentially stopped during this period as every edible shoot, leaf and berry was consumed by the elkopolypse. In a further hit to bear populations, the park closed all of its garbage dumps in 1971. Anyone visiting parks like Yellowstone, or even Banff in those days knew that if you want to see the bears, go to the dump. For bears already stressed by a loss of berry crops, the loss of the easy calories offered by landfills represented another loss in food opportunities for grizzlies. Coincidentally, in 1975 the grizzly bear was designated as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Could reintroducing wolves reverse this trend? In 1995 wolves from Jasper National Park in Canada were captured and reintroduced to Yellowstone. The results have exceeded any expectations although this report was looking at just the impact on grizzlies. With the return of the wolf, populations of both bison and beaver increased, likely due to the increase availability of food. Did the increase in forage improve bear habitat as well? This study looked into the situation before and after wolves were re-introduced. When looking at the amount of fruit composing the diet of Yellowstone grizzlies prior to the reintroduction, they found it was just 2 to 4% as opposed to 28% in British Columbia and 18% in Alberta. In normal ecosystems, fruit composes a critical part of the grizzly bear's diet. The contain huge amounts of carbohydrates that are easily converted to fat. In fact, in episode 42, I spoke about the amazing realization that grizzlies in Alaska will choose Elderberries over salmon when given the opportunity. It seems that berries are the way to go. You can check out that episode at: www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep042. So, we brought the wolves back. Did it make a difference? Well, OK, it exceeded anyone's expectations. Returning wolves to the Yellowstone released something biologists call a trophic cascade. This means that by reintroducing wolves, biologists returned the balance to the landscape and the benefits trickled down through the entire ecosystem. More wolves meant less elk. Even today, the wolves take very few bison simply because they are very formidable prey. Elk, on the other hand are manageable, even in cases where bison are more plentiful. Removing elk allowed forage to grow. Poplar, aspen, and willow, in turn allowed bison and beaver populations to increase. More importantly they also allowed plants to grow. Aspen, poplar, and willow trees thrived. Beneath their canopy berry bushes also began to regenerate. Looking into the effects on the diet of bears, the study showed that fruit consumption more than doubled with the reduction in elk numbers.  In some years, fruit consumption could account for up to 29% of the diet of male bears and as high as 39% for females once the wolves were returned to the landscape. Wolves reduced the elk population by an order of magnitude; from an average of 12.1/km2 in the absence of wolves to just 1-2/km2. If we look at the real benefits of the reintroduction of the wolf and the downward cascade of benefits we would see many things. Wolves preyed on elk, but more importantly changed their behaviour in order to avoid the wolves. They moved out of the valleys allowing those areas to regrow. The height of trees skyrocketed with the freedom to simply grow. Long absent forests of aspen, poplar, and willow thrived. This brought in songbirds that used the trees for nesting sites. Less competition for trees allowed beaver populations to grow as well. The beavers helped the ducks, the fish, the muskrat and even the otters. Wolves are a big predator of coyotes, and as they did this, rabbits, hares and mice numbers exploded, helping to spur populations of weasels, hawks, fox and badgers. Many scavengers rely upon animals like wolves to open up carcasses to allow them to feed. As a result, raven and bald eagle populations increased. We've already mentioned that the bears benefited with more available berries. Remember thought that bears will take a significant amount of newborn elk and moose calves. This meant that the bears worked in concert with the wolves to reduce elk populations, while at the same time benefiting with more available berries. Ok, now are you ready for this. The wolves impacted the landscape, and with that the rivers. The regrowth of plant life helped to stabilize the riverbanks and in turn helped to change the course of the rivers. Scientists call this a trophic cascade. It refers to situations like this, where a predator can create a series of benefits that trickle down the entire food chain. I'll include a link in the show notes to a great video that highlights some of the incredible changes that wolves have brought to the Yellowstone ecosystem. Most importantly for this story though, the wolves have helped the bears to thrive in this renewed landscape. This study also helped to reveal a historically negative aspect of this story. Grizzlies once roamed the mountain west all the way south to Mexico. Looking at the history of the mountains, people moved onto the landscape and culled predators, allowing herbivores to reproduce unchecked, while in many cases introducing cattle to the landscape. All of this would have reduced the forage necessary for bears to survive. Think of this as a grizzly bear famine. 20 to 30% of their normal annual food budget had been removed by overgrazing. Perhaps associated with this, grizzly populations began to drop. This means that the removal of wolves may have played an important role in the disappearance of grizzlies from much of the southwest. Could programs like wolf reintroductions allow bears to also be reintroduced to new landscapes? While bears are much more difficult to reintroduce, I'd love to see the scientists make a concerted effort and investigating the possibilities. It all starts with wolves. Trails - the good and the bad Let's talk about a few trail projects in and adjacent to the Rockies. First I want to talk about the grand-daddy of them all - the Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail.  This month, the world's longest recreational trail opened - and it's in Canada. Formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail, Canada's "Great Trail" has officially opened. In total, it covers some 24,000 km, traverses all 10 provinces and 2 territories, and travels from ocean to ocean to ocean. The announcement means that you can now hike across the country from coast to coast, with an option to head all the way to the Arctic Ocean at Inuvik (although you'd need to follow the East Channel of the Mackenzie River a bit to truly meet the ocean. It is not a true trail, but a collaboration of hundreds of trails, each operated by differing jurisdictions, and then joined together by stretches of road or river where necessary. All-in-all, there are more than 400 trails winding their way across all 10 provinces with a potential detour to the far north. Like any network of its kind, it's a work in progress. Over time, sections involving walking on the shoulder of roads will be replaced by bonafide trails, but after 25 years, it's now a reality. Can you hike it all? Not yet. Think of this as a multi-disciplinary trail. The best way to take in the magic will be to combine hiking, cycling and paddling. Like the earliest days of Canada, for some stretches, the waters show the way. Some 26% of the trail follows waterways, so best to practice your J-stroke if you want to conquer this trail network. Other stretches that are dominated by connecting roadways are better covered on two-wheels. If you want, you can even strap on cross-country skis (or if need be fire up a snowmobile) for some sections. The great trail is a reflection of Canada. It crosses diverse landscapes with varying amounts of development and urbanization. Each section will offer its own unique challenges along with its own vistas. Traveling west across the country, when the trail reaches Edmonton, you'll have to decide whether you want to head south towards Calgary to continue the westward section of the trail, or north towards Inuvik and the Arctic Ocean. Along this northern route, you can select a land-based or aquatic route depending on your preferred mode of exploration. As Canadians, most of us have never traveled from coast to coast to coast. It was less than 10 years ago that I finally traveled west to east but I have yet to explore the north. Perhaps the magic of the Great Trail is in its possibilities. It offers each of us the ability to explore Canada in our own way. Lovers of history can follow the footsteps, or paddleways of those that traveled long before we did. Urban explorers can look for trails that connect in ways that allow them to cycle or perhaps hike from hotel to hotel. Nowhere else is there a network like this one. In some ways, it's not ready for the prime time, but in others, it's prime time to begin to imagine the possibilities that await you on the existing pathways, as well as where new additions of the trail may beckon. As you can imagine, this didn't emerge out of the ether. It took 25 years of volunteer hours and thousands of individuals to bring the trail to the point that we are today. If you'd like to learn more, check out their website at: www.tctrail.ca. If you can contribute to the effort, the Federal Government will contribute 50 cents for every dollar you can spare. There is also an app available on both Android and iPhone to help you navigate along the way. I'll see you on the trail.     Now onto another trail. Over the past year, I've spoken at length about a proposed bike trail planned to run between the town of Jasper all the way to the Columbia Icefields, and eventually to Lake Louise and Banff. This trail was poorly conceived and rammed through with little or no public input, and against the best advice of Parks Canada's own scientists. You can read more about the trail plans by checking out episodes 3, 23, and 26. Episode 26 especially, brings out the backroom dealings that occurred in order to force the trail through the approval process. You can listen to it at www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep026. The public opinion on the trail has been overwhelmingly negative and it seems that, for the moment at least, the trail has been put on hold. The trail was tied to dollars that had a deadline of 2-years to be spent and that time is running out. Jasper currently has hundreds of kilometres of trails that are virtually impassable due to a decade of neglect during the Harper years. During that time, all the focus was on getting more and more cars through the park gates so they could claim the $8 bucks a head per day. The backcountry was largely forgotten. I first came to the mountains in 1980 to walk the South Boundary Trail in Jasper. At the time, this 176 km trail was the longest in the mountain parks. Today, parts of the original route are impassable. $86 million dollars could go a long way towards repairing overgrown trails,  replacing bridges and upgrading long neglected backcountry campgrounds, hanging racks and outhouses. It now seems that there is hope that this trail will be cancelled. The time limit on the money is running out. The park is now, after being pilloried in the media, doing more extensive public consultations, but the trail is no longer connected to any definite timeline. According to a recent article in the Rocky Mountain Outlook, Parks spokesperson Audrey Champagne stated: “After the consultation periods, if the decision is to move forward with the concept, new project timelines would be established” If the decision is eventually made to move forward, they'll try to get a continuation on the original $70 million that was earmarked in the 2016 budget.   As the author of two books on mountain biking, I'm not opposed to mountain biking as a valid use of the backcountry. However ill-conceived trails will always be ill-conceived. New trails need to take into account new realities, like wildlife movement corridors and habitat patches for endangered or threatened animals like caribou and grizzly bears. This trail not only traveled through critical habitat for the endangered mountain caribou, but also that of grizzly bears, a threatened species in Alberta. At the same time, creating a trail would also create openings in the canopy which would promote the growth of buffaloberries. Bikes and buffaloberries don't mix. The trail would increase the likelihood of bear bike conflicts along its route. The public consultation ended in April of 2017, but the Indigenous consultation is just in the process of ending. There should be an opportunity for further public and indigenous consultation once the draft of the detailed impact analysis is competed so stay tuned. I'll leave a link in the show notes so that you can stay on top of current updates on the trail's status (https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/jasper/info/plan/sentierdesglaciers-icefieldstrail) Hopefully, we'll see this project quietly slip into the dustbin of history and see the dollars dedicated to iconic trails that have been neglected in favour of the frontcountry. Parks are for all Canadians, and not just for those visiting the paved corridors. Let's all fight to make sure that the backcountry trails are refurbished to make sure that tomorrows wilderness wanderers will have an opportunity to explore the further reaches of the park. Thars Gold in British Columbia Many years ago, I wrote a magazine article on the legend of the Lost Lemon Mine in Alberta. I interviewed a long time prospector, Mike Czech who had prospected in the Yukon and southern Alberta in search of the famed Lost Lemon Mine. I was writing an article on this legendary bonanza when suddenly, his wife looked at me and said…"don't get the gold fever!" Her message was that once you get the fever, there is no inoculation. She had been married to a prospector for more than 50 years and had moved from place to place and the hope for the big strike had always been a part of her life as well. Gold Fever is real…once you catch it, it stays with you, and the genesis of British Columbia can be, to a great extent, connected to gold fever. Now if you're not familiar with the symptoms, they often began/begin accidentally. Wilderness wandering was often a pre-requisite. Gold doesn't just pop up anywhere but, like finding a unicorn, it suddenly appears to that individual that not both wandered and observed. In British Columbia, like most places where gold is discovered, discoveries began with a rumour, which evolved into a story which excited the imaginations of adventure seekers, leading to a sudden migration into a wilderness area lacking utilities, support systems, or any of the things people took for granted in civilization. In 1851, a 27 oz nugget from the Queen Charlottes, known as the Haida Gwaii today, was traded in at Fort Victoria. Now you can't just walk into a trading post, drop of an almost two pound chunk of gold and then just wander back to your pickup like nothing unusual has happened. A nugget means people take notice and after this nugget was traded for 1,500 Hudson's Bay Company Blankets, it was brought to the attention of Governor Richard Blandshard. He sent a message to the British Secretary of War and the Colonies (Yup, we were part of the department of war). In it he stated: "I have heard that fresh specimens of gold have been obtained from the Queen Charlotte Islanders. I have not seen them myself, but they are reported to be very rich. The Hudson's Bay Company servants intend to send an expedition in the course of the summer to make proper investigations. The brigantine Huron was dispatched accordingly, ostensibly to trade, but really to search for gold. Failing in which, the men broke up part of a quartz ledge, and carrying pieces on board their vessel, returned in triumph to Victoria" In the end though, this first goldrush didn't produce much gold, but it did see enough people flooding into the territory that the region was designated as the unified Colony of British Columbia. Prior to this, there was a colony on Vancouver Island, with James Douglas as the governor. Douglas was also an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company and so was also in charge of the lands on the mainland although they were not part of the original colony. In a way, the crown colony of British Columbia owes its genesis to the search for gold. While the first taste of gold in the Haida Gwaii had not panned out, in 1857 rumours surfaced of a new gold strike on the Thompson River, downstream of Fort Kamloops. The gold was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company and in Feb of 1858, Douglas dispatched the steamship Otter to San Francisco with 800 ounces of gold for minting. Within weeks, miners began to arrive on the Fraser River. The first gold strikes were around just a few kilometres above the city of Hope. The new governor of the Colony of British Columbia, James Douglas, hired gold commissioners to intercept American prospectors and make them buy licenses, stake claims and record their progress. This was needed to help maintain sovereignty over the new colony as much as it was to make sure that the gold didn't disappear into the U.S. without helping to enrich British Columbia first. In the spring of 1858, shiploads of miners from San Francisco began to arrive at Fort Victoria. Now keep in mind that Fort Victoria was home to a mere 400 people, but between May and July, some 23,000 gold seekers departed San Francisco to arrive at a Fort completely overwhelmed. When they arrived at the growing tent city, only then did they learn that Fort Kamloops was still 600 km distant, and on the mainland, across the Strait. Many built their own boats to try to beat the crowds across the 32 km crossing and up the Fraser towards Fort Yale. Many miners simply began to pan there, pocketing 4-5 ounces per person per day. The more adventurous though, headed upriver on foot. If there was gold in the gravels, then the motherlode must be upstream. Some miners brought with them both experience and instinct. Some, it seemed, could smell the gold. One of these included a group of five Americans led by Peter Curran Dunlevy from Pittsburgh. Like their contemporaries, they began staking claims upstream from Fort Yale, but soon ventured upstream, far upstream. By May, they were panning near the confluence of the Chilcotin and Fraser Rivers, near to present-day Junction Sheep Range Provincial Park. While there, they met a native named Tomaah, the son of Chief Lolo St. Paul. When he asked what they were doing, they showed him a few flakes of gold. Tomaah then claimed that he could "show them a river where gold lay like beans in a pan." The miners would need to stock up on supplies though, and Tomaah promised to meet them at Lac La Hache, some 65 km east as the crow flies. The party purchased a tonne of provisions and 12 packhorses in Fort Kamloops and headed to Lac La Hache. Tomaah, asked his friend Baptiste to show them the river of gold and after several days of travel, they came to a river that they named the "Little Horsefly" because of the hordes of biting flies that plagued them. One of the party, Ira Crow panned the very first gold from the area of British Columbia that would soon be known as the Cariboo. Dunlevy's party had swelled to some 12 men but they struck it rich. They left the area with gold rumoured to have been worth more than a million dollars - that's a million dollars in 1859 dollars. It's the equivalent to winning the lottery. They took their money and moved on. Some, like Dunlevy, continued to invest in the goldrush, opening roadhouses and freighting operations to help other miners along the Cariboo Road as it the area was opened up to easier access. The route to the Cariboo was long, hard and dangerous. James Douglas, the acting Governor of the Crown Colony, informed London: "Another important object I have in view is the improvement of the internal communications of the country, which at present are, for all practical purposes, nearly inaccessible beyond Fort Yale." A road to the Cariboo would not only assist the miners in traveling safer, but would also assist in making sure that the 49th parallel remain as the border between Canada and the U.S. Long before getting permission to build the road, Douglas met with miners and promised that his government would trade them transportation, equipment and food in exchange for a 1.2 metre-wide mule trail through the wilderness as far as Lillooet. To make sure they didn't desert, the miners were required to place a $25 deposit which would later be redeemed in supplies from Lillooet. It also helped to add a few dollars to the road building fund. This road wouldn't follow Fraser past Yale though, but would rather follow the route of the Lillooet River across Harrison, Lillooet, Anderson and Seton Lakes. Alexander Caulfield Anderson had traversed the route in 1847 and was put in charge of the construction. Workers were organized into groups of 25 and dispersed along the route. There were 500 workers on the road by mid-August. In the meantime, the British Government replied to Douglas' original dispatch: "Her Majesty's Government propose sending to British Columbia at the earliest possible opportunity an Officer of Royal Engineers and a Company of Sappers and Miners made up of 150 non-Commissioned Officers and men." By December, 1858 it was reported by the Victoria Gazette that: "Good boats are running on all the lakes, while numerous houses for public entertainment are opening up all along the line. " In one of the strangest stories of the Cariboo Goldrush, Gustavus Blin Wright imported 23 camels at the cost of $7,000. He believed that they could carry twice the weight and cover more distance than mules and horse. What he didn't count on was that their feet were far too soft for the coarse terrain and the fact that horses and mules would stampede when they smelled the strong smells that the camel radiated. In the end, the idea was a total bust. Miners petitioned to have the "Dromedary Express" banned from the road and, in the end, they were simply turned loose. The last one died in 1905 south of Kamloops near present-day Westwold, B.C. Douglas then shifted his attention to the Fraser Valley route to the Cariboo. In 1860, he sent out construction parties to improve the road between Yale and Lytton. There was already an established route from Lytton up to the gold fields. In the end, this Cariboo Road turned out to be a much faster route than Douglas' original route to Lillooet and it quickly took on the majority of the traffic. In just over a year, Douglas has built two major roads towards the gold fields of the Cariboo. He has developed a system of gold commissioners to monitor the miners, the claims and the findings. For many, he is considered the father of British Columbia. Next week we'll follow the story as the Cariboo really begins to get the gold fever. And with that it's time to wrap this episode up. I want to thank you for sharing your time with me and be sure to check out the show notes for links and additional information. You can find them at www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep045. Don't forget to click the subscribe button - cmon…do it now! To make sure that you don't miss any episodes. And as always, if you'd like to reach out to me personally you can drop me a line at ward@wardcameron.com or hit me up on twitter @wardcameron. You can also visit our FaceBook page at www.Facebook.com/wardcameronenterprises. And with that said, the sun's out and it's time to go hiking. I'll talk to you next week.

We continue this overview series on the history of Hong Kong. This time we pick up right after the Treaty of Nanjing and look at the early efforts to get this colony up and running. The first couple decades of Crown Colony of Hong Kong weren't easy and many considered throwing in the towel early. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We continue this overview series on the history of Hong Kong. This time we pick up right after the Treaty of Nanjing and look at the early efforts to get this colony up and running.  The first couple decades of Crown Colony of Hong Kong weren’t easy and many considered throwing in the towel early.

This major new history of Hong Kong tells the remarkable story of how a cluster of remote fishing villages grew into an icon of capitalism. The story began in 1842 with founding of the Crown Colony after the First Anglo-Chinese war V the original Opium War. As premier power in Europe and an expansionist empire, Britain first created in Hong Kong a major naval station and the principal base to open the Celestial Chinese Empire to trade. Working in parallel with the locals, the British built it up to become a focus for investment in the region and an international centre with global shipping, banking and financial interests. Yet by far the most momentous change in the history of this prosperous, capitalist colony was its return in 1997 to 'Mother China', the most powerful Communist state in the world.