Mr. Henry A. Conroy, Inspector for the Indian Department under Treaty No. 8, gave some very interesting evidence as to the agricultural resources of Peace river country before the committee. Mr. Conroy stated that he had been annually travelling through this northern country for about eight or nine years. He starts in along Athabaska river, from Athabaska, which is about one hundred miles from Edmonton and goes up the river to the junction of Little Slave river, thence visiting all the Indian reserves in the treaty district.
When Peace river district is reached via the route taken by Mr. Conroy, the altitude is very high. It is certainly over one thousand feet from the top of the bank down to the bottom of the river—tremendous banks. The country, as he understood it, is very fine. Bunch grass grows all along the north side extending through to Hay river. He had information as to this country from Indians and half-breeds, and they say bunch grass grows all along the way. Shortly after striking the Peace, Dunvegan is reached. The country north of Dunvegan; all along the river is, in the opinion of Mr. Conroy, fit for agriculture on both sides and for any distance back. Of course one would have to go up to the top of the banks to get the land. Fine buffalo grass grows in the district north of Dunvegan up to Peace River Landing. As to the country running across from Dunvegan to Fort St. John, it would not take a man very long to cross it if he had a road.
A Startling Comparison.
View of the Pouce Coupé Prairie.
Mr. Conroy stated emphatically that he was of opinion there is a large area of valuable agricultural land on Peace river. Taking the whole country there as far as he knew, there is as much agricultural land to be settled as there is settled at present west of Winnipeg.
Mr. Conroy uttered a word of warning against some of the settlers (old-timers). He remarked:—“Old-timers in there do not want anybody to come in, and they tell people the country is no good. They have the whole country to themselves. One man grows two thousand or three thousand bushels of wheat every year and gets for it from one dollar to one dollar and seventy-five cents a bushel from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and he does not want anybody else to come in and compete with him.”
Continuing his evidence, Mr. Conroy explained that from Fort Vermilion northeasterly the limit of the agricultural country is reached, but below that it could be made an agricultural country. There were no settlers there at all then (1907). At Fort Vermilion there had been a settlement for many years. Mr. Conroy said he had been there many times, and knew all the settlers in that section. Some of the finest wheat he ever saw, he saw growing in that settlement. He saw it only after it was harvested; it was threshed. They had a roller mill there, an up-to-date mill. The Hudson’s Bay Company manufactured flour at Fort Vermilion to send north.
While at Peace River Landing with the Indian Treaty Expedition in 1899, Mr. Charles Mair (“Through the Mackenzie Basin,” p. 89) made enquiries as to the fertile areas of the upper Peace from the Indians, half-breed hunters, and the few prosperous farmers and stockmen of the district. The nearest farmer and rancher to Dunvegan, at that date, Mr. C. Brymner, who had lived for ten years on Spirit river, told Mr. Mair that during seven of these, though frost had touched his grain, particularly in June, it had done little serious harm. Mr. Brymner informed Mr. Mair that it was a fine hay country, even the ridge hay being good. Mr. Brymner, himself, had at the time over a hundred head of cattle, which, thanks to the Chinook winds, fed out late in the autumn and early in the spring. Mr. Mair states that southeast of Fort St. John there is a considerable area known as Pouce Coupé prairie, which was well spoken of. The “Grande prairie,” to the southwest of Peace River Landing, which connects with Spirit river country and is drained by Smoky river and its branches, is a much more extensive open country. This is an extensive district suitable for immediate cultivation, and containing valuable timber for lumber, fencing and building.
Mr. Mair states that Rev. Father Busson told him in 1899 that at the Dunvegan and St. Augustine mission farms White Russian and Red Fife wheat had been raised since 1881, and during all these years it had never been seriously injured whilst the yield had reached as high as thirty-five bushels to the acre. Seeding began about the middle of April and harvesting about the middle of August.