ADVENTURES IN COOKING 61

the Fraser Canyon and the proposed road east to McBride is still in the

planning stage. The railroads, too, converge here, for it is the present

terminus of the Pacific Great Eastern, which is being rapidly built to the
Peace River, and it is a divisional point for the Canadian National. Good
airline service connects with the north and south.

To the south, Woodpecker and Hixon’s first settler, James McKay, came
in 1912. Travelling by wagons and teams from Ashcroft to Quesnel then
by boat up the Fraser to White Landing they brought in 90 tons of stock
and equipment including 13 horses, as well as wagons, ploughs, harrows,
etc. There are large herds of cattle in this area now with a large acreage
under cultivation.

Homesteading in McBride and Dunster was done originally by employees
of the Grand ‘Trunk Railway Company which was later taken over by the
Canadian National. In 1914, with the completion of the Grand Trunk
to Prince Rupert, settlers came from other parts of Canada, Scotland and
England. P. E. Woods was the first farmerette who had the first cow in
the district. Sheep were brought in by George Monroe who settled on
the north side of the Fraser. Judy Holdway introduced weeding by candle-
light, dragging a smudge pot along the rows she was weeding to discourage
mosquitoes. In their first year of settlement the Holdways cut wild hay
and trundled it home in a wheelbarrow.

Through the whole of this area the building of the railroad was a
colorful and exciting part of its early history, and yesterday, today and
tomorrow the Fraser River and its tributaries flow on, with pioneering,
settlement and progress marking its course.