“The wonder of Wells Gray Park is that there is such a variety of things to see and visit. I hope it stays that way forever and ever.”
That was how Roland Neave, the author of “Exploring Wells Gray Park,” summed up a presentation he made about the park on Sunday evening in the Upper Clearwater Hall.
Nearly three dozen people attended the event, which was one of the Wells Gray Rocks series being put on this summer.
The fifth edition of “Exploring Wells Gray Park” is now sold out, Neave said.
He is in the process of updating the information for a sixth edition, but has been dismayed by how often he has found trails difficult to use or impassable because of lack of maintenance.
In the 1970s the park got a large sum of money for trail development and maintenance, but that funding has not been repeated, he said.
Trails that are no longer usable include sections of the Clearwater River Trail. The trail from Clearwater
Lake to Hobson Lake is problematic because the bridge over Lickskillet Creek no longer exists, forcing hikers to do a difficult and possibly dangerous ford.
“If parks could only come up with the money, there are so many trails that could be repaired or built,” Neave said.
That being said, there are still many places in the park that are accessible and worth visiting – and Neave gave a slideshow that showed many of them, often using photos that were 30 or 40 years old.
Helmcken Falls was apparently first seen by a European when surveyor Robert Lee (an American) came across it while surveying the Clearwater River Valley on July 24, 1913.
Last year on that date Neave led a hike to the south rim of the falls to commemorate the centennial.
Lee later became mayor of Kamloops and was an important figure in the region’s history. Neave has started the process to have the small waterfall downstream from Helmcken named after him.
In 1925 the BC Auto Club asked that 10 square miles be set aside as park to protect the falls and canyon.
The provincial Minister of Lands at the time did not believe in parks.
He said, in effect, “Helmcken Falls is there, it can’t get away, so why bother putting a park around it?”
In 1939 a somewhat more forward-thinking Lands minister, Wellesley (Wells) Gray, set aside most of the Clearwater River watershed as a park – and named it after himself.
Serious flooding in 1948 led to the proposal to build two dams on the Clearwater River, at Granite Canyon and Sabre Tooth Rapids.
This was later scaled up to seven dams that would have turned nearly the whole river into a series of lakes.
Protesters opposed the proposed dams not by laying down in front of bulldozers, but by bringing people into the park in bus tours.
Neave, then a young student, became involved and that was how his company, Wells Gray Tours, got its start.
Also in 1948, Wells Gray Park was short-listed by Alcan as a possible site for an aluminum smelter. The plan was to divert Helmcken Falls to generate electricity. Instead, the aluminum company chose Kitimat and flooded much of northern Tweedsmuir Park.
Many geographic features in the park have no official name while some have had several.
Grouse Creek in Upper Clearwater, for example, was originally Beaver Creek, then Little Clearwater River, then Moul Creek.
In 1991 the highways department put up a sign calling it Grouse Creek, and the Friends of Wells Gray Park asked the Toponymy Office for a ruling.
The office decided that Grouse Creek would be the official name, but Moul Falls remains as Moul Falls.
H.R. MacMillan, the former part-owner of Macmillan-Bloedel Ltd., owned a small cabin nearby that he used to visit about twice a year for hunting and fishing.
The cabin is one of the oldest in the area and records show it and the property it is on were traded for a bottle of whisky in 1921. MacMillan bought it in 1949.
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After he died the cabin and land passed to the Benedictine Order, which still owns it.
Neave’s presentation included a photo of Mike Majerus’ farm next to the Murtle River as it appeared in the early 1970s. The house was still largely intact and surrounded by open fields.
Today the house is largely in ruins and almost hidden by trees.
In the early to mid-1970s Neave took bus tours to view the Flourmill Volcanoes, which are located between Clearwater and Mahood Lakes.
Today the bridges are no longer in existence and visitors need to walk an hour from the nearest road.
Neave said his father tried several times to climb Garnet Peak, the highest mountain in Wells Gray Park. He finally succeeded in 1974. Difficult access plus unpredictable weather mean only 40 or 50 people have climbed it since.
Neave’s father also tried to climb a nearby mountain but without success.
In 1990 it was named Mount Hugh Neave in his memory. As far as Roland Neave knows, no one has ever climbed it.
Other Wells Gray Rocks events last weekend included a hike with park rangers to Sheila Lake on Trophy Mountain on Saturday, plus a talk about pioneers and prospecting by longtime local residents Clara Ritcey and Ellen Ferguson at the Upper Clearwater Hall on Saturday evening.
Upcoming events include a talk about volcanoes by geologist Dr. Cathie Hickson at Upper Clearwater Hall on Friday evening, July 25, at 7 p.m.
Hickson will also lead a two-day geologic tour of Wells Gray Park on July 26 and 27. Meet at the Upper Clearwater Hall at 9 a.m. and be prepared to hike up to three hours.
More information on the Wells Gray Rocks events is available at www.wellsgraypark.info on the Internet.
