Gustavus Blin Wright (June 22, 1830 – April 8, 1898)[1] was a pioneer roadbuilder and entrepreneur inBritish Columbia, Canada. His biggest achievement was building theOld Cariboo Road to the Cariboo gold fields, fromLillooet toFort Alexandria, but he was also a partner in a freighting firm that operated on theDouglas Road, he ran a toll bridge atBridge River, nearLillooet, and built part of the road fromQuesnel toBarkerville. He was also the original owner of the town of70 Mile House.
Gustavus Blinn Wright was born inBurlington, Vermont, United States. He arrived in British Columbia on February 28, 1862, aboard the steamerBrother Jonathan and began a partnership that operated vessels on the route betweenSan Francisco andNew Westminster.[2]
On August 16, 1862, Wright won the contract to build the 47 mile (76 km) long section of theOld Cariboo Road from Lillooet to Cut-Off Valley, which connects from the Fraser River atPavilion, overPavilion Mountain viaKelly Lake toClinton, British Columbia, as "47 Mile House" would become known. He was also given the option to complete the rest of the 151 miles (243 km) of construction to Alexandria, which he also undertook. By the end of the 1862 season, his crews had completed the road as far as the 127 Mile post.[3] He built a camp for his workers for the winter of at 70 Mile House and then purchased the property outright the following spring.[2]
Some controversy erupted when Wright proposed a change to the planned route that had originally been intended to go past the roadhouse atWilliams Lake. Wright said he was concerned that the high cliffs and deep ravines would make construction too difficult and he proposed a different route that by-passed Williams Lake and went past Wright's own roadhouse at Deep Creek instead. While some believed Wright was making a perfectly logical decision based on the difficulty of the terrain, others, like the owners of the roadhouse at Williams Lake, claimed that Wright had ulterior motives, and was changing the route simply for the sake of the profits he stood to gain by diverting the majority of the traffic to his own roadhouse. The situation was finally resolved byColonel Moody of theRoyal Engineers, who examined both routes and came back with the recommendation that the road be built as Wright had proposed.[4]
By July 1863, the section was completed through toSoda Creek and Alexandria. Then, early in 1864, Wright undertook the construction of the wagon road from Quesnel 26 miles (42 km) to Cottonwood, on the way to Barkerville.[3]
At Alexandria, Wright built the first of his two sternwheelers that would ferry passengers and supplies up theFraser River to Quesnel. It was theEnterprise, and was built byVictoria shipbuilder, James Trahey. TheEnterprise was launched and put into service in the spring of 1863.[5]
In 1868 Wright built a second sternwheeler to augment the service of theEnterprise. It was theVictoria built at Quesnel by James Trahey and put into service in the spring of 1869.[6]
In 1871, during theOmineca Gold Rush, Wright decided to take theEnterprise up toTakla Landing, 230 miles (370 km) northwest of Quesnel, following a route that even the seasonedHudson's Bay Company canoe-men regarded as extremely difficult. In June 1871, theEnterprise left Quesnel with a full load of passengers and freight, and, after a perilous trip that took more than two months, arrived at Takla Lake on August 12.[7] However, by then other supply routes had been made to the Omineca diggings, fromHazelton via theSkeena River. On her journey back from Takla, theEnterprise was wrecked and abandoned onTrembleur Lake. Wright'sVictoria would work on the upper Fraser River until 1886, when she was berthed at Steamboat Landing nearAlexandria.[8]
He died on April 8, 1898, inAinsworth, BC.
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