TheYork Factory Express, usually called"the Express" and also theColumbia Express andthe Communication, was a 19th-centuryfur brigade operated by theHudson's Bay Company (HBC). Roughly 4,200 kilometres (2,600 mi) in length, it was the main overland connection between HBC headquarters atYork Factory and the principal depot of theColumbia Department,Fort Vancouver.[1]
It was named "express" because it was not used to transport furs and supplies, but to quickly move departmental requisitions, reports, and correspondence, as well as personnel—new hires inland, retirees outbound, and Company officers being transferred or going on furlough. The express brigade was known as the York Factory Express on its eastbound journey in the spring, and as the Columbia Express orAutumn Express on its westbound journey in the fall back on the same route.
Supplies and trade goods for the Columbia District were brought from Britain to Fort Vancouver every year by ship around South America, not overland via the York Factory Express route. Management at Fort Vancouver tried to maintain one year's extra supplies on hand in case a shipment might be lost at sea or attempting to cross the bar at the mouth of the Columbia River. The furs acquired by trading and trapping during the previous year were sent back on the supply ships and sold inLondon in an annual fur sale.
The York Factory Express evolved from an earlier route used by the Montreal-basedNorth West Company (NWC). During theWar of 1812 the NWC and their American competitors, thePacific Fur Company (PFC), struggled commercially over theColumbia River basin. At the mouth of the Columbia was the principal station of the PFC,Fort Astoria, established in 1811 and named after its principal owner,John Jacob Astor. Although it was under threat of confiscation by the British during the War of 1812, the PFC was peaceably liquidated in 1813, when Fort Astoria and its stock in trade were sold to the NWC, and several of its employees also joined the NWC. Renaming Fort Astoria as Fort George, the NWC developed an overland supply route from there to its inland depot atFort William onLake Superior.[2] In the ensuing years, the NWC continued to expand its operations in thePacific Northwest. Skirmishes with its major competitor, theHudson's Bay Company (HBC), had already flared into thePemmican War. The conflict ended in 1821 when the British Government pressured the NWC to merge with the HBC.[3]
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George Simpson, the Governor of Hudson's Bay Company, visited the Columbia District in 1824–25, journeying from York Factory. With the help ofJohn Rowand, theChief Factor at Fort Edmonton, George Simpson investigated a quicker route than previously used, following theSaskatchewan River and crossing the mountains atAthabasca Pass. This route was well known by many Northwesters, but after the merger they refused to share knowledge of it with the HBC. It wasn't until John Rowand beat George Simpson to Fort Assiniboine by nearly a month and Simpson threatened to shut down Fort Edmonton that Rowand let Simpson know about this route.[4] This route was thereafter followed by the York Factory Express brigades.[5]
James Sinclair was appointed in 1841 byDuncan Finlayson to guide over twenty settler families from theRed River Colony to the Pacific Northwest. Upon arriving atFort Vancouver, fourteen of them were relocated toFort Nisqually, while the remaining seven families were sent toFort Cowlitz.[6] Despite this, arrangements with thePugets Sound Agricultural Company, an HBC subsidiary, proved to be unsatisfactory for the settlers, who all gradually moved to theWillamette Valley.
By 1825 there were usually two brigades, each setting out from opposite ends of the route, Fort Vancouver on the lower Columbia River and the other fromYork Factory onHudson Bay. The annual ship from Britain arrived at York Factory typically the first week in August, with the express canoe leaving for Canada by the second week in August. York Factory would be in a turmoil unpacking and repacking trade goods, mail, and special orders to send out to Hudson Bay posts along the express route. Mail and furs from Red River, the Mackenzie and Columbia River Brigades then needed to be loaded on the ship returning to Britain by the second or third week of September.[7]
Each brigade consisted of about 40 to 75 men and two to five specially made boats and travelled at breakneck speed. Indians along the way were often paid in trade goods to help them portage around falls and navigable rapids. An 1839 report cites the travel time as three months and ten days—almost 42 km (26 mi) per day on average.[2] These boats carried newly hired employees west and retiring personnel east. They also carried status reports, lists of furs collected through trading and trapping, and orders for supplies fromChief Factor Dr.John McLoughlin, superintendent ofColumbia Department operations, and the other fort managers along the route. This continued until 1846 when theOregon Treaty was signed with the United States. Lands south of the49th parallel north were in this partition of the Pacific Northwest awarded to the United States. This placed Fort Vancouver and several other important HBC stations within American territory. Columbia District headquarters was shifted to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island.
An inland boat, theYork boat, was used to carry furs and trade goods along inland waterways inRupert's Land east of the Rocky Mountains. The express brigades also used these boats, although they did not carry bulk cargo. The boats were named after their destination: York Factory, headquarters of the HBC, and may have been modeled after Orkney Islands fishing boats (themselves a descendant of theVikinglong boat). The York boat was preferable to the canoes used by North West Companyvoyageurs as a cargo carrier, because of its larger size, greater capacity, and improved stability in rough water. The boat's heavy wood construction also gave it an advantage in travelling through rocks or ice; it was more resistant to tears and punctures. That advantage became a disadvantage, though, when portaging was necessary. The boat was far too heavy to carry, and it was necessary instead to cut a path through the brush, lay poplar rollers, and laboriously drag the boat overland.
West of the Rocky Mountains the rivers were obstructed by falls and rapids, so boats had to be light enough to carry on portages. In 1811David Thompson of the North West Company introduced the use of canoes on the Columbia River, made of split or sawn cedar planks. The NWC and the HBC continued the practice of using canoe-like wooden-plank boats, as good birch bark was in short supply west of the Rockies. CalledColumbia boats, they were specifically developed for use in the Columbia District and constructed on the Columbia River, especially atFort Colvile, because cedar was available in that area. In the 1840s, John Dunn, a former HBC employee described the Columbia boat as "made from quarter-inch pine board, and are thirty-two feet long, and six and a half feet wide in midships, with both ends sharp, and without a keel—worked, according to the circumstances of the navigation, with paddles, or with oars."[8]
From Fort Vancouver in the west, the express route ran up the Columbia River past the posts ofFort Nez Perces,Fort Okanogan, andFort Colvile toBoat Encampment (today underKinbasket Lake). It then followed theWood River and its tributaryPacific Creek to theCommittee's Punch Bowl at the summit of Athabasca Pass. The route then travelled down theWhirlpool River and theAthabasca River toJasper House andFort Assiniboine, then overland 130 km (80 mi) toFort Edmonton. (In 1848, the western end of the portage shifted toAthabasca Landing and used theAthabasca Landing Trail). From there, it continued down theNorth Saskatchewan River and Saskatchewan River toLake Winnipeg and viaNorway House on theNelson River. The brigade would then travel down theHayes River to York Factory on Hudson Bay.[9]
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