Frances Lake
“In the summer of 1840, Robert Campbell of the
Hudson’s Bay Company made his famous journey of exploration from Dease
Lake into the central Yukon, the first white man to do so. He ascended
the Liard River to the Frances River, then to Frances Lake and on to
the Pelly River.
The local First Nations called the Frances River the
"Too-Tsho-Tooa" meaning "Big Lake River". Campbell named both river and
lake after Lady Frances Simpson, wife of Sir George Simpson, for nearly
forty years the Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
For a number of years this river and lake were part of
the HBC’s route to the central Yukon but it was finally abandoned
because of the loss of life in the dangerous rapids, both here and
especially on the Liard River. (Yukon-Places and Names, R.C.Coutts,
Moose Creek Publishing, 1980, p.117)
Robert Campbell (1808-1894)
"Robert Campbell was born in Perthshire, Scotland on
21 February 1808, the son of a sheep farmer. At the age of 22 he was
hired by the HBC as a sub-manager of their experimental farm at Fort
Garry, in what is now Manitoba.
In 1833, he left the farm and was sent to Fort
Resolution in the NWT, where he trades for the next four years. 1838
saw Campbell starting the series of explorations for which he became
noted. The first journey was from Fort Halkett on the Liard River to
Dease Lake, B.C. where he and his Indian companions nearly starved to
death the following winter. In early 1840 he ascended the Liard River
up to the Frances River on to Frances Lake then, by way of the
Finlayson River and lake, to the Pelly River, where he established
Pelly Banks Post in 1846. In 1848 Campbell made a journey down the
Pelly and up the Yukon River and built Fort Selkirk where the two
rivers meet. The post was raided and pillaged by the Chilkat Indians
from the coast in 1852. His post was interfering with their trade with
the interior Indians.
Due to this catastrophe, Campbell made, in the winter
of 1852-53, one of the longest snowshoe journeys on record: from Fort
Simpson on the MacKenzie River to Crow Wing, Minnesota, about 3300
miles. Campbell was never allowed to return to the Yukon. After 41
years service with the HBC he was abruptly and mysteriously dismissed
in 1871. He died on May 1894." (Yukon-Places and Names, R.C.Coutts,
Moose Creek Publishing, 1980, p.58)
George Mercer Dawson (1849-1901)
Dawson was an explorer, scientist and extraordinary
human being. He was exploring Frances Lake in 1887 and wrote a very
detailed report about his journey, called the Dawson Report. He wrote:
"Few lakes which I have seen surpass Frances Lake in natural beauty,
and the scenery of the east arm, bordered on the east by rugged masses
of the Too-tsho Range, is singularly striking." (Report on an
exploration in the Yukon District, reprint by The Yukon Historical and
Museums Association, 1987)
Anton Money
Anton Money was an English Prospector and came around
1930 to Frances Lake. He lived there for a couple of years with his
wife and a baby boy.
He wrote in his book "This was the North": "We had
plenty to come back to. The hard work. The satisfaction of recovering
gold from our own discovery. The glory and peacefulness of the
wilderness. The high mountains with their ever-changing beauty. The
fishing, the hunting, the great inner feeling of independence and
freedom and accomplishment without any outsider’s help. We knew the
wild and beautiful and lonely North we both loved would be there to
welcome us home. This was the North-the good life."(This was the North,
by Anton Money, General Publishing CO Limited-Toronto, 1975)
The National Geographic Magazine
May, 1942
Family Afoot in Yukon Wilds by William Hamilton Albee
with Ruth Albee.
With their two small children, Billy, 8, and
Jo-Evelyn, 5, Ruth and William hiked more than 300 miles through the
wilderness from Watson Lake to Frances Lake, living mostly off the
country. What they encountered on their trip and the pictures they
included make that report to an interesting document about Frances Lake
sixty years ago.