Arriving at Prince George

Prince George is north-central crossroads.

Arriving at Prince George: (Below): My brother, center, and I arriving at Prince George Airport, circa 1952, Dec-ember. My father (r) was the Medical Health Officer for an area in British Columbia about the size of an average Southern US State. We dropped in on him from time to time. The winters were c-c-cold in this part of the world. I remember one night it got down to —57˚ F.  I don't know who took this picture, but if I had it to do over, I'd ask them to stand a little closer. Canadian Pacific Airlines equipment included DC-3s which had been broken in during World War II. They had a scheduled route from Vancouver to Kamloops to Williams Lake to Prince George.  

For seven years, between 1950 and 1957, my brother and I lived between Prince George and Victoria, B.C. Victoria is the Capital of B.C. and is at the bottom left of the map, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Just to give some sense of scale, The Island is more than 350 miles from top to bottom. 

Our boarding school (University School) was in Victoria so we lived there during the school year, from mid-September to Christmas; from early January to Easter; and then the summer term up to the June equinox; about nine months of the year. My brother was there during his four years of High School and I was there for seven years, starting in sixth grade.

I remember the flights, but not separately or individually. I remember the sick bag; I used it once or twice. I remember the time we lost power in one engine, but apparently DC-3s are quite happy with one engine out, so we survived. The stewardesses were young and cute and asked the question, "Coffee, tea or milk?" There was a lot more room in the seats. I was a lot smaller. I think I did the trip three or four times, at least. Over a period of seven years, I took the trip from Victoria to Vancouver to Prince George and return 21 times. That's a lot of take-offs and landings. Though some years we took the train, and a couple of times we had other arrangements. The drive from Vancouver to Prince George was 500 miles of hard road. A lot of gravel. From Victoria to Vancouver we took the Canadian Pacific Princess liners, big old ferries that looked like ocean liners. 

We flew "home" to Prince some of those holidays, but a couple of times we took a train, the PGE. 

The PGE (Pacific Great Eastern) was described as "the railway that started nowhere and terminated nowhere." The original intention was to build a railway that started in Vancouver and ended at the largest, most prosperous city in central B.C., but for many years, between 1912 and the early '50's, it ran between Squamish and Quesnel. There was a steamship ride to Squamish, and on the way, though I don't recall it, a stop in Bowen Island. At least according to the accompanying video. (See map — Squamish is north of Vancouver and Quesnel is south of Prince George.) When I lived in Prince George there was a gravel road from Quesnel and I seem to remember there was no road between North Vancouver and Squamish!

Video shot for the Government of British Columbia circa 1946, which would be the year before my father, my brother and I arrived in BC, drove up the Fraser River Valley to Lac La Hache in the Cariboo country, visited Williams Lake for the first time — I think we shopped there — and had a magical summer at Emerald Lodge. In 1950, my father. Dr. Hugh Brown, got the job as Director of the (Govt. run) Cariboo Health Unit, based in Prince George with subsidiary offices in Williams Lake and Quesnel, and, going east from Prince George, Vanderhoof. The idea was to staff these regional offices with a couple of nurses (RNs) and a Sanitary Inspector. The video's a little choppy, but if you're interested, it's a good historical document.

So the PGE was the but of jokes ("Prince George Eventually") and indeed, sometime in the 1950's, it was completed at both ends and made for a wonderfully scenic rail journey. It was an overnite trip which included the romance of Pullman Cars, a Dining Car and an Observation Dome. The track wound through the Coast Range of mountains which are easily as scenic as the Rockies. Now, the PGE has been extended to Dawson Creek, BC, but, sadly, it no longer carries passengers.