1946, Mystery reel road trip! Driving the Cariboo Road, riding a flatcar and more, BC

1946, Mystery reel road trip! Driving the Cariboo Road, riding a flatcar and more, BC
14 min 31 secs, 16mm 2k digital scan
Episode map -
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80+ hours original programming. Reel Life, PTOCS & CanadaMotorSports
Launched in 2010, Canadamotorsports has specialized in auto racing videos, all original footage primarily in Western Canada with the occasional interesting foray elsewhere. Reel Life now features vintage film footage and contemporary video of all varieties including motorsports, 30+ countries, historical events and more. 16mm amateur film footage from 1923 to 1983.
Vintage film stock footage - www.pond5.com/...
Stock footage - www.pond5.com/...
episode 807
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#1946
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[@donpatrick8582]

The PGE Gas Car #107 pulled flat cars from Shalalth to/from Lillooet daily ... in the morning and early evening. The only way from the mines (Pioneer, Bralorne, Gold Bridge, Minto and Brexton Plus Plus) was down the Bridge River (Carpenter Lake) up and over Mission Mtn to Shalath (Mission Landing) to Lillooet by PGE and up via Marble Canyon to Cashe Creek or over to Lytton ... then up to Kamloops or down to Vancouver. That was changed in the 60s when the road down the Bridge River from the Mines to Lillooet was completed. Cannot remember the Gas Car ever going to D'arcy. The boat and fishing pictures may be Myrtle Philips on Alta Lake, now known as Whistler, or even up at Gunn Lake ... the Mtns are hard to identify.

[@daver7487]

Without a doubt @ 3:07 is the Nickel Plate Road, East of Hedley BC. I found almost the exact still on the web. I know that hill well, it's a brake burner.

[@heatherfugere6538]

Unidentified lake (6:09) is Little Gun Lake. The cabin (7:20) was owned by Bralorne Mines and my family, Matheson, spent every summer there from 1943 to 1957. That is our wharf and rowboat but don’t recognize the people. Probably visitors from Vancouver. For many years the only way out of Pioneer and Bralorne was to drive over Mission Mountain to Shalath, put your car on the flatcar to Squamish and then take a ferry to Vancouver! I remember the excitement when a road out to Kamloops was finally completed,

[@russallert]

10:54 to 12:18 is the Cariboo Road (now the Trans Canada Highway) heading southwards between Ashcroft and Spences Bridge. I remember that when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s, you could see several remnants of the old abandoned highway from the current roadway all the way between Kamloops and Yale, and just looking at them (plus hearing my parents' stories) made me think that it must have been a very scary road to drive. This footage absolutely confirms it.

[@KenPool]

One of my earliest and stongest memories as a small child was my fascination with the 'old road' through the Fraser Canyon. Whenever I caught a glimpse of an old section of highway, I would say "Hello, Mr. Old Road." Again, I was really young, but I'm still just as fascinated as ever.

[@exnews6138]

Sounds exactly like my story. Every time the family would drive through the Fraser Canyon my mother would tell us the story of her terrifying trip from Montreal to Vancouver along a road made of wood hanging off the side of the canyon wall lol... I have gone back a few times and taken video... kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKXbhqVmeMR_m8k and here kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6jalqOOfJl6ntU and here kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpmTg6iKl5qWiNk @@KenPool

[@teresadurkee3531]

"Frog rock" is also clearly visible in the middle of the Fraser. Based on water level, early summer

[@oldpete3153]

I remember my family putting the panel truck on a PGE flat car in D'Arcy and railed out to Lillooet then we drove through to Burnaby to start a new adventure...around 1955-56.

[@russallert]

4:10 one of the two original tunnels in the Fraser Canyon. It was replaced by the present-day Ferrabee Tunnel in the 1960s, and enthusiasts of the old Cariboo Road refer to the tunnel retrospectively as Old Ferrabee (although it was never called that in its day). Just after the shot ends at 4:13, the old highway would have entered the second original tunnel, retrospectively referred to as Old Hells Gate Tunnel, as the present-day Hells Gate Tunnel runs parallel to it. Old Ferrabee was blasted away for the new tunnel, but Old Hells Gate remains in place as a sketchy boulder-filled attraction for hardcore Canyon fans.

[@bobbrewis4502]

8:29 - 10:02 PGE "Gascar" pulling flatcars of vehicles from Shalalth to Lillooet along Seton Lake. This is before the Bridge River hydroelectric project diverted the Bridge River through Mission Mountain via 2.5 mile long tunnels to the powerhouses on Seton Lake. The clue is the water is still clear and not milky from the glacial till in the Bridge River water as it is now. No roads existed from Lillooet or Pemberton to the gold mining town of Bralorne but there was a road from the PGE rail terminal at Shalalth over Mission Mountain up the Bridge River Valley to Bralorne. All the gold (lots of it) was transported from Bralorne to Shalalth for transit on the railroad to Vancouver. Witness the truck on the flatcar displaying "Pioneer"...one of the Bralorne area mines. People wanting to drive to Bralorne put their cars on the flatdeck in Lillooet and offloaded in Shalalth for the white knuckle drive over Mission Mountain and on up the Bridge River valley before the Terzhagi Dam was built flooding the area. It took me 11 years of living in this area to figure this all out...fascinating history! 10:03 - 10:29 is Marble Lake and canyon east of Lillooet. Thank you once again Francois for another great video!

[@ReelLifeCanada]

Bob, thank you, your insight into all these old films is much appreciated. I can imagine after we have long shuffled off this mortal coil, that the information spelt out will be of so much benefit to students of history.

[@sheralynn100]

I remembered the trip well. In 1952 my parents took us 4 kids, I was 7, the oldest , on an adventure to Goldbridge. They had purchased the Royal Hotel we boarded the flat deck in Lilloett and travelled along the Seton Lake to Shalath. Then our road trip over Mission mountain was a horror, especially in the spring of 1954 when we returned on the mountain with winter conditions, almost hoping over the edge . I have never been back in that country but would like to visit once again.

[@gquad00]

At the 10:30 mark is the “Chasm” about 10 miles north of Clinton and just off the current Hwy 97 North

[@kevancranmer7244]

At 4:27 I believe that is the old Alexandra bridge near spuzzum

[@pgerry9400]

I lived in Hope in 1948 and kids would come on school but all the way to Hope on a bus I rode. I lived at Lake of the Woods.

[@regpolice7459]

The steep road is up to the Nickel Plate Mine at Hedley, BC

[@TobyJake23]

The shot at 3:07 is the road up to Hedley, BC.

[@russallert]

The road up to the old Nickel Plate mine.

[@russallert]

The Similkameen River is at the bottom, as well as Hwy 3.

[@joegarcia6527]

I think it's the Old Hedley Road at the 3 minute mark.

[@BADBIKERBENNY]

Why could have the camera operator gotten the old Hells Gate Tunnel and Alexandra Bridge? I was hoping to get more of the actual road than looking off to the side.

[@exnews6138]

I noticed the same thing, scenery was more important to the shooter. I guess the road wasn't unusual for the time period lol.

[@trevormelville5922]

The conservatory appears to be the one at the Empress Hotel in Victoria.

[@ReelLifeCanada]

Of course! Thank you Trevor, that certainly looks right. Cheers!

[@blizzy6392]

Definitely the Empress Hotel conservatory.

[@KenPool]

3:00 is Harrison Lake

[@ant-1382]

Yep thats one scary looking road. Those grade with sheer drop offs, better be sure your brakes are in good working order. Speaking of brakes they weren't that great in 1946 to begin with. No power assist, drums prone to fade if overheated.

[@gregrussell7563]

The last part may be Red lake Ontario?

[@ReelLifeCanada]

Now that's an interesting possibility, I honestly had not give consideration to it being outside BC. It looks close.

[@gregrussell7563]

@@ReelLifeCanada Its the McIntyre headframe in Timmins Ontario, it's still there today. Almost 100 years old.

[@ReelLifeCanada]

@@gregrussell7563 Agreed and confirmed. Thank you for sleuthing this mystery successfully.