The Intrepid Explorer: James Hector’s Explorations in the Canadian Rockies
by Ernie Lakusta
LAUNCH
Wednesday, May 23, 2007, 7 pm
at McNally Robinson
120 - 8th Avenue S.W.
Calgary, AB
403-538-1794
Ernie Lakusta will be leading a 150th Anniversary Palliser Expedition commemorative hike in June. Film footage from the hike will be shown at events in Canmore, Jasper, and other locations throughout the summer, including a Historic Calgary Week presentation at the Memorial Park Library on July 31. For details, contact Lyn Cadence at
promotions@fifthhousepublishers.ca or watch this blog for updates.
About The Intrepid ExplorerYears before the railway, and with only a network of ramshackle forts to support them, James Hector and his colleagues braved harsh winters, hot summers, unpredictable wildlife, personal conflict, and Native war parties to scout routes through the Rocky Mountains, often with only their wits to keep them alive.
The Intrepid Explorer tells the story of the famous Palliser Expedition from the point-of-view of one of its most remarkable members as he looks back on his life during one final visit to Canada in 1903. By the end of his life Sir James Hector had become a world-renowned geologist and explorer, but it was for his exploration of the Rockies that Hector was best remembered.
Ernie Lakusta uses journals, newspaper articles, and the original Palliser reports to paint a vivid picture of a true hero of Canadian history, a man whose brush with death is commemorated to this day by the Kicking Horse Pass in British Columbia.
Ernie Lakusta was born in Hardisty, Alberta, in 1944, but was raised in Calgary. He attended the University of Calgary, where he received both B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees before becoming a high-school biology teacher and science department head in Calgary. An avid hiker and scrambler, Ernie’s passion for the outdoors has led him to explore, photograph, and write about many of the areas James Hector mapped for the Palliser Expedition. Ernie lives in Calgary with his wife of thirty-eight years, Jean, who shares his love of the outdoors.
Sir James Hector (1834–1907)During the second week of February 1858, while we were experiencing a most unusual period of warm weather, I heard that Dr.Hector had passed through Edmonton on his way to Rocky Mountain House, and had left word with the factor that he wished to see me on his return and that he wanted me to go with him.…
Around the first of March Dr.Hector returned to Edmonton,and I had an opportunity to meet him. He was a man about my own age. I had expected to see a scholarly type, but his athletic appearance and brisk step impressed me very favourably. His handshake was firm and had a hint of strength that captured my interest immediately. He had an affable, easy manner of conversation with any person he was speaking to. A thoroughly pleasing personality that had nothing of that assumed superiority or condescending mannerism that I was beginning to associate with all Englishmen of my narrow acquaintance.
I liked the man at once and nothing in my experience on the expedition or elsewhere ever changed this good opinion.…
I was to learn later that Dr.Hector alone of all the men of my experience asked no quarter from any man among us, drivers or guides. He could walk, ride,or tramp on snowshoes with the best of our men, and never fell back on his position to soften his share of hardships, but in fact glorified in his physical ability after a hard day’s run to share in the work of preparing camp for the night, building shelters from the wind, cutting spruce boughs, or even helping
get up wood for an all-night fire. He was admired and talked about by every man that travelled with him,and his fame as traveller was a wonder and a byword among many a teepee that never saw the man.
—Peter Erasmus, special assistant and interpreter for the Palliser Expedition, describing James Hector in
Buffalo Days and NightsPreface
James Hector was a remarkable young man, the youngest member of the Palliser Expedition, a British government-sponsored mission that explored vast areas of western Canada between 1857 and 1860. A medical doctor by training,Hector’s exploits as an explorer, geologist, surveyor, and naturalist contributed to the success of this expedition. Four Parliamentary Papers published in 1859, 1860, 1863, and 1865—cited as Reports, Papers, Further Papers, aps—and the scholarly work of Irene Spry, The Papers of the Palliser Expedition, form the basis of his remarkable story. In order to avoid copious endnotes, all citations, unless otherwise noted, are from these sources and are not footnoted.
My aim is not only to provide an accurate, clear, and vivid account of Hector’s explorations as a member of this storied expedition, but also to reveal something of the character of this extraordinary young man. I have endeavoured to recount his story of triumph, failure, hardship, strength, and courage in his own words or in the words of his colleagues from daily records kept during their travels. Where events required, even demanded, a more thorough accounting, this narrative has been enhanced with accounts and even conversations he had with those who worked with him or met him later in life. In this respect, the memoirs of his loyal assistant, Peter Erasmus, and recollections by Mary Schäffer Warren,who met Hector during his final visit
to Canada in 1903, proved invaluable. Only as a last resort, and at considerable risk, have I dared to impose my own interpretations or thoughts on the events surrounding this story.
For the sake of authenticity, the spelling, punctuation, and diction found in the original sources have been retained. Since all units of measure in these documents were in imperial units, those measures have also been retained.
Unless otherwise noted, all sketches featured in this book are by Hector himself. I am indebted to Sean Doyle for his own wonderful sketches depicting major events in this story.
This is James Hector’s story of the brief time he spent wandering in the Canadian Rockies.From this work emerges an insight not only into the characters of Hector and his colleagues but also the character and social fabric of the people of Canada’s First Nations.
—Ernie Lakusta, Calgary, Alberta, 2006
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