NOTE: To log this virtual you need to do two things:
1. Answer two questions (the answers are in the description; see instructions below on where to send answers), and
2. Post of photo taken from the viewing stand (or obviously nearby). You're not required to include yourself in the photo.
After parking in the nearby lot just off the Yellowhead (Highway 16), walk about 10 minutes (300 m) to the posted coordinates where you’ll find a viewing platform overlooking the Athabasca River.
Now, fix your gaze on the clearing on the opposite bank of the river. That’s the second location of Jasper House, which served as a trading and re-supply post from about 1830 until it was officially closed in 1884.
Use your imagination to consider what it must have like for travellers to come upon this little piece of “civilization” after making the incredibly difficult journey through the Rocky Mountains from the west or the long paddle upstream on the Athabasca River from Fort Assiniboine northeast of here.
For decades in the 1800’s Jasper House was the only place in the region for fur traders, indigenous peoples and travellers to rest, re-supply and trade. Due to its strategic location, this post had a far longer life than most fur trading posts in western Canada and because of that, the name “Jasper" became synonymous with the area. It is no surprise the name was adopted when “Jasper Forest Park” was established in 1907 and later in 1913 by the Town of Jasper, originally named Fitzhugh.
Why was a Post Built Here?
In late 1810, David Thompson — fur trader, mapmaker and "in-country" partner of the North West Company — was forced to find a northerly route through the Rocky Mountains when his trading expedition was blocked from travelling through the mountains via the more southerly Howse Pass, his usual route until that time.
Thompson and his company made their way to Brûlé Lake (23 kilometres northeast of here) and in early 1811 the expedition was guided through the gap in the mountains here, then through the Athabasca Pass, south of the present-day Jasper town site, and eventually to the Columbia River and south through present-day British Columbia and ultimately to what are now the northwestern states of the United States.
This became the standard route used first by the North West Company and later the Hudson's Bay Company through the Rocky Mountains for many years to come. The route was called the “York Factory Express.” It connected York Factory on the shores of Hudson Bay in northern Manitoba with Fort Vancouver in present-day Washington State, a journey of approximately 4,200 kilometres (2,600 miles).
The First Location of Jasper House
To support the new route through the mountains, a post was soon built at the north end of Brûlé Lake in 1813 and named "Rocky Mountain House." That name might have seemed appropriate since the post was on the doorstep of the mountains, but the name no doubt caused some confusion since there was already a long-established post of the same name near the town of present-day Rocky Mountain House on the North Saskatchewan River.
When Jasper Haws, a then 20-year employee of the North West Company became the manager of the post in 1815, a new name presented itself in the fun play on words between "Jasper Haws” and “Jasper House”. In fact, fur traders routinely referred to the site as “Jasper’s House” long after Haws moved away from the site around 1821.
The Second and Final Location of Jasper House
In 1821 pressure from the British government forced the North West Company to merge with its bitter rival, the Hudson’s Bay Company. A number of years later, in 1830, Jasper House was moved by the Hudson's Bay Company to this location where it served until 1853 as a strategic trading and supply post to brigades of fur traders travelling back and forth through the mountains.
The structure was used sporadically until the post was officially closed in 1884 and it was finally dismantled in 1909 by a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway survey crew to make a raft for river transport.
The site was designated as a national historic site in 1924.
To Log This Cache
Answer the two questions below AND attach a picture taken from the platform to your found log.
Please email me the answers to the two questions below by accessing my geocaching profile page and using either the “Send message” or “Send e-mail” features.
Feel free to log the cache immediately, but please note: if the answers to your questions are not received in due time or the answers are incorrect and not corrected after I ask once for clarification, I will be forced to delete your log.
You'll find the answers to these questions in the cache description.
- After David Thompson travelled through this area in 1811, what was the name of the “standard route” through the mountains from Hudson Bay in the east all the way to Fort Vancouver used by fur trading companies for many years later?
- What was Jasper’s family name?
AND
3. Take a picture of the Jasper House site across the river from the platform. Optionally, you can include yourself OR your GPSr in the picture.
Thanks for your visit! 😀
Sources:
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.