Cataline: The Life of BC’s Legendary Packer
In the early days of British Columbia, pack trains of horses or mules were a lifeline for the early pioneer population. Explorers, trappers, traders, miners, merchants, workers and settlers and relied on them for the materials needed to live and work. Packers were also vital to the building of railways, roads, and telegraph lines. Pack mule train drivers followed trails created over the years by the First Nations people and later by the fur trading companies, to travel between settlements in the rugged backcountry. The most famous of all the men who ran the pack trains was Jean Caux, who would enter British Columbia’s history as the legendary packer “Cataline”.
Cataline came to North America from Southern France with his brother, eventually landing in British Columbia in 1858. Having learned the trade from Mexican packers in California and Washington, Cataline established a pack train operation that grew to be one of the most well-known and reliable in the province, including securing contracts with the government and Hudson’s Bay Company.
Cataline witnessed many of the pioneering events that shaped the province, including the Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858, the Cariboo Gold Rush of 1862, the coming of the railway to Ashcroft in 1886, and the Grand Trunk Pacific to Hazelton in 1912. Cataline also crossed paths with significant historical figures such as Judge Matthew Begbie, famed anthropologist James Teit, and Amelia York (née Paul, daughter of Chief Kowpelst (Telxkn) of the Nlaka’pamux people of Spuzzum), a world-famous First Nations basketmaker, with whom Cataline had two children.
In Cataline, the legend and life of the man has been remembered in the words of his friends, his family, and those who chronicled the times and development of the province.
Buy the book directly from Caitlin Press, from your favourite local bookstore, or from online retailers.
Lillian Alling: the journey home
A few years ago I wrote a book Lillian Alling: the journey home, about a young Polish woman who attempted to walk home.
In 1926, Lillian Alling, a European immigrant, set out on a journey home from New York. She had little money and no transportation, but plenty of determination. In the three years that followed, Alling walked all the way to Dawson City, Yukon, crossing the North American continent on foot. She walked across the Canadian landscape, weathering the baking sun and freezing winter, crossed the rugged Rocky Mountains and hiked the untested wilderness of British Columbia and the Yukon. Finally, on a make-shift raft, she sailed alone down the Yukon River from Dawson City all the way to the Bering Sea.
Lillian Alling is a legend. She has been the subject of novels, plays, epic poems, an opera and more tall tales than can be remembered. Her life has been subjected to speculation, fiction, and exaggeration. But as legendary as she may be, the true story of Lillian Alling has never been told. “The Mystery Woman,” as she came to be known, is as intriguing to us now as she was to those she met on her trek. Lillian’s name lives on in the folk tales of British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska, but her life leading up to her journey and what waited for her at home in Eastern Europe still remains a shadowy mystery.
Lillian Alling: The Journey Home is a collection of personal documents, first-hand recollections, family tales and archival research that provide tantalizing new clues to Lillian’s story.
Buy the book directly from Caitlin Press, from your favourite local bookstore, or from online retailers.
SusanSmithJosephy 