Bulkley Valley

This is the Bulkley Valley, in the northwest Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. The Bulkley, a stream from Houston, joins the Morice River about 6 kilometers to the west. At that meeting, they unusually take the name of the smaller Bulkley, becoming the Bulkley River. This river then flows northwestward for 257 kilometers through the valley, with the Hudson Bay Mountain range to the west and the Babine Mountains to the east. The valley ends at the Bulkley's confluence with the Skeena River at Hazelton, though some say it's further south near Witset. To the south, the valley ends at Bulkley Lake, between Houston and Burns Lake.

Wet'suwet'en people have lived here for thousands of years, and the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed their Aboriginal title in the area in 1997. The first European visitor on record was Simon McGillivray of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1833. Later, in 1859, William Downie surveyed for a possible transcontinental railway. Michael Byrnes and Henry McNeill, who surveyed for the Collins Overland Telegraph, were the first to travel the entire length of this valley. Charles S. Bulkley, the chief engineer for the telegraph construction, is who the river and valley are named after. By September 1866, the telegraph line had crossed the valley, following the Bulkley to its junction with the Skeena River. However, work stopped on the Collins telegraph in March 1867 after the transatlantic telegraph cable was completed, and it closed north of Quesnel in 1869.

Government surveys of the valley were conducted in 1890–1891 and 1892. The 1892 party improved the old telegraph trail to a wagon road south to Moricetown and made other sections suitable for packhorses. Between 1897 and 1901, prospectors on their way to the Klondike Gold Rush observed the valley's agricultural and mining potential. In 1898, the Dominion government established a ranch at Pleasant Valley, near Houston, and the Hudson's Bay Company started one in the Driftwood area.

The first phase of the Yukon telegraph, with a branch to Atlin, was built in 1899. The second phase, connecting Atlin and Quesnel along the abandoned Collins telegraph route, was completed in 1901. This 1,400-kilometer line, with a 20-foot right-of-way, improved access to the Bulkley Valley. Charles Barrett and Edward Charleson, who worked on the telegraph construction, settled six miles west of Houston at what became Barrett. Barrett later bought out Charleson and acquired the government ranch, expanding the property and naming it the "Diamond D."

In 1902, a delegation asked the BC government to start preemptions in the valley. The government approved a plan for 100 families to get 100 acres of free land for every 320 acres preempted, but high freight costs meant few new settlers arrived. Boer War veterans were offered 160-acre land grants, and the valley became a popular choice, though most veterans sold to speculators, leading to large undeveloped land parcels. For example, Francis Rattenbury acquired about 50,000 acres here. Settlement was slow. In 1904, developers staked out Aldermere, on the hill above Telkwa. By 1906, there were 74 non-native permanent residents in the valley. Telkwa was surveyed the next year. By 1910, upgrades to the wagon road extended 30 miles south of this point. In 1