McArthur's secret mission: Part two.(J.D. McArthur)(Diary entry)

Introduction

The first part of Hugh Macintrye's journal was published in the Autumn 2006 issue of Alberta History.

Railroad builder J.D. McArthur was constructing a line to the Peace River district but he wanted the location of his main station to remain a secret as the area would soon be swarmed by speculators. As a result, he called on four friends from Pipestone, Manitoba, to undertake a secret mission. These were the leader, Thomas McNicol, Donald Campbell, Alexander Morrison, and Hugh Macintrye. They were to travel to the Peace River area as prospective homesteaders, file on land appropriate for a townsite, and later turn it over to McArthur's company. This way, no one would be the wiser until the land was actually in McArthur's hands.

The following is the final section of Hugh Macintrye's account of the journey, beginning when he reached the Smoky River but could not cross because the ice was ready to break up.

The diary was held by his daughter, Mrs. R.E. McRory, and donated to the Provincial Archives of Alberta.

[on the banks of Smoky River, March 27, 1912]

We have a pretty fine bunkhouse here but we have to make our own grub. Dan is the chief chef and maker of flap-jacks or whatever you call them and they taste good too. Say, when a fellow is hungry and out in the wilds he'll eat most anything. (Perhaps I should not have made this remark so soon after the item about Dan's flapjacks but I am not disparaging the flapjacks by any means.) We had a swell dinner today--bacon, beans, flapjacks with a little maple syrup and a dandy cup of tea. Gosh it makes me hungry even to write about that spread and it is only about a couple of hours since we "jungled."