It has been an interesting and important exercise for me, through the last 15 years, to glance backwards into the lives of the early pioneers of the Crowsnest Pass. The earliest settlers here literally carved out a place for themselves and helped create a legacy that carries forth to this day.

If we step way back to the very beginning, one of the most prominent names that comes to mind is that of Lee. Principally William Samuel Lee, an adventurer born in England in 1832, who came to New York by sailing ship and made his was westward to the California Gold Rush . Like many, he never struck it rich and later spent some time living by hunting and trapping in Ohio before he made his way north in 1867 to Canada. He set up a trading post at what is now known as Lee Creek near Cardston but by 1870 had moved to the Pincher area to run yet another trading post for the Hudson Bay Company.
Dealing in buffalo robes, furs and raising horses and cattle was his trade. His post also served as a stopping place for travelers. In 1871 he married a Blood First Nations woman known as Gutosi-ke-ake (Rosana), who would eventually bear him three girls and five boys. William was particularly taken by the beauty of a nearby lake where he eventually built his home. By then his holdings consisted of about 25,000 acres and a couple thousand cattle, which he eventually herded down to his new home which he called Lee Lake in 1880.

This is where the story begins to build a Pass connection. Herds need bulls and bulls need to be put into summer pasture. So William got a lease from the North West Territories Council for a mind boggling tract that ran from Frank to the BC border. Don’t forget the Pass was a tree-covered wilderness back then. Stockman and ranchers from all parts of the province used to set up a spring camp in the Blairmore area. There they would string a fence at the east end of Blairmore that ran down from Turtle Mountain across the river and up the side of Goat (Bluff) Mountain. The narrowest spot. It made sense. It was there they conducted their roundup.

In Crowsnest and Its People I found an astounding anecdote about a terrible setback to Lee’s mostly prosperous times that involved a stampede in the winter of 1886, “when blizzard conditions drove the frightened cattle (800) over the steep banks of the Castle River to their destruction.”

Another setback for William Lee was the discovery that his beautifully set home at Lee Lake was built on Hudson Bay Company land. William was not interested in being a tenant on land he had “hewn from the wilderness.” He was an independent sort and was not about to pay taxes either. The Company decided to put Lee off the land and annex his buildings but before they could do that he pulled off an unprecedented move. And move he did. His house and barns and outbuildings to the northern end of his property eight miles north of Burmis. This was no small feat back then as there were no highways or bridges.

This is now the former Milvain property up North Burmis Road. William set up homesteading there along with sons Henry and John. The Lee story moves closer to the Pass again in 1893 when son Henry, who was 19 at the time, rode out with a friend on a fishing trip. Their ride took them from the Lundbreck area all the way to Frank. While fishing just west of Turtle Mountain he said in a 1952 interview, “I came upon this pond and it was running white just like milk.”

The milky pond was of course the sulphur springs. That very fall he led his father William back to the site and Lee Senior filed a claim on the area. He reportedly operated a spa there. After several years Lee sold the rights to Mr. Gibeau who opened a boarding house near the springs. Eventually the Frank Sanatorium was built in the area but that is another story. (Pass Herald - The White Plague – April 12, 2011)

William Samuel Lee struggled with a long bout of pneumonia in the fall of 1896 and despite determined visits three times by Dr. Mead, he passed that November on his Rock Creek property. He is buried in Pincher Creek, a town it appears that is named after a set of horseshoe pinchers he lost in a creek in 1868. They were found ten years later by Mounted Policeman who referred to the site as “Pincher Creek”

William’s son Henry Lee, discoverer of the sulphur springs, ranched at Rock Creek until 1918 and then moved to Blairmore. Henry shared some of fascinating memories in 1952 interview where he talked about the massive spring roundups when stockmen and riders from all over the country came together into one big party. Henry described the set up as resembling a small village of tents of all descriptions. He also recalled that it was not uncommon for as many as two thousand animals to be branded in one day.

In Blairmore Henry worked for West Canadian Collieries for almost thirty years before he retired on his old age pension. Henry lived to the age of 93 and passed in 1968. In 1952 Henry and his wife Mary Ann Holloway celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary here and as was the protocol back then, received a telegram from Queen Elizabeth. Five years later they celebrated their 65th and Mary passed shortly before they would have seen their 70th in 1962.

Vern Decoux, in his 1952 interview of a then 78 year old Lee stated, “Today, Henry Lee is as sturdy a man for his age as can be found anywhere. He still has all his teeth except two and this he credits to his almost constant use of chewing tobacco.” Oh great. That’s just what the cowboys around here need to hear.

Henry’s wife Mary Ann Holloway was born in Pincher in 1880. Her father, Mart Holloway, was another famous pioneer of the Crowsnest Pass area. Mart came over on the same sailing ship as William Lee and is credited with being the first to mine coal in the Lundbreck area. He was also one of the original gold seekers and rode with Tom Lemon in search of his mine. Crowsnest and Its People has the following side note written by Charlie Drain about Mart that is pretty wild.

It reads as follows. “Mart Holloway acquired his wife in a manner that equates to the best Hollywood traditions of how it was in the old West. Riding across the prairie looking for stray cattle, he saw an Indian maiden being chased by a man with an axe, obviously with the intent to take her life. Mart spurred his horse to a gallop, reached down and grabbed the frightened girl by the waist and carried her to safety. They were married in Pincher the next day.”

Henry and Mary Ann Lee had four children. Bill, Janice, Beatrice and Liza. Beatrice married Benjamin Van Loon and had amongst others a son also named Benjamin (Buddy) Van Loon. Buddy passed in 1930 and he and his wife Edith had six children, one of which was William “Bubba” Van Loon who passed this May 15th at the age of 62. And so, the legacy of these early seniors and their offspring continues. To Shelly, Billy, Hailey and Reid you have my sincerest condolences. Your family roots are long and remarkable.

We must always remember to acknowledge our pioneers and their descendants that walk among us. Be proud of you family heritage.

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