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Usk Usk is located twelve miles east of Terrace, BC. It is a small community whose population has fluctuated throughout its history. Usk received its present name from the employees of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad, due to its situation being almost a replica of the little town of Usk in Wales. However, Usk was originally a First Nations village site. According to Marius Barbeau, the “Ganhada’s move to the Kitsumkalum Valley occurred so long ago we can only say it happened in time immemorial” (McDonald 81). The town site of Klew Nu (which was on the present settlement of Usk) was described by Chief Walter Wright as “The place where the Moon hides behind the mountain… a town site that stretched over two miles of pleasant flat lands, two miles above Kitselas Canyon along a stretch of the Skeena River that stretched out and formed a great lake” (McDonald 81). Although Usk turns up in the records as being established at the time the railway came through the area, it is known that there were homesteaders all over the area before that, and it was probable that Usk was host to them before the railroad. During the 1800s and early 1900s, mining prospectors were also finding job interests all along the Skeena River. One of the most famous places, just upriver from Usk, was Lorne Creek, which gave up over two million dollars worth of gold. In retrospect, Usk was probably host to all three interests - loggers, homesteaders, and miners. One of them was a man by the name of Richard (Dick) Lowrie, a mining prospector who was making his living in the area and married a lady by the name of Lizzie Kitselas. In the words of his step-son, George Kitselas, his father pre-empted "the whole townsite of Usk". Another individual, Charles Durham, settled in Usk and had seven children, some of whom still live in Usk today. When asked why her grandfather (Charles Durham) moved to Usk, Helene McRae responded, "He moved to Usk in 1917. When the railway went through and the riverboats folded up, then they moved into Usk. Most of the people who lived in Kitselas, moved to Usk, because the riverboats had always gone to Kitselas and then there wasn't access...there was a lot of prospecting in the area, and sawmilling." He was also a businessman who found or made work wherever he went. When speaking of her father, Charles Durham, before she passed away, Mrs. Helen Adams (nee Nellie Durham) said, "Dad was a brilliant man. After we moved North, Dad was the lineman for the telegraph, a mail courier, and operated the ferry services across the Skeena River." Although it was very difficult to know the population count of Usk, Wrigley's Directories (1928) stated that Usk had a set population of 175, and described it as a "distributing point for an extensive mining and prospecting district." It was full of prospectors, CNR workers, ranchers, and loggers. In the beginning, the community was located on the North side of the Skeena River. In the 1900s, progress was approaching the Skeena fast, and in the words of Helene McRae, "people welcomed progress." What comes with progress is change, and in the process, Usk benefited for a brief time. As soon as the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad came through, the Canadian Government began advertising more land for purchase in the Usk area, an example of which is in a pamphlet called Five-Acre Garden Tracts. "In order to attract a desirable class of settlers, a Company, being formed and to be known as the 'Usk Land and Industrial Co. Ltd.,' will subdivide a small tourist townsite on the railway side opposite this land, and will establish at their earliest opportunity a very cozy little hotel of some 30 rooms, together with summer cottages, also an assembly hall, a bowling alley, library, general store and a small sawmill." This group would make life more comfortable in Usk; setting up middle-men to sell their produce in Prince Rupert and also helping in the clearing and maintenance of lands. Along with available land, some promises were made to those who wanted to move out and build a life in Usk. One of those promises was for a reaction ferry (reaction ferry) to be built for the residents - which is still in use today. It was not long before the inevitable store(s) and hotel were built in Usk. Life was made a little bit easier in Usk as the train was able to make stops along the way and deliver supplies for businesses. As Stan Dmuchacz recalls of life in 1940, in the book 20th Century Anecdotes: "One of the highlights each week was a train known as the 'way freight'. As I recall, it traveled in both directions on Friday. It was basically a freight train but it did have one passenger car. The intent of it I believe was to serve the smaller places along the railway line. It brought food for the grocery stores; beer for the hotels and small shipments for others." No longer were people dependant on the Skeena river for transportation. When the railroad came through the area, the steamers stopped running along the Skeena, which also meant the death of busy towns such as Kitselas. This, in turn, meant that families had to move elsewhere for employment (like Charles Durham). Usk was the next best place, as it had great potential for lumber sawmills, mining in the area(s), and of course, a lot of available land. Usk's industry was mainly logging. At one time there were three to four sawmills running in the community. A businessman by the name of Lee Betheren set up one of the first sawmills in the 1940s, and later owned a general store. Mr. and Mrs. McRae add some general information as to who Mr. Betheren was, and the sawmill business: "He was a mining recorder for awhile, and he had, I guess, the first sawmill there. Then in 1942 or maybe a bit before he went into partnership with my Dad in the sawmill. Later on, when we joined my Dad in 1951, we formed a company. In the early days there was a sawmill there, called Skeena Lumber, and they took lumber across on the tramway. I think in one of the old calendars there's a picture of a tramway where they took the horses on. They had a special kind of a sky-line where the lumber was put on a dolly, and then they'd physically push the dollies so that the tram would take off. Then when the system came across it picked it off of that dolly, took it across the river, about 900 or 1000 feet, and set it on a dolly on the other side, and then they would wheel it to the boxcars. It's a lot simpler than that now." The sawmill was later renamed the Adams Lumber Company and supplied lumber on the CNR to many places, some as far away as New York City. One of the last sawmills in Usk was run by Bill and Helene McRae, which closed in 1959. Usk had a non-denominational church, that was built and named in honor of Rev. Thomas Marsh. The original church was nearly lost in 1936 during a massive flood. The Church was damaged and beyond repair. Inside the little chapel is a story of the Untouched Bible. In October of 1966, a member of the Christian Reformed Church proposed to restore and move the abandoned Chapel for a 1967 Centennial year project. This proved too difficult. Instead, the community decided to build a replica of the original, on a much smaller scale, which was then placed along Highway 16. Mr. and Mrs. W. McRae donated a piece of their property for the event. Living on the Skeena River was hard, especially around the winter season. Helene McRae shares a story of her own, "I used to do the books in the office at the sawmill, and sometimes the river would freeze over completely, and you would walk across on trails on the ice - right across the river. I was to go home at two o'clock one day and the ferry man had sort of made a trail on the ice; he had put boards in some places and he said he would walk down the track where we were crossing to see that I got across ok. And I had to stay at the office a little bit longer to do some invoices and I looked out the window and the whole river opened up. And it let go at the canyon. I could have been in the middle of the river there. The ferryman was on the other side of the river and he was hollering over to the mill and asked if I had started across. How we survived, I don't know." It was a way of life. One of the hardest times for Usk was when the flood of 1936 hit. A lot of houses were ruined and some were lost downriver. A pioneer of the Terrace area, Floyd Frank recalled the effects of the flood on Usk. "The Skeena came flooding through the town of Usk and piling most of the smaller frame houses in a mass against a heavy stand of willow and alder. Lee Bethurem's store, close to the river, was flooded to more than the height of the main entrance doors, as was the hotel. Boxcars sitting on the railway were flooded to within two feet of their roofs. Fortunately the schoolhouse was on a small bench, just to the rear of the town. The people set up a community kitchen and beds, along with tents, to house the people." (Frank, 113) With new settlements and the building of roads, the lot of the pioneers rapidly improved. In those times, life was not all work. Radio and moving pictures were still in their infancy and rarely touched these remote spots, so the people had to rely entirely on their own resources for recreation and amusement, such as staging dances and sport tournaments. Each local community had its particular celebration sometime during the summer, and Usk's own was the May 24th Celebration. In the early years Usk was busier and larger than Terrace. Therefore, groups of people would jump on the train and travel to Usk for this special event, and partake in baseball tournaments and dances. People found ways to socialize outside of Usk as well. The train allowed people, such as Mr. Dmuchacz, to visit neighbouring centres: "Way freight was also the way we were allowed, at a very young age, to venture to larger centers such as Terrace for a day trip. Much to the delight of us young people during the summers they would have ice cream shipped to Usk on the 'way freight', but because the only refrigeration it had was the dry ice in which it was packed we had to be there when the train arrived." The decline of Usk began after the construction of Highway 16. Business could move to areas around it, such as Terrace. Usk thrived on logging, but once the mines and the sawmills closed, there was little to sustain the people and their families. The regular floods also adversely affected Usk. Families slowly trickled away to find other employment. Today, the population is very small. As you drive by Usk on Highway 16 you will notice a handful of houses on each side of the river and the little pioneer chapel. You can reach the other side of Usk by ferry –reaction ferry in the summer and cable car in the winter. People living in Usk today find it rural and peaceful, and when they want a little more excitement, they travel the twelve miles west to Terrace.
Works Cited Frank, Floyd. My Valley’s Yesteryears. Victoria, BC:
Orca Book Publishing, 1991.
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