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HUNDREDS of years ago, the Indigenous people of this province established a vast network of trails connecting their territories for the purposes of travel and trade between dierent nations. In this region one trail was particularly useful, as it crossed over the Continental Divide and was the shortest route between the waterways flowing to the Pacific Ocean and those flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The Lhedli T’enneh referred to this route as Lhdesti (the shortcut).IN 1863, John Robert Giscome, a Black prospector from Jamaica, asked a local First Nations guide to show him the best route to the Peace River area. The guide brought Giscome and his partner, Henry McDame, to Lhdesti. When Giscome returned to Victoria later that year he penned a letter to The Daily British Colonist recounting his travels and describing the trail he had been shown. The newspaper dubbed the route “Giscome’s Portage.” Despite the article, the trail saw little use until the Omineca gold rush started in 1869. Over the next 40 years the trail was used by prospectors, fur traders, and surveyors to travel to the northern part of the province. YEARS LATER, in 1905, Albert Huble and Edward Seebach established traplines in the vicinity of the Giscome Portage. The two men foresaw the location’s importance as a transportation route, and they pre-empted land at the southern end of the trail. They also set up a store to cater to travellers. In 1909 the homestead, then known as the community of Giscome Portage, became a regular stop for the paddlewheelers that made their way up and down the Fraser River. By 1911 there were numerous other settlers in the area. THE GISCOME PORTAGE area thrived until the onset of World War I. By 1914 the railway had been built on the far side of the river, the young men who settled the area began to leave to join the war, and transportation was rapidly shifting from river to road and rail travel. In 1919 a wagon road was completed from Prince George to Summit Lake, bypassing Giscome Portage. The Seebach and Huble General Store soon closed. The Huble family moved into Prince George and Edward Seebach moved to run the partners’ freighting business and warehouses at Summit and McLeod Lakes.ALBERT JAMES Huble was born in Oak Lake, Ontario. The fourth child in a family of eleven children, Albert is said to have left home as a young teenager after an argument with his father. After years of working in dierent areas around the country, Huble took a job with Canadian Pacific Railway in the Kootenays. From there it is believed he came to the Fort George area around 1902.ANNE MAY Hart was born in Havelock, Ontario. She married William Copperthwaite and the couple had three children. When Huble returned to Ontario to visit his family in 1910 the marriage between Annie and William had ended and Huble’s diary makes mention of several meetings between the Hart and Huble families. When she moved to British Columbia, her two oldest children remained in Ontario with their grandparents. Ada, her youngest daughter, accompanied her mother to their new home. THE PROPERTY was sold to Josephine Mitchell in 1929. She operated the WM Ranch which also functioned as a guest ranch oering “Wild West” experiences to international visitors. After she sold the ranch in 1957 it passed through several owners before the province purchased the property in the mid-1970s for use as community pasture. A group was formed in 1984 to save the deteriorating Huble house, and in 1986 the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George obtained land surrounding the original house and the Giscome Portage trail. The Huble Homestead Historic Site and Giscome Portage Regional Park opened in 1989.THE COUPLE had their first daughter in 1911; during their time on the homestead the family grew by three more daughters and a son. After moving into Prince George in 1919 they had another two sons. Albert Huble passed away in 1947 at the age of 75, followed by his wife in 1949 at the age of 67.EDWARD ANDREW Seebach was born in Fullerton, Ontario and was the oldest of eleven children. There is no record of what brought Seebach to British Columbia, but in 1903, two years after he left Ontario, he met Al Huble and the two men decided to enter into a business partnership.SEEBACH WAS KNOWN to have been an incredibly hard worker. By the time the Huble family moved into Prince George in 1919, Seebach was living at the store the two men ran in McLeod Lake. In 1931 he fell from a ladder while extinguishing a fire and injured his leg so badly it needed to be amputated. A year later Seebach was admitted to a Prince George hospital and he died three days later at the age of 51.OPEN DAILYVICTORIA DAY TO LABOUR DAY10:00 AM TO 5:00 PM VISITOR’S GUIDEADMISSION BY DONATIONSUGGESTED RATES:ADULTS - $5.00CHILDREN & SENIORS - $3.00FAMILIES - $10.00ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATHLEEN ANGELSKI
HUNDREDS of years ago, the Indigenous people of this province established a vast network of trails connecting their territories for the purposes of travel and trade between dierent nations. In this region one trail was particularly useful, as it crossed over the Continental Divide and was the shortest route between the waterways flowing to the Pacific Ocean and those flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The Lhedli T’enneh referred to this route as Lhdesti (the shortcut).IN 1863, John Robert Giscome, a Black prospector from Jamaica, asked a local First Nations guide to show him the best route to the Peace River area. The guide brought Giscome and his partner, Henry McDame, to Lhdesti. When Giscome returned to Victoria later that year he penned a letter to The Daily British Colonist recounting his travels and describing the trail he had been shown. The newspaper dubbed the route “Giscome’s Portage.” Despite the article, the trail saw little use until the Omineca gold rush started in 1869. Over the next 40 years the trail was used by prospectors, fur traders, and surveyors to travel to the northern part of the province. YEARS LATER, in 1905, Albert Huble and Edward Seebach established traplines in the vicinity of the Giscome Portage. The two men foresaw the location’s importance as a transportation route, and they pre-empted land at the southern end of the trail. They also set up a store to cater to travellers. In 1909 the homestead, then known as the community of Giscome Portage, became a regular stop for the paddlewheelers that made their way up and down the Fraser River. By 1911 there were numerous other settlers in the area. THE GISCOME PORTAGE area thrived until the onset of World War I. By 1914 the railway had been built on the far side of the river, the young men who settled the area began to leave to join the war, and transportation was rapidly shifting from river to road and rail travel. In 1919 a wagon road was completed from Prince George to Summit Lake, bypassing Giscome Portage. The Seebach and Huble General Store soon closed. The Huble family moved into Prince George and Edward Seebach moved to run the partners’ freighting business and warehouses at Summit and McLeod Lakes.ALBERT JAMES Huble was born in Oak Lake, Ontario. The fourth child in a family of eleven children, Albert is said to have left home as a young teenager after an argument with his father. After years of working in dierent areas around the country, Huble took a job with Canadian Pacific Railway in the Kootenays. From there it is believed he came to the Fort George area around 1902.ANNE MAY Hart was born in Havelock, Ontario. She married William Copperthwaite and the couple had three children. When Huble returned to Ontario to visit his family in 1910 the marriage between Annie and William had ended and Huble’s diary makes mention of several meetings between the Hart and Huble families. When she moved to British Columbia, her two oldest children remained in Ontario with their grandparents. Ada, her youngest daughter, accompanied her mother to their new home. THE PROPERTY was sold to Josephine Mitchell in 1929. She operated the WM Ranch which also functioned as a guest ranch oering “Wild West” experiences to international visitors. After she sold the ranch in 1957 it passed through several owners before the province purchased the property in the mid-1970s for use as community pasture. A group was formed in 1984 to save the deteriorating Huble house, and in 1986 the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George obtained land surrounding the original house and the Giscome Portage trail. The Huble Homestead Historic Site and Giscome Portage Regional Park opened in 1989.THE COUPLE had their first daughter in 1911; during their time on the homestead the family grew by three more daughters and a son. After moving into Prince George in 1919 they had another two sons. Albert Huble passed away in 1947 at the age of 75, followed by his wife in 1949 at the age of 67.EDWARD ANDREW Seebach was born in Fullerton, Ontario and was the oldest of eleven children. There is no record of what brought Seebach to British Columbia, but in 1903, two years after he left Ontario, he met Al Huble and the two men decided to enter into a business partnership.SEEBACH WAS KNOWN to have been an incredibly hard worker. By the time the Huble family moved into Prince George in 1919, Seebach was living at the store the two men ran in McLeod Lake. In 1931 he fell from a ladder while extinguishing a fire and injured his leg so badly it needed to be amputated. A year later Seebach was admitted to a Prince George hospital and he died three days later at the age of 51.OPEN DAILYVICTORIA DAY TO LABOUR DAY10:00 AM TO 5:00 PM VISITOR’S GUIDEADMISSION BY DONATIONSUGGESTED RATES:ADULTS - $5.00CHILDREN & SENIORS - $3.00FAMILIES - $10.00ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATHLEEN ANGELSKI
HUNDREDS of years ago, the Indigenous people of this province established a vast network of trails connecting their territories for the purposes of travel and trade between dierent nations. In this region one trail was particularly useful, as it crossed over the Continental Divide and was the shortest route between the waterways flowing to the Pacific Ocean and those flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The Lhedli T’enneh referred to this route as Lhdesti (the shortcut).IN 1863, John Robert Giscome, a Black prospector from Jamaica, asked a local First Nations guide to show him the best route to the Peace River area. The guide brought Giscome and his partner, Henry McDame, to Lhdesti. When Giscome returned to Victoria later that year he penned a letter to The Daily British Colonist recounting his travels and describing the trail he had been shown. The newspaper dubbed the route “Giscome’s Portage.” Despite the article, the trail saw little use until the Omineca gold rush started in 1869. Over the next 40 years the trail was used by prospectors, fur traders, and surveyors to travel to the northern part of the province. YEARS LATER, in 1905, Albert Huble and Edward Seebach established traplines in the vicinity of the Giscome Portage. The two men foresaw the location’s importance as a transportation route, and they pre-empted land at the southern end of the trail. They also set up a store to cater to travellers. In 1909 the homestead, then known as the community of Giscome Portage, became a regular stop for the paddlewheelers that made their way up and down the Fraser River. By 1911 there were numerous other settlers in the area. THE GISCOME PORTAGE area thrived until the onset of World War I. By 1914 the railway had been built on the far side of the river, the young men who settled the area began to leave to join the war, and transportation was rapidly shifting from river to road and rail travel. In 1919 a wagon road was completed from Prince George to Summit Lake, bypassing Giscome Portage. The Seebach and Huble General Store soon closed. The Huble family moved into Prince George and Edward Seebach moved to run the partners’ freighting business and warehouses at Summit and McLeod Lakes.ALBERT JAMES Huble was born in Oak Lake, Ontario. The fourth child in a family of eleven children, Albert is said to have left home as a young teenager after an argument with his father. After years of working in dierent areas around the country, Huble took a job with Canadian Pacific Railway in the Kootenays. From there it is believed he came to the Fort George area around 1902.ANNE MAY Hart was born in Havelock, Ontario. She married William Copperthwaite and the couple had three children. When Huble returned to Ontario to visit his family in 1910 the marriage between Annie and William had ended and Huble’s diary makes mention of several meetings between the Hart and Huble families. When she moved to British Columbia, her two oldest children remained in Ontario with their grandparents. Ada, her youngest daughter, accompanied her mother to their new home. THE PROPERTY was sold to Josephine Mitchell in 1929. She operated the WM Ranch which also functioned as a guest ranch oering “Wild West” experiences to international visitors. After she sold the ranch in 1957 it passed through several owners before the province purchased the property in the mid-1970s for use as community pasture. A group was formed in 1984 to save the deteriorating Huble house, and in 1986 the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George obtained land surrounding the original house and the Giscome Portage trail. The Huble Homestead Historic Site and Giscome Portage Regional Park opened in 1989.THE COUPLE had their first daughter in 1911; during their time on the homestead the family grew by three more daughters and a son. After moving into Prince George in 1919 they had another two sons. Albert Huble passed away in 1947 at the age of 75, followed by his wife in 1949 at the age of 67.EDWARD ANDREW Seebach was born in Fullerton, Ontario and was the oldest of eleven children. There is no record of what brought Seebach to British Columbia, but in 1903, two years after he left Ontario, he met Al Huble and the two men decided to enter into a business partnership.SEEBACH WAS KNOWN to have been an incredibly hard worker. By the time the Huble family moved into Prince George in 1919, Seebach was living at the store the two men ran in McLeod Lake. In 1931 he fell from a ladder while extinguishing a fire and injured his leg so badly it needed to be amputated. A year later Seebach was admitted to a Prince George hospital and he died three days later at the age of 51.OPEN DAILYVICTORIA DAY TO LABOUR DAY10:00 AM TO 5:00 PM VISITOR’S GUIDEADMISSION BY DONATIONSUGGESTED RATES:ADULTS - $5.00CHILDREN & SENIORS - $3.00FAMILIES - $10.00ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATHLEEN ANGELSKI
20. WarehouseHuble began work on his riverfront warehouse in 1910 before travelling to Ontario to visit family. Upon his return in 1911, he hauled a large number of logs for a wharf and completed the project in about June of that year. The warehouse would become a regular stop for steamboats travelling on the upper Fraser, who would use the wharf to load and unload freight for people and businesses ranging from the Hudson’s Bay Company to individual trappers, prospectors, and homesteaders. Huble and Seebach built a road down to the warehouse and hauled outfits on wagons or carts to their other warehouse on Summit Lake.20. Warehouse, continued14. Seebach & Huble General StoreHuble and Seebach began building a new store in 1913 to accommodate the increase in business the two men were experiencing. The false-front building was a beckoning symbol of civilization to river trac. Customers could trade their furs, arrange to have supplies freighted to Summit Lake, hire a river guide, or buy fresh vegetables. The settlers living in the area could purchase everything from candy and tobacco to clothes, tack, hardware, and staples such as flour, rice, and beans. The General Store was also a place to converse with neighbours and fellow travellers and keep up to date on the news of the world. A reproduction of the building was completed in 1997, ocially reopening the business to the public once again. 2. Accessible Outhouse - see map3. Jim Scott Memorial4. Accessible Outhouse - see mapThis log building is thought to have been constructed by Al Huble for his pigs - the shelter is located far enough from the house to avoid the smell associated with the animals. The building was restored in the fall of 2000.5. Animal ShelterJim Scott was a Regional District director who was an advocate for the park.Believed to have been built in 1918, this red log structure was originally located in Salmon Valley and was home to Stearns and Gertrude McNeill. Stearns ran the post oce out of his home from 1923 to 1943, while Gertrude ran the government library and taught school out of the same building. After the McNeills left in the early 1950s, the house passed through several hands. The Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage Heritage Society (HHGPHS) was approached in the 1980s to save it from demolition. The building was disassembled and then reconstructed in the upper parking lot at Huble Homestead in 2000.1. Salmon Valley Post Oce6. Welcome Barn7. Animal BarnAccording to his diaries, Al Huble cut the logs for his “new barn” in January of 1915; he skidded the logs used to build this barn from a nearby stand of trees with the help of a fellow homesteader. Huble worked on the barn for months and notes his work on the floor in 1916. Presumably this barn housed the draught horses which pulled Huble and Seebach’s freight wagons across the Giscome Portage to their warehouse at Summit Lake. The Huble children recall several stalls In his diary Al Huble records working on building a barn in the summer of 1911. After its completion it would have been used to house Huble and Seebach’s horses and possibly some cows up until the construction of the “new barn.” After 1915 this barn was likely used as a storage building for the many implements used in the two men’s freighting business. It was reconstructed in 1987 based on the remaining foundation and historic photographs. Today this barn is the starting point for guided tours of the Huble Homestead and is home to a number of informational boards. 8. Accessible Outhouses - see map11. Flat Roofed Cabin12. Picnic Shelter - see mapBuilt after the Hubles sold the property, this simple log cabin is thought to have been constructed and used by ranch hands working for the WM Ranch in the 1930s. The cabin was restored in 1992 and is used today for storage.The animals kept at Huble Homestead during the season are on loan to the HHGPHS for the summer months. The Huble family would have kept chickens for their meat and eggs. Built in 2014, the picnic shelter was constructed at the site to oer visitors relief from the sun and rain.13. Implement Shed - see mapThe Flat Roofed Cabin was reconstructed on the original location of the building it replicates. The first cabin was built by Al Huble and Ed Seebach when they first came to Giscome Portage around 1904. This cabin served as the partners’ home until they each built a cabin on their own land, after which time they used it as a store. In 1913 the partners built a large false front general store, and the flat roofed cabin became a workshop and guesthouse. Huble repaired shoes, brewed wine, and did carpentry in the building. Various visitors to the homestead were oered a bed in the cabin. 9. Rabbits & Chickens19. Huble HouseWhen Annie and her daughter Ada joined Al on the homestead in 1911 they all lived in Al’s small one-room cabin. It was in this cabin that the couple would welcome their first child, a daughter named Bertha, in October 1911. The couple decided a larger home was needed for their growing family. Al logged the timber for the home in the winter of 1911 and began construction of this squared-log home in the spring. The Homesteaders often used raised caches to store meat and other foodstus out of the reach of predators and rodents.15. Meat CacheThe site is currently home to two gardens: a small heirloom flower garden and a larger vegetable garden. The vegetable garden is a fraction of the size of Annie Huble’s original garden, which would have extended onto the riverbanks. She was fond of flowers and maintained a flower garden where the vegetable garden exists today.16. Garden17. Water PumpPlaced on the site of the original cribbed well, the water pump draws from an underground spring.This underground building was used to store fruits and vegetables in the absence of refrigeration.18. Root Cellar22. Lhukw ba nits’unih (Fish Camp)23. Seebach’s CabinThis fish camp is a reconstruction of a similar camp that was located up the Lhtakoh (Fraser River) from Huble Homestead. 24. Blacksmith Shop21. Duck PondThe Huble family raised geese and ducks - the ducks in this pen are on loan to the homestead for the summer months.The camp was a seasonal settlement that would have been occupied from mid-shen (summer) through early dak’et (fall) while the talukw (salmon) were running. At the fish camp, a group of people, mostly extended family, came to fish for salmon, gather roots and berries, and preserve their food for the colder months. Throughout the remainder of the year, Lheidli T’enneh would travel throughout their keyoh (territory) gathering resources as they became available. In the khui (winter) they gathered in villages. The fish camp project was undertaken in partnership with the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation and includes several structures, such as a smoke house, meat cache, canvas tent, a lean-to common area, and a drying rack, as well as a hand-carved cottonwood dugout ts’i (canoe). This cabin, originally built in the 1930s, was believed to have been used for living quarters on the WM Ranch. It was restored in 1992 and used as a trapper’s cabin exhibit. In 2012 it was relocated from its original place beside the Sta Cabin to its current location on Seebach’s pre-emption and reopened as Seebach’s Cabin. A blacksmith shop would have been a necessity for the two men to keep their teams of draught horses shod and their wagons and carts in good repair. This building was recreated at the homestead in 1995 based on the information gathered from original photographs. Furnished almost entirely with the tools of Prince George pioneer blacksmith John Banzer, this building has a fully functioning forge.10. Sta Cabin7. Animal Barn, continuedcontaining horses and dairy cows, as well as a ladder leading to a hay loft. The barn collapsed due to heavy snow load in the 1970s and was reconstructed in 1987. Today it is used to house tools and other implements. large, two-storey home was built in the style of an Ontario farm house similar to the ones in which both Annie and Al would have grown up. Al used horses to haul the cabin he and Annie had been living in for the past year up to the new house for use as a kitchen. Once completed the house boasted a cellar, a large parlor and dining room, an oce, a first-floor bedroom, four bedrooms upstairs, and a summer kitchen.
20. WarehouseHuble began work on his riverfront warehouse in 1910 before travelling to Ontario to visit family. Upon his return in 1911, he hauled a large number of logs for a wharf and completed the project in about June of that year. The warehouse would become a regular stop for steamboats travelling on the upper Fraser, who would use the wharf to load and unload freight for people and businesses ranging from the Hudson’s Bay Company to individual trappers, prospectors, and homesteaders. Huble and Seebach built a road down to the warehouse and hauled outfits on wagons or carts to their other warehouse on Summit Lake.20. Warehouse, continued14. Seebach & Huble General StoreHuble and Seebach began building a new store in 1913 to accommodate the increase in business the two men were experiencing. The false-front building was a beckoning symbol of civilization to river trac. Customers could trade their furs, arrange to have supplies freighted to Summit Lake, hire a river guide, or buy fresh vegetables. The settlers living in the area could purchase everything from candy and tobacco to clothes, tack, hardware, and staples such as flour, rice, and beans. The General Store was also a place to converse with neighbours and fellow travellers and keep up to date on the news of the world. A reproduction of the building was completed in 1997, ocially reopening the business to the public once again. 2. Accessible Outhouse - see map3. Jim Scott Memorial4. Accessible Outhouse - see mapThis log building is thought to have been constructed by Al Huble for his pigs - the shelter is located far enough from the house to avoid the smell associated with the animals. The building was restored in the fall of 2000.5. Animal ShelterJim Scott was a Regional District director who was an advocate for the park.Believed to have been built in 1918, this red log structure was originally located in Salmon Valley and was home to Stearns and Gertrude McNeill. Stearns ran the post oce out of his home from 1923 to 1943, while Gertrude ran the government library and taught school out of the same building. After the McNeills left in the early 1950s, the house passed through several hands. The Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage Heritage Society (HHGPHS) was approached in the 1980s to save it from demolition. The building was disassembled and then reconstructed in the upper parking lot at Huble Homestead in 2000.1. Salmon Valley Post Oce6. Welcome Barn7. Animal BarnAccording to his diaries, Al Huble cut the logs for his “new barn” in January of 1915; he skidded the logs used to build this barn from a nearby stand of trees with the help of a fellow homesteader. Huble worked on the barn for months and notes his work on the floor in 1916. Presumably this barn housed the draught horses which pulled Huble and Seebach’s freight wagons across the Giscome Portage to their warehouse at Summit Lake. The Huble children recall several stalls In his diary Al Huble records working on building a barn in the summer of 1911. After its completion it would have been used to house Huble and Seebach’s horses and possibly some cows up until the construction of the “new barn.” After 1915 this barn was likely used as a storage building for the many implements used in the two men’s freighting business. It was reconstructed in 1987 based on the remaining foundation and historic photographs. Today this barn is the starting point for guided tours of the Huble Homestead and is home to a number of informational boards. 8. Accessible Outhouses - see map11. Flat Roofed Cabin12. Picnic Shelter - see mapBuilt after the Hubles sold the property, this simple log cabin is thought to have been constructed and used by ranch hands working for the WM Ranch in the 1930s. The cabin was restored in 1992 and is used today for storage.The animals kept at Huble Homestead during the season are on loan to the HHGPHS for the summer months. The Huble family would have kept chickens for their meat and eggs. Built in 2014, the picnic shelter was constructed at the site to oer visitors relief from the sun and rain.13. Implement Shed - see mapThe Flat Roofed Cabin was reconstructed on the original location of the building it replicates. The first cabin was built by Al Huble and Ed Seebach when they first came to Giscome Portage around 1904. This cabin served as the partners’ home until they each built a cabin on their own land, after which time they used it as a store. In 1913 the partners built a large false front general store, and the flat roofed cabin became a workshop and guesthouse. Huble repaired shoes, brewed wine, and did carpentry in the building. Various visitors to the homestead were oered a bed in the cabin. 9. Rabbits & Chickens19. Huble HouseWhen Annie and her daughter Ada joined Al on the homestead in 1911 they all lived in Al’s small one-room cabin. It was in this cabin that the couple would welcome their first child, a daughter named Bertha, in October 1911. The couple decided a larger home was needed for their growing family. Al logged the timber for the home in the winter of 1911 and began construction of this squared-log home in the spring. The Homesteaders often used raised caches to store meat and other foodstus out of the reach of predators and rodents.15. Meat CacheThe site is currently home to two gardens: a small heirloom flower garden and a larger vegetable garden. The vegetable garden is a fraction of the size of Annie Huble’s original garden, which would have extended onto the riverbanks. She was fond of flowers and maintained a flower garden where the vegetable garden exists today.16. Garden17. Water PumpPlaced on the site of the original cribbed well, the water pump draws from an underground spring.This underground building was used to store fruits and vegetables in the absence of refrigeration.18. Root Cellar22. Lhukw ba nits’unih (Fish Camp)23. Seebach’s CabinThis fish camp is a reconstruction of a similar camp that was located up the Lhtakoh (Fraser River) from Huble Homestead. 24. Blacksmith Shop21. Duck PondThe Huble family raised geese and ducks - the ducks in this pen are on loan to the homestead for the summer months.The camp was a seasonal settlement that would have been occupied from mid-shen (summer) through early dak’et (fall) while the talukw (salmon) were running. At the fish camp, a group of people, mostly extended family, came to fish for salmon, gather roots and berries, and preserve their food for the colder months. Throughout the remainder of the year, Lheidli T’enneh would travel throughout their keyoh (territory) gathering resources as they became available. In the khui (winter) they gathered in villages. The fish camp project was undertaken in partnership with the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation and includes several structures, such as a smoke house, meat cache, canvas tent, a lean-to common area, and a drying rack, as well as a hand-carved cottonwood dugout ts’i (canoe). This cabin, originally built in the 1930s, was believed to have been used for living quarters on the WM Ranch. It was restored in 1992 and used as a trapper’s cabin exhibit. In 2012 it was relocated from its original place beside the Sta Cabin to its current location on Seebach’s pre-emption and reopened as Seebach’s Cabin. A blacksmith shop would have been a necessity for the two men to keep their teams of draught horses shod and their wagons and carts in good repair. This building was recreated at the homestead in 1995 based on the information gathered from original photographs. Furnished almost entirely with the tools of Prince George pioneer blacksmith John Banzer, this building has a fully functioning forge.10. Sta Cabin7. Animal Barn, continuedcontaining horses and dairy cows, as well as a ladder leading to a hay loft. The barn collapsed due to heavy snow load in the 1970s and was reconstructed in 1987. Today it is used to house tools and other implements. large, two-storey home was built in the style of an Ontario farm house similar to the ones in which both Annie and Al would have grown up. Al used horses to haul the cabin he and Annie had been living in for the past year up to the new house for use as a kitchen. Once completed the house boasted a cellar, a large parlor and dining room, an oce, a first-floor bedroom, four bedrooms upstairs, and a summer kitchen.
20. WarehouseHuble began work on his riverfront warehouse in 1910 before travelling to Ontario to visit family. Upon his return in 1911, he hauled a large number of logs for a wharf and completed the project in about June of that year. The warehouse would become a regular stop for steamboats travelling on the upper Fraser, who would use the wharf to load and unload freight for people and businesses ranging from the Hudson’s Bay Company to individual trappers, prospectors, and homesteaders. Huble and Seebach built a road down to the warehouse and hauled outfits on wagons or carts to their other warehouse on Summit Lake.20. Warehouse, continued14. Seebach & Huble General StoreHuble and Seebach began building a new store in 1913 to accommodate the increase in business the two men were experiencing. The false-front building was a beckoning symbol of civilization to river trac. Customers could trade their furs, arrange to have supplies freighted to Summit Lake, hire a river guide, or buy fresh vegetables. The settlers living in the area could purchase everything from candy and tobacco to clothes, tack, hardware, and staples such as flour, rice, and beans. The General Store was also a place to converse with neighbours and fellow travellers and keep up to date on the news of the world. A reproduction of the building was completed in 1997, ocially reopening the business to the public once again. 2. Accessible Outhouse - see map3. Jim Scott Memorial4. Accessible Outhouse - see mapThis log building is thought to have been constructed by Al Huble for his pigs - the shelter is located far enough from the house to avoid the smell associated with the animals. The building was restored in the fall of 2000.5. Animal ShelterJim Scott was a Regional District director who was an advocate for the park.Believed to have been built in 1918, this red log structure was originally located in Salmon Valley and was home to Stearns and Gertrude McNeill. Stearns ran the post oce out of his home from 1923 to 1943, while Gertrude ran the government library and taught school out of the same building. After the McNeills left in the early 1950s, the house passed through several hands. The Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage Heritage Society (HHGPHS) was approached in the 1980s to save it from demolition. The building was disassembled and then reconstructed in the upper parking lot at Huble Homestead in 2000.1. Salmon Valley Post Oce6. Welcome Barn7. Animal BarnAccording to his diaries, Al Huble cut the logs for his “new barn” in January of 1915; he skidded the logs used to build this barn from a nearby stand of trees with the help of a fellow homesteader. Huble worked on the barn for months and notes his work on the floor in 1916. Presumably this barn housed the draught horses which pulled Huble and Seebach’s freight wagons across the Giscome Portage to their warehouse at Summit Lake. The Huble children recall several stalls In his diary Al Huble records working on building a barn in the summer of 1911. After its completion it would have been used to house Huble and Seebach’s horses and possibly some cows up until the construction of the “new barn.” After 1915 this barn was likely used as a storage building for the many implements used in the two men’s freighting business. It was reconstructed in 1987 based on the remaining foundation and historic photographs. Today this barn is the starting point for guided tours of the Huble Homestead and is home to a number of informational boards. 8. Accessible Outhouses - see map11. Flat Roofed Cabin12. Picnic Shelter - see mapBuilt after the Hubles sold the property, this simple log cabin is thought to have been constructed and used by ranch hands working for the WM Ranch in the 1930s. The cabin was restored in 1992 and is used today for storage.The animals kept at Huble Homestead during the season are on loan to the HHGPHS for the summer months. The Huble family would have kept chickens for their meat and eggs. Built in 2014, the picnic shelter was constructed at the site to oer visitors relief from the sun and rain.13. Implement Shed - see mapThe Flat Roofed Cabin was reconstructed on the original location of the building it replicates. The first cabin was built by Al Huble and Ed Seebach when they first came to Giscome Portage around 1904. This cabin served as the partners’ home until they each built a cabin on their own land, after which time they used it as a store. In 1913 the partners built a large false front general store, and the flat roofed cabin became a workshop and guesthouse. Huble repaired shoes, brewed wine, and did carpentry in the building. Various visitors to the homestead were oered a bed in the cabin. 9. Rabbits & Chickens19. Huble HouseWhen Annie and her daughter Ada joined Al on the homestead in 1911 they all lived in Al’s small one-room cabin. It was in this cabin that the couple would welcome their first child, a daughter named Bertha, in October 1911. The couple decided a larger home was needed for their growing family. Al logged the timber for the home in the winter of 1911 and began construction of this squared-log home in the spring. The Homesteaders often used raised caches to store meat and other foodstus out of the reach of predators and rodents.15. Meat CacheThe site is currently home to two gardens: a small heirloom flower garden and a larger vegetable garden. The vegetable garden is a fraction of the size of Annie Huble’s original garden, which would have extended onto the riverbanks. She was fond of flowers and maintained a flower garden where the vegetable garden exists today.16. Garden17. Water PumpPlaced on the site of the original cribbed well, the water pump draws from an underground spring.This underground building was used to store fruits and vegetables in the absence of refrigeration.18. Root Cellar22. Lhukw ba nits’unih (Fish Camp)23. Seebach’s CabinThis fish camp is a reconstruction of a similar camp that was located up the Lhtakoh (Fraser River) from Huble Homestead. 24. Blacksmith Shop21. Duck PondThe Huble family raised geese and ducks - the ducks in this pen are on loan to the homestead for the summer months.The camp was a seasonal settlement that would have been occupied from mid-shen (summer) through early dak’et (fall) while the talukw (salmon) were running. At the fish camp, a group of people, mostly extended family, came to fish for salmon, gather roots and berries, and preserve their food for the colder months. Throughout the remainder of the year, Lheidli T’enneh would travel throughout their keyoh (territory) gathering resources as they became available. In the khui (winter) they gathered in villages. The fish camp project was undertaken in partnership with the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation and includes several structures, such as a smoke house, meat cache, canvas tent, a lean-to common area, and a drying rack, as well as a hand-carved cottonwood dugout ts’i (canoe). This cabin, originally built in the 1930s, was believed to have been used for living quarters on the WM Ranch. It was restored in 1992 and used as a trapper’s cabin exhibit. In 2012 it was relocated from its original place beside the Sta Cabin to its current location on Seebach’s pre-emption and reopened as Seebach’s Cabin. A blacksmith shop would have been a necessity for the two men to keep their teams of draught horses shod and their wagons and carts in good repair. This building was recreated at the homestead in 1995 based on the information gathered from original photographs. Furnished almost entirely with the tools of Prince George pioneer blacksmith John Banzer, this building has a fully functioning forge.10. Sta Cabin7. Animal Barn, continuedcontaining horses and dairy cows, as well as a ladder leading to a hay loft. The barn collapsed due to heavy snow load in the 1970s and was reconstructed in 1987. Today it is used to house tools and other implements. large, two-storey home was built in the style of an Ontario farm house similar to the ones in which both Annie and Al would have grown up. Al used horses to haul the cabin he and Annie had been living in for the past year up to the new house for use as a kitchen. Once completed the house boasted a cellar, a large parlor and dining room, an oce, a first-floor bedroom, four bedrooms upstairs, and a summer kitchen.
20. WarehouseHuble began work on his riverfront warehouse in 1910 before travelling to Ontario to visit family. Upon his return in 1911, he hauled a large number of logs for a wharf and completed the project in about June of that year. The warehouse would become a regular stop for steamboats travelling on the upper Fraser, who would use the wharf to load and unload freight for people and businesses ranging from the Hudson’s Bay Company to individual trappers, prospectors, and homesteaders. Huble and Seebach built a road down to the warehouse and hauled outfits on wagons or carts to their other warehouse on Summit Lake.20. Warehouse, continued14. Seebach & Huble General StoreHuble and Seebach began building a new store in 1913 to accommodate the increase in business the two men were experiencing. The false-front building was a beckoning symbol of civilization to river trac. Customers could trade their furs, arrange to have supplies freighted to Summit Lake, hire a river guide, or buy fresh vegetables. The settlers living in the area could purchase everything from candy and tobacco to clothes, tack, hardware, and staples such as flour, rice, and beans. The General Store was also a place to converse with neighbours and fellow travellers and keep up to date on the news of the world. A reproduction of the building was completed in 1997, ocially reopening the business to the public once again. 2. Accessible Outhouse - see map3. Jim Scott Memorial4. Accessible Outhouse - see mapThis log building is thought to have been constructed by Al Huble for his pigs - the shelter is located far enough from the house to avoid the smell associated with the animals. The building was restored in the fall of 2000.5. Animal ShelterJim Scott was a Regional District director who was an advocate for the park.Believed to have been built in 1918, this red log structure was originally located in Salmon Valley and was home to Stearns and Gertrude McNeill. Stearns ran the post oce out of his home from 1923 to 1943, while Gertrude ran the government library and taught school out of the same building. After the McNeills left in the early 1950s, the house passed through several hands. The Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage Heritage Society (HHGPHS) was approached in the 1980s to save it from demolition. The building was disassembled and then reconstructed in the upper parking lot at Huble Homestead in 2000.1. Salmon Valley Post Oce6. Welcome Barn7. Animal BarnAccording to his diaries, Al Huble cut the logs for his “new barn” in January of 1915; he skidded the logs used to build this barn from a nearby stand of trees with the help of a fellow homesteader. Huble worked on the barn for months and notes his work on the floor in 1916. Presumably this barn housed the draught horses which pulled Huble and Seebach’s freight wagons across the Giscome Portage to their warehouse at Summit Lake. The Huble children recall several stalls In his diary Al Huble records working on building a barn in the summer of 1911. After its completion it would have been used to house Huble and Seebach’s horses and possibly some cows up until the construction of the “new barn.” After 1915 this barn was likely used as a storage building for the many implements used in the two men’s freighting business. It was reconstructed in 1987 based on the remaining foundation and historic photographs. Today this barn is the starting point for guided tours of the Huble Homestead and is home to a number of informational boards. 8. Accessible Outhouses - see map11. Flat Roofed Cabin12. Picnic Shelter - see mapBuilt after the Hubles sold the property, this simple log cabin is thought to have been constructed and used by ranch hands working for the WM Ranch in the 1930s. The cabin was restored in 1992 and is used today for storage.The animals kept at Huble Homestead during the season are on loan to the HHGPHS for the summer months. The Huble family would have kept chickens for their meat and eggs. Built in 2014, the picnic shelter was constructed at the site to oer visitors relief from the sun and rain.13. Implement Shed - see mapThe Flat Roofed Cabin was reconstructed on the original location of the building it replicates. The first cabin was built by Al Huble and Ed Seebach when they first came to Giscome Portage around 1904. This cabin served as the partners’ home until they each built a cabin on their own land, after which time they used it as a store. In 1913 the partners built a large false front general store, and the flat roofed cabin became a workshop and guesthouse. Huble repaired shoes, brewed wine, and did carpentry in the building. Various visitors to the homestead were oered a bed in the cabin. 9. Rabbits & Chickens19. Huble HouseWhen Annie and her daughter Ada joined Al on the homestead in 1911 they all lived in Al’s small one-room cabin. It was in this cabin that the couple would welcome their first child, a daughter named Bertha, in October 1911. The couple decided a larger home was needed for their growing family. Al logged the timber for the home in the winter of 1911 and began construction of this squared-log home in the spring. The Homesteaders often used raised caches to store meat and other foodstus out of the reach of predators and rodents.15. Meat CacheThe site is currently home to two gardens: a small heirloom flower garden and a larger vegetable garden. The vegetable garden is a fraction of the size of Annie Huble’s original garden, which would have extended onto the riverbanks. She was fond of flowers and maintained a flower garden where the vegetable garden exists today.16. Garden17. Water PumpPlaced on the site of the original cribbed well, the water pump draws from an underground spring.This underground building was used to store fruits and vegetables in the absence of refrigeration.18. Root Cellar22. Lhukw ba nits’unih (Fish Camp)23. Seebach’s CabinThis fish camp is a reconstruction of a similar camp that was located up the Lhtakoh (Fraser River) from Huble Homestead. 24. Blacksmith Shop21. Duck PondThe Huble family raised geese and ducks - the ducks in this pen are on loan to the homestead for the summer months.The camp was a seasonal settlement that would have been occupied from mid-shen (summer) through early dak’et (fall) while the talukw (salmon) were running. At the fish camp, a group of people, mostly extended family, came to fish for salmon, gather roots and berries, and preserve their food for the colder months. Throughout the remainder of the year, Lheidli T’enneh would travel throughout their keyoh (territory) gathering resources as they became available. In the khui (winter) they gathered in villages. The fish camp project was undertaken in partnership with the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation and includes several structures, such as a smoke house, meat cache, canvas tent, a lean-to common area, and a drying rack, as well as a hand-carved cottonwood dugout ts’i (canoe). This cabin, originally built in the 1930s, was believed to have been used for living quarters on the WM Ranch. It was restored in 1992 and used as a trapper’s cabin exhibit. In 2012 it was relocated from its original place beside the Sta Cabin to its current location on Seebach’s pre-emption and reopened as Seebach’s Cabin. A blacksmith shop would have been a necessity for the two men to keep their teams of draught horses shod and their wagons and carts in good repair. This building was recreated at the homestead in 1995 based on the information gathered from original photographs. Furnished almost entirely with the tools of Prince George pioneer blacksmith John Banzer, this building has a fully functioning forge.10. Sta Cabin7. Animal Barn, continuedcontaining horses and dairy cows, as well as a ladder leading to a hay loft. The barn collapsed due to heavy snow load in the 1970s and was reconstructed in 1987. Today it is used to house tools and other implements. large, two-storey home was built in the style of an Ontario farm house similar to the ones in which both Annie and Al would have grown up. Al used horses to haul the cabin he and Annie had been living in for the past year up to the new house for use as a kitchen. Once completed the house boasted a cellar, a large parlor and dining room, an oce, a first-floor bedroom, four bedrooms upstairs, and a summer kitchen.
HUNDREDS of years ago, the Indigenous people of this province established a vast network of trails connecting their territories for the purposes of travel and trade between dierent nations. In this region one trail was particularly useful, as it crossed over the Continental Divide and was the shortest route between the waterways flowing to the Pacific Ocean and those flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The Lhedli T’enneh referred to this route as Lhdesti (the shortcut).IN 1863, John Robert Giscome, a Black prospector from Jamaica, asked a local First Nations guide to show him the best route to the Peace River area. The guide brought Giscome and his partner, Henry McDame, to Lhdesti. When Giscome returned to Victoria later that year he penned a letter to The Daily British Colonist recounting his travels and describing the trail he had been shown. The newspaper dubbed the route “Giscome’s Portage.” Despite the article, the trail saw little use until the Omineca gold rush started in 1869. Over the next 40 years the trail was used by prospectors, fur traders, and surveyors to travel to the northern part of the province. YEARS LATER, in 1905, Albert Huble and Edward Seebach established traplines in the vicinity of the Giscome Portage. The two men foresaw the location’s importance as a transportation route, and they pre-empted land at the southern end of the trail. They also set up a store to cater to travellers. In 1909 the homestead, then known as the community of Giscome Portage, became a regular stop for the paddlewheelers that made their way up and down the Fraser River. By 1911 there were numerous other settlers in the area. THE GISCOME PORTAGE area thrived until the onset of World War I. By 1914 the railway had been built on the far side of the river, the young men who settled the area began to leave to join the war, and transportation was rapidly shifting from river to road and rail travel. In 1919 a wagon road was completed from Prince George to Summit Lake, bypassing Giscome Portage. The Seebach and Huble General Store soon closed. The Huble family moved into Prince George and Edward Seebach moved to run the partners’ freighting business and warehouses at Summit and McLeod Lakes.ALBERT JAMES Huble was born in Oak Lake, Ontario. The fourth child in a family of eleven children, Albert is said to have left home as a young teenager after an argument with his father. After years of working in dierent areas around the country, Huble took a job with Canadian Pacific Railway in the Kootenays. From there it is believed he came to the Fort George area around 1902.ANNE MAY Hart was born in Havelock, Ontario. She married William Copperthwaite and the couple had three children. When Huble returned to Ontario to visit his family in 1910 the marriage between Annie and William had ended and Huble’s diary makes mention of several meetings between the Hart and Huble families. When she moved to British Columbia, her two oldest children remained in Ontario with their grandparents. Ada, her youngest daughter, accompanied her mother to their new home. THE PROPERTY was sold to Josephine Mitchell in 1929. She operated the WM Ranch which also functioned as a guest ranch oering “Wild West” experiences to international visitors. After she sold the ranch in 1957 it passed through several owners before the province purchased the property in the mid-1970s for use as community pasture. A group was formed in 1984 to save the deteriorating Huble house, and in 1986 the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George obtained land surrounding the original house and the Giscome Portage trail. The Huble Homestead Historic Site and Giscome Portage Regional Park opened in 1989.THE COUPLE had their first daughter in 1911; during their time on the homestead the family grew by three more daughters and a son. After moving into Prince George in 1919 they had another two sons. Albert Huble passed away in 1947 at the age of 75, followed by his wife in 1949 at the age of 67.EDWARD ANDREW Seebach was born in Fullerton, Ontario and was the oldest of eleven children. There is no record of what brought Seebach to British Columbia, but in 1903, two years after he left Ontario, he met Al Huble and the two men decided to enter into a business partnership.SEEBACH WAS KNOWN to have been an incredibly hard worker. By the time the Huble family moved into Prince George in 1919, Seebach was living at the store the two men ran in McLeod Lake. In 1931 he fell from a ladder while extinguishing a fire and injured his leg so badly it needed to be amputated. A year later Seebach was admitted to a Prince George hospital and he died three days later at the age of 51.OPEN DAILYVICTORIA DAY TO LABOUR DAY10:00 AM TO 5:00 PM VISITOR’S GUIDEADMISSION BY DONATIONSUGGESTED RATES:ADULTS - $5.00CHILDREN & SENIORS - $3.00FAMILIES - $10.00ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATHLEEN ANGELSKI