Nancy Marguerite Anderson’s first book, The Pathfinder, is a tribute to her great-grandfather Alexander Caulfield Anderson, one of British Columbia’s little-known early explorers, fur traders, map-makers, artists and writers.

Nancy recalls her mid-morning escapes from work at Tooks-on-Cook’s hot kitchen to the air-conditioned B.C. Archives where she would immerse herself in Anderson’s essays, journals, diaries and maps.

“I collected all this information and thought about the possibility of a book,” she says. “I mentioned this to an academic, at that time, and he was horrified. ‘Oh you can’t do that!’ which rather squashed the idea, so I put it aside.”

In her early years, Nancy tried the 20th century version of artist and explorer.
“I studied at the Vancouver School of Art for three years and another year at the University of Victoria. Even with my mother’s encouragement, I never thought of art as a ‘career,’” she admits. “I didn’t get to follow it through because I met a guy, we built a sailboat and we sailed the West Coast. Eventually, we sailed to California and Mexico. He was a good sailor, but I discovered I’m not a water person. He wasn’t interested in visiting another country and enjoying its culture, while I would have liked to stay longer.”

Returning to dry land, she worked for a few years in human resources. In time, she returned to her family roots of the delicatessen business: her mother ran Peg’s Deli; her sister ran Brandywine; and Nancy took over Tooks-on-Cook.
 
Because Alexander Anderson was part of her family history, he was always in the back of her mind. Digging through boxes of her researched material and organizing mountains of her notes, Nancy knew she had a book to pen. This would be a historical biography of a gentleman who was quite a character, well-liked by many and happiest trekking the wilderness trails.
“I originally called my book Fish Out of Water because I was thinking of Anderson’s inability to fit into the fur trade he had heard about,” says Nancy. “The publishers wanted to focus on his accomplishments as a map-maker and explorer, so the book’s title became The Pathfinder.”

Nancy knew the Anderson family came from England. Alexander’s father had lost all his money and his two sons began working at an early age. Their cousins had joined the East India Company, but Alexander and his brother met an uncle who was connected with the fur trade. Influenced by his stories, the whole family chose to venture west.

Life was not easy for Anderson because the fur trade had changed, and was not what he had visualized. But from the beginning, and throughout his life, Anderson persevered in doing the best he could while aiming to improve the future of the First Nations people he lived among. While working for the Hudson Bay Company, Anderson was given the task of finding a better route for transporting the furs and supplies for the brigade.

He made four explorations, travelling across the mountains from Kamloops to Fort Langley. He wasn’t a surveyor, but he drew maps that showed the lakes, rivers or mountains he travelled through.

When the gold rush began in 1858, Anderson’s 1846 explorations of the lakes and rivers from the Fraser River canyons to Fort Langley provided rough roads for the gold miners. Anderson became friends with the Royal Engineers who came in 1858 to make his routes more easily accessible. Among the many famous names who came to build and explore B.C., Anderson knew David Thompson, John Stewart and Paul Fraser. They encouraged him to map his travels. In 1867, he drew a massive map of British Columbia, and he transferred the information from his four earlier explorations onto this map. Many of his maps are preserved in the B.C. Archives today.

Nancy remembers first seeing Anderson’s Latin Bible preserved in the Royal British Columbia Museum. She explains, “Anderson purchased the Bible in 1840. When I took my photographs, the Bible fell open at a page that held a collection of dried leaves. That told me something about Anderson’s interest in native plants.” From the photo, the plant was tentatively identified as a possible rhododendron. Anderson wrote in his diary in 1846 that he walked through Rhododendron Flats in Manning Park. “I like to think he may have slipped a few leaves between the pages of his Bible. Of course, this is all speculation as the leaves haven’t been confirmed, but it was so exciting to see them pressed between the pages.”

With The Pathfinder finally in bookstores, Nancy is already working on her next books. “Anderson will be one of many characters with stories to tell while working the brigade trails. I also want to put together a book of Alexander’s maps and essays as he wrote massive amounts of essays.”

Nancy recalls her uncle taking her and her sister on camping trips when they were children. “Now I realize he was following the brigade trails,” she says. “I remember coming up the Bella Coola hill into the Chilcotin where Anderson was posted at Fort McLoughlin, which is where Bella Bella is now.”

Nancy, as an adult, has visited many of the areas Anderson explored and will continue to do so. “I booked a weekend hike, which was part of the Brigade Trail through the Hope Mountain group, but it was cancelled because no one else signed up. I think it would have been a pretty fierce hike, but I was game!”

Adventurous, curious and tenacious, Nancy is definitely akin to her great-grandfather.

The Pathfinder can be purchased at Crown Bookstore, 514 Government Street; Munro’s Books, Bolen Books at Hillside Centre and online at Amazon.com
For more information check: furtradefamilyhistory.blogspot.com

FEBRUARY 2012 SENIOR LIVING MAGAZINE VANCOUVER ISLAND