canyon, but three died. Account details differ widely, but the essence of the story was that their craft was swamped and the men were marooned either on the sandbar in the middle of the river or on an inaccessible part of the shore. In due course, all died, but one had been cannibalized. In winter 1874–75, a survey team, comprising eight men with six dog sleds, passed upstream along the frozen river. In the early 1880s, Sandford Fleming and his survey team came downstream. Railway anticipated In 1909, the Nechacco was the first sternwheeler to navigate the treacherous canyon, assisted by ropes to the shores. Over the following years, sternwheelers were winched up the rapids by ropes that connected onboard capstans with rings placed in the canyon walls. That year, a three-man survey party heading upriver lost their canoe and supplies. In 1910, the small steamer Fort Fraser passed through en route to Tête Jaune, and George Williams paddled a dugout canoe both ways for the HBC. In wintertime, dog sleds hauled along the snow-covered ice. Canoes carried supplies upstream from Fort George to GTP surveyors above the canyon. Capsizing and drownings were common. Fort George also supplied crews clearing and grading eastward from Tête Jaune. In July 1912, when the rail head reached westward to that point, the freight direction switched from upriver to downriver, carried largely on scows. FW&S launched numerous scows to transport supplies and equipment to advance depots along the railway right-of-way. A group of rivermen, called canyon cats, charged steep fees to pilot various craft through the canyon. A scow could be carrying 20 or 30 tons of freight. However, new settlers would often portage their personal possessions around the canyon, hoping to meet their raft downstream. The sternwheelers Operator and Conveyor were transported in pieces to Tête Jaune, reassembled, and relaunched in 1912. FW&S used these vessels on the Fraser run to the canyon. Powerboats also moved scows through the rapids. Roy Spurr (later at Willow River, Penny, and Upper Fraser) operated a café and rooming house during 1912 and 1913 above the canyon. During summer 1912, FW&S built a huge warehouse above the upper canyon, connected by a horse tramway to a reloading warehouse at the lake. Freight was unloaded from the sternwheelers, sent by tramway, and reloaded onto scows for supplying the construction camps. That summer, using 30 tons of dynamite, experienced