McGregor, British Columbia

Railway & Hansard Bridge

McGregor siding was situated at Mile 98.4, Fraser Subdivision^[4] (about Mile 188 during the line’s construction). The Lund-Rogers Construction Company ran camps at Miles 186 and 187,^[5] with the former as headquarters.^[6] The CNR Hansard Bridge spans at Mile 99.1^[4][7] (formerly about Mile 188.5), though a contemporary article inadvertently quoted the camp location.^[8] The low-level railway bridges at Dome Creek and here curtailed the previous steamboat navigation, which triggered a response by the Barnard steamboat organization.

Foley, Welch and Stewart, the prime contractor, operated on a cost plus basis.^[9] Russell R. Walker, a photographer of the era, observed tunnel work opposite Hansard on the north bank of the Fraser just west of the railway bridge. He suspected graft and corruption because it was far from where the mainline would be located.^[10] Bill Bellos, a construction worker at the time, mentions a tunnel cave-in at the McGregor River, which would place a line travelling 11 miles beyond McGregor on the north bank. This suggests either a potential branch line or a misunderstood reference to a creek in the bridge vicinity.^[1]

In June 1913, flooding from the river forced the temporary evacuation of buildings at Camp 186.^[11] The Bates & Rogers Construction Company was contractor for the bridge substructure (piers and abutments) and the Canadian Bridge Co. for the superstructure (steelwork).^[12] By August, pile driving for the piers was in full swing and two steam shovels were carving the bridge approach on the northeast bank. A temporary wooden trestle would carry the track until the steel bridge’s completion.^[8] With track laying at two miles a day, it was optimistically expected a completed trestle and the arrival of the railhead by October 1.^[13] A liquor prohibition policy enforced, sedate and sober characterized the camp.^[14] Slicing through the piles, floating ice destroyed 12 lengths of the temporary trestle bridge built for the tracks. With the railhead almost at this point in early December, this destruction delayed progress until the river froze over.^[8][15] While on leave with fellow workers from the Bates & Rogers camp at Christmastime, Harry Porter met George Onooki, a former co-worker from Mile 160. The ensuing brutal assault of Porter was South Fort George’s first murder. The motive robbery, Onooki was sentenced to hang.^[16]

Plans for a separate vehicle deck on the bridge never proceeded and the Eaglet Lake Lumber Co. purchased the surplus steel girders in 1916.^[17] High water levels during the 1936 spring floods left very little clearance for driftwood to pass beneath the bridge deck.^[18] A guard, who was presumably armed, defended the crossing during World War II.^[19]

Church Sawmills replaced Cornel (Mile 93.8) on the Canadian National Railway mainline when that flag stop closed in the early 1960s. Renamed Sinclair Spruce Mills in the mid-1960s, the flag stop at the eastern end of the Hansard Bridge (Mile 98.9), changed to Northwood Timber Ltd. 2, and then McGregor by the mid-1970s.^{[20][21][22][23][4]}

Forestry

The narrow strip of accessible spruce forest bordering the railway that stretched some 100 miles east of Prince George was known as the East Line.^[24] Logging camps existed in the vicinity by the early 1950s.^[25] Percy Church of Willow River logged north of this locality.^[26] When the government introduced forest management licences in 1954, Church Sawmills was among the first five approved in principle within the Prince George district.^[27] In 1956, two employees, who were engaged in building an access road, experienced a fatal boating mishap when travelling to site.^[28] In 1958, the company dismantled and relocated their Willow River mill. The rebuilt and upgraded facility, about 15 miles north of Hansard Bridge on the McGregor River,^[29] processed logs from the surrounding area.^[30] In 1960, the company received one of the nine tree farm licences that followed from the 1956 Royal Commission Report.^[31] The previous year, Eagle Lake Sawmills Ltd. and Sinclair Spruce Lumber Co. Ltd. began trial plantings of a few thousand seedlings on their small tree farm situated mere miles north of the Pass Lake road intersection.^[32]

Employees’ families resided in trailer accommodation at Mile 98.^[33] The Church planing mill initially operated at Cornel Mills^[34] near Dewey.^[35] It relocated to Mile 98^[36] and the Hansard area.^[37] Percy & Dorothy Church’s residence is mentioned as Mile 98^[38] or Cornel.^[39] In 1964, Percy Church was convicted of a hit-and-run incident near Willow River.^[40] Northwood purchased the mill in January 1965, but production had ceased months earlier.^[41] During 1965-70, Percy and Dorothy Church developed the Edgewood Terrace subdivision along the north Nechako.^[42] Percy died in 1974,^[43] and Dorothy died at 70 in 1980.^[44]

By 1966, an aerial photo placed the McGregor Logging Division operations immediately west of the Hansard Bridge and east of Hansard station. The site housed log loading infrastructure (for rail transportation to Prince George), an area for trailer parking, and possibly the equipment maintenance facility and parts inventory.^[45][46] During the late 1960s, the company built an office/bunkhouse/community club complex (called the McGregor Camp) on the east corner of the Pass Lake road intersection at Mile 98.3.^[47][48] Weakened lumber markets curtailed logging from the mid-1970s onward. Since the 1980s, harvesting insect-damaged timber was the priority.^[49][50]

A sewage lagoon for the camp treated effluent prior to release into the nearby Fraser.^[51] However, the majority of these lagoons on rural-residential lots in the Prince George region malfunctioned, because precipitation exceeded the rate of evaporation.^[52] To prevent sewage from surfacing in swampy areas, the company adopted exfiltration, with effluent sprayed from a stabilization lagoon into a sand basin.^[53] A further upgrade came in 1991.^[54]

By the mid-1980s, contractors performed 90 percent of logging and Northwood decided to dispense with their remaining company crews.^[55] The McGregor site comprised a collection of three-storey bunkhouses, a logging maintenance shop and scattered trailers.^[56] However, the paved road west prompted more workers to commute from Prince George rather than reside locally.^[57] In 1987, the office trailers were for sale.^[58] After Northwood removed fuel storage tanks from Upper Fraser and McGregor, the contaminated soil was excavated and treated on the western section of the camp.^[59] The logging division may have maintained some facilities immediately west of the railway bridge as late as the mid-1990s.^[60]

In 1998, while heavy-duty mechanic Jeffrey Taylor was pounding a steel pin with a sledgehammer, a metal fragment projectile lacerated two main arteries in his neck. Rushed from McGregor to Prince George for treatment, he survived, but brain damage severely affected speech and leg movement.^[61]

Community

Isolated dwellings previously existed,^[62] but after the Church mill opened, families arrived at Mile 98.^[63] In the mid-1960s, the community numbered 150 and the company successfully petitioned for a name change to McGregor and a transfer of the post office from Cornel Mills, five miles southeast. Relocated at or near McGregor, it operated from April 1966 to October 1970. The Dewey post office had opened in 1915, but was situated one and a half miles away at what became Cornel. Confusion between "Dewey" and "Dewdney" caused misdirected mail and led to a name change to "Cornel Mills" in 1956.^[64] Dorothy Church was postmaster 1962-64.^[65]

In fall 1966, when School District 57 refused to bus the 25 school children the seven miles to Sinclair Mills, parents boycotted the school. The situation resolved within weeks, Northwood provided a driver and maintenance services, while the district supplied a bus.^[66] The community comprised 13 families around this time. The two Girl Guides would have been members of another company.^[67]

While Sinclair Mills elementary temporarily closed for a few years during the 1970s, and after the final closure before the 1983/84 school year, McGregor students attended Upper Fraser elementary.^[68] The school district cancelled the school bus from the 1986/87 year,^[69] but temporarily reinstated the service during the 1989/90 winter.^[70]

Having been under review for years, owing to the McGregor camp’s remoteness from logging areas^[71] and being an hour’s drive from Prince George, Northwood informed residents that the facility would close in June 1999. Decreasing casual and residential usage made it too expensive to maintain. The decision primarily affected four logging families and the four CNR Hansard Bridge monitors.^[72] Demolition contractors cleared the vacated site.^[73]

An Esso card lock facility operated at McGregor.^[74]

Road Transport & Aerodrome

The respective Hansard section covers roadbuilding and bus services. In 1973, a Cessna 185 crashed into trees during a landing at the airstrip. Two passengers escaped with minor scrapes, but the pilot sustained serious injuries.^[75]

Electricity & Communications Devices

The respective Upper Fraser section covers this subject.