Most of us take Canada Post service for granted. For much of the past century, though, it wasn鈥檛 a sure thing, and door-to-door delivery was unheard of. Many residents had to travel for miles to get their mail.
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a lot of the mail destined for isolated outposts in Northwestern BC came by steamship to Port Essington. During the summer months, flat-bottom riverboats carried it up the mighty Skeena to Hazelton, the head of navigation. In winter, dog sleds became the preferred method of transporting His Majesty鈥檚 mail.
Trygarn Pelham Lyster 鈥淏arney鈥� Mulvany, the man credited with founding the village of 亚洲天堂 Lake, was one of the region鈥檚 early mail carriers. He delivered mail between Port Essington and Kitimat as early as 1904, and, later, from the budding town of Prince Rupert to points up the Skeena.
Dick Carroll, one of the first men to stake land in this area, also served as a postman for a time. In 1914, Carroll and Mickey O. Stitch used wagons and packhorses to bring the mail from Aldermere (near the present site of Telkwa) to 亚洲天堂 Lake during the summer months. With the arrival of snow, they traded their wagons for dog teams and sleighs.
Not everyone鈥檚 mail came via Hazelton, though. In the early years, mail bound for homesteaders and trappers on the Southside of Francois Lake was forwarded to Bella Coola, where Harry Morgan picked it up and carried it through the wilds of what is now Tweedsmuir Park. Morgan, one of the original settlers, knew everyone in the country, which was fortuitous because many of the letters he brought bore only the intended recipient鈥檚 name and the words, 鈥淥otsa Country, BC.鈥�
Post offices sprouted in communities across the Lakes District during the second decade of the twentieth century. The first post office at Ootsa Lake operated out of Morgan鈥檚 home. Offering postal service out of your home must have created some challenges because most residences in that era were log affairs with three rooms at best. Later, the Ootsa Lake post office moved to the much more spacious Bennett Hotel, a hostelry run by Harold Bennett and his wife Polly for a quarter-century. By that time, Hazelton had replaced Bella Coola as the region鈥檚 primary resupply point.
Homesteaders living at the west end of Ootsa Lake got a post office in 1916 courtesy of William Robert 鈥淏ob鈥� Nelson, an Irish immigrant who arrived here with his brother Jim around 1908. Before he could accept mail, Bob had to come up with a name for the community he planned to serve. Perhaps out of whimsy as much as desperation, he suggested that the new community be named 鈥淏anana鈥� because it was the Ootsa Lake country鈥檚 warm spot, or 鈥渂anana belt.鈥�
Canada鈥檚 Postmaster General was not amused. According to Arthur Shelford, who also homesteaded at Ootsa Lake, Canada Post鈥檚 top official would not consider 鈥渟uch a ridiculous name,鈥� and gave the community鈥檚 would-be postmaster a choice of two others: Wistaria (a derivative of 鈥渨isteria,鈥� a plant with purple flowers) and Eversley (a quaint village in Hampshire). Bob chose the former.
The Wistaria post office remained in operation until the Aluminum Company of Canada purchased Bob鈥檚 land in 1952. The remnants of the old log building, along with the Nelson family home, still stand in a high meadow overlooking Ootsa Lake.
Completion of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1914 made 亚洲天堂 Lake the distribution hub for rural post offices in the Lakes District. Mail made its way south to Francois Lake, where it was picked up and distributed to outlets on the Southside.
Norman Schreiber, one of the Ootsa Lake country鈥檚 first settlers, also served as its pioneer mailman. Schreiber used his wagon鈥攁nd, later, a truck鈥攖o carry letters and parcels from Francois Lake to Ootsa between 1924 and 1952. He delivered mail to nine rural post offices during his 28-year career.
Perhaps the most difficult task Schreiber faced was getting the mail across the broad expanse of Francois Lake. In summer, he took his mailbags over on a boat or ferry; during the depths of winter鈥攚hen the lake froze to a depth of two feet or more鈥擲chreiber crossed Francois Lake with a team of horses or an automobile.
The task became significantly harder and more dangerous during the shoulder seasons. In March, as the ice began to melt, Schreiber made the trip with a small horse and cutter early in the morning before anything had a chance to thaw. When conditions became particularly treacherous, he used a hand sleigh or paid someone else to make the journey.
鈥淭hat lake used to be something years ago,鈥� recalled Jack Bickle in an interview almost forty years ago. 鈥淲hen Norman Schreiber got the mail contract, he used to cross the lake with his car. And then, when the ice got too bad for the car, there was an old fellow at Southbank, Shorty McDonald. He had a little horse and cutter, and Norm used to get him to haul the mail with his horse and cutter when the ice was poor. And then, when the ice got too poor for the horse and cutter, Shorty had a couple of dogs he put on a dog team and hauled the mail. And then, when it really got the worst of all . . . Shorty had a little kind of hand sleigh deal, two long skis under this boat, and he put the mail in the boat.鈥�
Other postmasters and mail carriers faced similar challenges. Jim Eastment and his wife ran the Colleymount post office during the second decade of the twentieth century. Johanna Colberg Christensen, who first visited the Eastments in 1916 and later married Jacob Henkel, said the couple routinely went above and beyond to ensure people got their letters, papers, and parcels.
鈥淲e went visiting to the post office at Colleymount, where Mr. and Mrs. Jim Eastment were postmistress and mail carrier,鈥� Johanna recalled years later. 鈥淛im rowed every Friday the eighteen miles down the lake to the landing to fetch the mail and returned Saturday afternoon.鈥�
Long trips like Eastment鈥檚 were common. Before 1920, people living in Topley traveled to Forestdale for their mail. The 12-mile trip was so taxing that mail delivery became a shared responsibility. There was an unspoken agreement among Topley residents that anyone traveling to Forestdale would not only pick up their household鈥檚 mail but everyone else鈥檚. Because mailboxes were also non-existent, His Majesty鈥檚 mail was left in an unoccupied cabin for residents to claim at their leisure.
鈥淥ver the years the logs had come apart inside the house, and it had become habit to put mail in a particular crevice by the door [for each person],鈥� states an unknown source. 鈥淣eighbours could open the door and see at once if there was any mail for them.鈥�
Charles Watson, his wife Aurelia, and their five children moved to Topley in 1920 and made their home in what had previously been the community鈥檚 unofficial post office. Their arrival didn鈥檛 put an end to this makeshift delivery system, though. The Watsons had an open door policy when it came to mail recipients, and their cabin continued to serve as the settlement鈥檚 collection point.
People living in Pendleton Bay several decades later had a similar system in place鈥攁nd it worked.
Today, people with access to the Internet can communicate electronically with a few simple keystrokes. Email has replaced Canada Post 鈥渟nail mail鈥� as the preferred means of written communication. Yet thanks to the rise of online shopping, 鈥渕ail day鈥� is still an event for many rural residents.
漏 2022 Lakes District Museum Society
