Lindup, British Columbia

Lindup, between Longworth and Penny, existed on the northeast side of the Fraser River in central British Columbia. The previous small community has now completely vanished.

Lindup, British Columbia
Locality
Location of Lindup in British Columbia
Coordinates: 53°53′00″N 121°22′00″W
CountryCanada
ProvinceBritish Columbia
Land DistrictCariboo
Regional DistrictFraser-Fort George
Geographic RegionRobson Valley
Elevation
668 m (2,190 ft)
Area code(s)250, 778, 236, & 672

History

Railway

Lindup, like Longworth to its northwest, and Guilford to its southeast, was an original train station (1914) on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway[1][2] (the Canadian National Railway after nationalization). The name, an early medieval English surname,[3] was possibly selected from the list prepared by Josiah Wedgwood (submitted at the request of William P. Hinton, the railway's general manager).[4]

Lindup lay at Mile 75.0, Fraser Subdivision[5] (about Mile 164.5 during the line's construction). In 1912, Magoffin (McGoffin alternate spelling) & Berg subcontracted at Mile 162.[6] The next year, their steam shovel at Mile 163 was one of the largest on the line.[7] A camp existed at Mile 166.[8] The station included a pumpman[9] and water tower,[10] located just east at Lindup Creek (formerly called Tank Creek).[11] The early telegraph office likely relied upon automatic printing apparatus, because there was no dispatcher at this location.[10] By 1922, a telephone had replaced the telegraph.[12] A 1926 forest fire brought down nearby telegraph wires.[13] The following year, a fire burning on both sides of the tracks from Hutton to Guilford threatened the station building and the railway dispatched a crew to protect the company property.[14] While attempting to board a railway cable car at Lindup, Wesley Goheen (1910–78),[15][16] a work train employee, slipped and a wheel crushed his ankle. The injured foot required a hospital amputation.[17]

This track maintenance location closed in the mid-1930s, with the section crew reassigned elsewhere.[18][19] Joseph (Joe) Denicola (1909–78)[20] was foreman from about 1930 until closure.[21] He was later a roadmaster (supervised section foremen within a territory),[22] before joining BC Rail.[23] His brother Armand Denicola (1922–2019), raised at Foreman,[24] worked for him during this time.[21] Joseph (Joe) Bugyinka (1888–1971),[25] was a section hand from around 1927–28 until closure.[26] He lost his first wife, Margaret (1891–1934),[27] who inadvertently consumed poisonous mushrooms she had picked locally.[28]

George (1891–1962)[29] & Helen (1901–60)[30] Wlasitz arrived around 1927–28.[31] George worked as a section hand from that time until retirement. When the section closed, he was reassigned to Longworth.[32] However, they remained Lindup residents until about 1956.[33] Their children were Stephen (Steve) (1919–2008),[34] Mary (1921–2001),[35] Frank (c.1923–2012),[36] and James (Jim) (c.1932–?).[37] Mary married[38] Nick Mokrey (1910–97),[39] they lived elsewhere, but the marriage failed. Steve worked as a logger and as a section hand from 16.[40] The older brothers enlisted.[41] After the war, Steve commuted to Dewey by speeder where he was a section hand, but also worked elsewhere as a relief section foreman.[42] When Steve married Helen Petro,[43][44] the couple initially lived at Lindup, but soon relocated to Sinclair Mills.[45] Frank married Winnifred Tate and they settled in Longworth,[46] as did Jim on marrying Anna Margaret Mann.[47]

Built in 1914, the standard-design Plan 100‐152 (Bohi's Type E)[48][49] station building was transported in 1947 by railway flatcar to Penny,[50] and exchanged for the latter's[51] Plan 110‐101 converted sectionmen's bunkhouse. In 1960, this smaller structure was relocated to Eddy.[52]

In 1952, when a westbound passenger train smashed into two boxcars at the siding, the impact shattered the empty one and extensively damaged the partly loaded one. Safety supervisor Edward F. Daly (1892–1958)[53] suffered a badly wrenched shoulder. The boxcars apparently rolled onto the mainline following shunting operations the previous night.[54]

Grade stabilization at Mile 75.87 in 1994 included culverts, manholes and revetment work.[55]

Service1914–c.1915c.1916–c.1921c.1921–19311932–19421943–c.1947c.1948–19611961–c.19621972–c.1974
[1][56][57][12][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75]
PassengerRegular stopFlag stopFlag stopFlag stopFlag stop
Way freightFlag stop probablyFlag stop probablyRegular stopFlag stopRegular stopFlag stopFlag stopFlag stop
Siding Mile No. 1922 1933 1943 1960–65 1968–72 1977
(Capacity Length) Cars [12] Cars [62] Cars [65] Cars [72][76] Cars [77][74] Feet [5]
Lindup 75.0 65 63 55 51 50 2,350

Forestry & hunting

In the 1920s, a hunter for caribou in the vicinity observed the plentiful moose population.[78]

The narrow strip of accessible spruce forest bordering the railway that stretched some 100 miles (160 km) east of Prince George was known as the East Line.[79] In 1929, J.B. Turnbull (possibly 1878–1964)[80] conducted summer logging one mile (1.6 km) south.[81] Across the river to the north, Jack Smedley ran a logging camp.[82] This is likely the same Jacob (Jake) Smedley (c.1882–?)[83] based in the Dewey area (encompassing Sinclair Mills) during the 1920s,[84] who was later foreman at the Sinclair logging camp near Longworth.[85]

In 1928, Edward (Ed) V. (1888–1951)[86] & Elsie (1904–95)[87] Chambers arrived from Foreman. Their children were D. Bernice (c.1923–?),[88] Jim (1924–?), Marie (c.1926–?), Lillian Jean (c.1928–2002),[89] Charles Lindburgh (Lindy) (1929–79),[90][91] Jean (1930–2012),[92] and Bette. While hunting, Ed seriously injured his hand, when a falling loaded rifle accidentally discharged.[93] Ed ran a 25-man logging camp that produced telegraph poles. Non-payment for a two-railway-car consignment to Nogle Co. during the Great Depression bankrupted his business.[94] Unable to settle his business debts, the remaining cedar poles stacked at the siding were seized and sold by sheriff's sale.[95] In 1934, the family relocated to the Mile 72 Relief Camp.

During 1949–52, Torsten Berg (1912–2007), a Longworth resident,[96] operated the only mill to exist at Lindup. Milling the high quality spruce from north and east of the railway line, he subcontracted to Charles Howarth of Guilford Lumber to supply planks for the podium used at Queen Elizabeth's 1953 coronation.[97][98] The sawmill soon returned to Longworth.[99]

Community

Comprising minimal residents,[100] recipients collected their mail from either Longworth or Penny.[51] The population peaked at about 50 in 1929, but dwindled into the Great Depression, and was almost a ghost town by the mid-1940s.[101] Children attended school in either Longworth or Penny, a four-to-five-mile (6.4 to 8.0 km) walk each way for most students.[102][103][104] These were also social venues.[105] When Penny, a settlement and station not originally planned by the GTP, took root, it shadowed Lindup's future. George & Helen Wlasitz were the final permanent residents. The back-to-the-land movement, which peaked during the 1970s, likely prompted the brief reopening of the flag stop.

Crime, calamity & safety measures

In 1934, the partial remains of a man were found in bush near Lindup. Wildlife had torn apart the victim, a former Penny relief camp resident, who had apparently committed suicide.[106][107]

That year, trapper/loggers Joseph Pastor (1896–1982)[108][109] and Joseph Kobra (1902–65),[110][111] Hungarians,[112] were sentenced to one month's imprisonment for assaulting a police officer in the discharge of his duty.[113] In an unrelated offence, Kobra was sentenced to two months hard labour for relief fraud during 1931.[114] He continued to flout the law by running his three-wheeled homemade speeder on the railway line.[115] He was one of the few who not only drank the muddy Fraser water, but proclaimed its qualities.[116] Pastor, followed by Kobra, resettled in Penny.

In the summer of 1938, a transient walking the railway track started a forest fire between Longworth and Lindup, prompting a precautionary temporary evacuation of the latter. The blaze quickly spotted, a crew of 100 volunteers (largely drawn from Longworth) brought it under control.[117]

Relief camps

The Aleza Lake to Tête Jaune highway-construction relief project began in 1931. The seven camps between Aleza Lake and McBride housed 500 workers. Nearby relief camps operated at Miles 72 and around 76.5 (occupying the former GTP construction camps at the then Miles 162 and 166).[118][119] Inhabitants built a road alongside the railway track and a ski hill at Mile 74, both of which fell into disuse.[120]


Footnotes
  1. 1914 Timetable. p. 4.
  2. "c.1919 GTP map (© 1911 prior version)". www.utoronto.ca.
  3. "Last name: Lindup". www.surnamedb.com.
  4. Prince George Citizen, 27 May 1957
  5. "1977 Timetable" (PDF). www.cwrailway.ca. p. 79.
  6. Fort George Herald, 30 Nov 1912
  7. Fort George Herald, 17 May 1913
  8. Fort George Herald: 7 & 14 Jun 1913
  9. "1921 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca.
  10. 1920 Timetable. Bulkley Valley Museum. p. 8.
  11. Boudreau 2003, pp. 48 & 54.
  12. 1922 Timetable: Northern BC Archives. p. 8.
  13. Prince George Citizen, 13 May 1926
  14. Prince George Citizen, 18 Aug 1927
  15. "Death Certificate (Wesly Arnold GOHEEN)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  16. Prince George Citizen, 21 Feb 1978
  17. Prince George Citizen: 18 & 25 Aug 1927
  18. Wlasitz 2000, p. 10.
  19. "1932 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca. & "1935 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca.
  20. "Death Certificate (Joseph Domenic DENICOLA)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  21. "1930 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca. to "1932 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca.
  22. Boudreau 2003, p. 49.
  23. Prince George Citizen, 7 Nov 1978
  24. Prince George Citizen, 6 Mar 2019
  25. "Death Certificate (Joseph BUGYINKA)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  26. "1928 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca. to "1932 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca.
  27. "Cemetery Project (Margaret BUGYINKA)". www.geneofun.on.ca.
  28. Boudreau 2003, p. 50.
  29. "Death Certificate (George WLASITZ)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  30. "Death Certificate (Helen WLASITZ)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  31. Wlasitz 2000, p. 3.
  32. "1928 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca. to "1932 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca. & "1935 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca. to "1955 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca.
  33. Wlasitz 2000, p. 29.
  34. "Cemetery Project (Stephen WLASITZ)". www.geneofun.on.ca.
  35. Prince George Citizen, 19 Jun 2001
  36. Prince George Citizen, 5 Dec 2012
  37. Prince George Citizen, 24 Jun 1948
  38. "Marriage Certificate (MOKREY/WLASITZ)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  39. "Death Certificate (Nicolaus MOKREY)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  40. Wlasitz 2000, pp. 4 & 29–30.
  41. Prince George Citizen: 6 Apr 1944 & 26 Oct 1944
  42. Wlasitz 2000, p. 6.
  43. Wlasitz 2000, p. 5.
  44. Prince George Citizen, 6 May 2014
  45. Wlasitz 2000, p. 43.
  46. Prince George Citizen, 13 Nov 1947
  47. Prince George Citizen, 5 Mar 1953
  48. "Type "E" Mythology". www.oil-electric.com.
  49. "Vanishing BC GTP Railway stations". www.michaelkluckner.com.
  50. Prince George Citizen, 16 Oct 1947
  51. Boudreau 2003, p. 6.
  52. Bohi, Charles W.; Kozma, Leslie S. (2002). Canadian National's Western Stations. Fitzhenry & Whiteside. pp. 121, 136 & 141. ISBN 1550416324.
  53. "Death Certificate (Edward Francis DALY)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  54. Prince George Citizen, 29 Sep 1952
  55. Prince George Citizen, 9 Jun 1994
  56. Waghorn's Guide. The Guide Co. Ltd. 1916. p. 74.
  57. 1920 Timetable. Bulkley Valley Museum. p. 8.
  58. 1923 Timetable. p. 70.
  59. 1925 Timetable. p. 105.
  60. Prince George Citizen: 12 & 19 Nov 1931
  61. 1932 Timetable. p. 58.
  62. 1933 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 8.
  63. 1935 Timetable. p. 60.
  64. 1942 Timetable. p. 58.
  65. 1943 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 9.
  66. 1945 Timetable. p. 61.
  67. "1946 Timetable". www.scribd.com. p. 59.
  68. 1949 Timetable. p. 59.
  69. "1950 Timetable". www.scribd.com. p. 59.
  70. "1956 Timetable" (PDF). www.streamlinermemories.info. p. 53.
  71. "1957 Timetable". www.traingeek.ca. p. 53.
  72. 1960 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 21–22.
  73. "1961 Timetable (way freight)" (PDF). www.streamlinermemories.info. p. 48.
  74. 1972 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–26.
  75. 1973 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 18.
  76. 1965 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–26.
  77. 1968 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–26.
  78. Prince George Citizen, 4 Dec 1924
  79. Hak, Gordon Hugh (1986). "On the Fringes: Capital and Labour in the Forest Economies of the Port Alberni and Prince George Districts, BC, 1910–1939". www.summit.sfu.ca. p. 14.
  80. "Death Certificate (John Burns TURNBULL)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  81. Prince George Citizen, 25 Apr 1929
  82. Boudreau 2003, p. 53.
  83. "Marriage Certificate (SMEDLEY/PAYNE)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  84. Prince George Citizen: 25 Oct 1923, 15 Nov 1923, 26 Apr 1928 & 3 Oct 1929
  85. Prince George Citizen: 24 Mar 1938, 24 Nov 1938 & 22 Dec 1938
  86. "Death Certificate (Edward Victor CHAMBERS)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  87. "Death Certificate (Elsie Louise Christina HEGSTAD)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  88. "Marriage Certificate (GAGNON/CHAMBERS)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  89. Prince George Citizen, 13 Nov 2002
  90. "Death Certificate (Charles Lindburgh CHAMBERS)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  91. Prince George Citizen, 10 Aug 1979
  92. "Obituary (Jean BENTON)". www.inmemoriam.ca.
  93. Prince George Citizen, 26 Sep 1929
  94. Boudreau 2003, pp. 51–52.
  95. Prince George Citizen: 21 & 28 Mar 1929; 17 & 31 Oct 1929; 12 & 19 Feb 1931; & 2 Apr 1931
  96. "Cemetery Project (Torsten BERG)". www.geneofun.on.ca.
  97. Boudreau 2003, pp. 65–67.
  98. Olson, Raymond (2014). Ghost Towns on the East Line. Self-published. p. 90. ISBN 9780986924316.
  99. Prince George Citizen: 27 Oct 1949 & 22 Jan 1996
  100. "1918 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca.
  101. Prince George Citizen, 8 Jul 1989
  102. Wlasitz 2000, p. 4.
  103. Prince George Citizen, 20 Jun 2001
  104. Boudreau 2003, pp. 51–53.
  105. Prince George Citizen, 21 Sep 1939
  106. "Cemetery Project (Benjamin GILLESPIE)". www.geneofun.on.ca.
  107. Prince George Citizen: 12 & 19 Jul 1934
  108. "Death Certificate (Joseph PASTOR)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  109. Prince George Citizen, 22 Nov 1982
  110. "Death Certificate (Joseph KOBRA)". www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  111. Prince George Citizen, 29 Jan 1965
  112. Boudreau 2003, pp. 57 & 62.
  113. Prince George Citizen, 28 Apr 1932
  114. Prince George Citizen, 22 Jun 1933
  115. Boudreau 2003, p. 58.
  116. Wlasitz 2000, pp. 12 & 27–28.
  117. Prince George Citizen, 2 Jun 1938
  118. Boudreau 2003, p. 64.
  119. Prince George Citizen, 20 Aug 1931
  120. Mellows, Arne & Carrie (2000). "Upper Fraser Historical Geography Project Transcript" (PDF). www.nbca.unbc.ca. pp. 2–3.


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References
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