Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/278

 256 T. C. Elliott. him a man of sixty in a few years, he said. But sea air and food and an occasional potion, perhaps, seems to have agreed with him, for we are told that the Indians of New Caledonia stared at him as the fattest man they had ever seen. New or Western Caledonia was an extensive region of mountain peaks and valleys and prairies, of beautiful lakes and swift rivers, and of curious Indians, — different from those of the Snake country. The road thither left the Columbia at the Okanogan ; there the "property" was transferred to the backs of horses, often several hundred in number, and the pack trains went winding their way northward to the Thomp- son river at Kamloops, and thence on through the mountains to the northern forts, five or six in number. Later this be- came the famous Okanogan mining trail. There was also a trail from Fort Col vile up Kettle river, a route now traveled by the steel rail locomotive ; but few goods were taken in that way. It is not purposed to relate incidents of the nine years spent in charge of New Caledonia. Father Morice has treated that period quite amply in his "History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia." Mr. Ogden took his family with him to Lake Stuart; a daughter named Euretta (whose mind was clouded) and his youngest son named Isaac were born there. To some extent he introduced farming in the district but the main article of food the year round was dried salmon. Every spring he made the journey to Fort Vancouver to sit as a member of the Board of Management, which Gov. Simpson had organized, perhaps as a means to curtail the authority of Dr. McLoughlin. Mr. Ogden appears to have been pretty close to Gov. Simpson during all of his career. We will next quote from the Narrative of Lieut. Chas. Wilkes of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, who met Mr. Ogden in June, 1841, at Vancouver: "At Vancouver, I was again kindly made welcome by Dr. M'Laughlin, Mr. Douglass, and the officers of the establish- ment. During my absence, Mr. Peter Ogden, chief factor of the northern district, had arrived with his brigade. The fort had, in consequence, a very different appearance from the one