High Slack: Waddington's Gold Road and the Bute Inlet Massacre of 1864

by Judith Williams

In the winter of 1861, Robert Homfray made a perilous journey up Bute Inlet to begin surveying for Alfred Waddington's `gold road', which was to link British Columbia's coast with the Cariboo. It was hoped that the road would open up the territory to gold prospectors and homesteaders; instead, it dead-ended just above Homathko Canyon with the massacre of the road crew sent to build it. The colonial government called it murder; the Tsilhqot'in people called it war. More than a century later, Judith Williams retraces Homfray's journey. By juxtaposing her impressions with the written and oral histories of the event, she peels back some of the many layers of `truth' to reveal what is both a stirring tale and an engrossing glimpse of life in the Chilcotin over 130 years ago. High Slack is Number 4 in the Transmontanus series edited by Terry Glavin.

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1996