Pavilion

I've never been down to the Pavilion Ferry, although once we followed the old road down a few switchbacks by mountainbike but never made it past one of the washed-out bridges across the hiden canyon of lower Pavilion Creek . Knowing how far down it was (around 2500' vertical from the Pavilion store), we reconsidered, and hiked back up the lower canyon of Pavilion Creek instead. The ferry road crosses and recrosses the creek and its canyon several times before reaching the banks of the Fraser, where the above pictures were taken (those horses are tired!). I'm not sure, but I think the picture on the left looks to have been taken on the west bank, where an equally long and torturous trail climbs up through the vermilion-coloured rock of the Red Creek Canyon (renamed Slok Creek by the Ministry ofForests in the mid'70s using the St'at'imcets word for "red", even though that's not the St'at'imcets or Tskwaylaxw name for the creek. The Pavilion Ferry's aerial system was only built in the 1950s, an older ferryboat operated here before then; erial ferries and cable-drag ferries (using barges or rafts) were used on the Fraser at several places north of Yale due to the river's turbulent and rapid current. Note the boat in the picture on the right, which probably was attached by tow-rope to the cable-ferry's platform for carrying extra supplies or people across.

Thanks to Bob Wilson, in his day known as "the West Pavilion Hillbilly" I have his personal account of the ferry and the Pavilion area's ranches, including identification of the men in the pictures above and will quote it here:

I lived in that area for years, and can tell you that back in the 40's and early 50's, one had to leave their vehicles at the Pavilion store, which was owned by John Moss at that time, and walk about 4 miles back toward Lillooet, then follow a trail down to the ferry. (About another 4 miles.) The ferry in those days was a wooden rowboat manned with oars only. The ferryman, Tony Montgomery, would seat us in the boat, pull it up-river a distance, then push off and row to beat blazes to get across. In the early 50's, the highways department put in the road and cable ferry. The photo you show was the first cable 'car' we had, but it was replaced with a larger one with a hand winch set up in the centre of the 'car', and later had a briggs & stratton engine mounted under the winch. The next, and last 'car' was a heavier version of the one it replaced, but the engine was mounted on the top, above the cable, and drove the wheels on the cable itself, leaving the 'car' box open.

In the 50's, Andy and Florence Hay bought the Pavilion store from John, and ran it into the 60's sometime. The photo of the horses is correct, it was taken on the west side of the river, but the man with his back to the camera was Bert Gammon. He owned the old Montgomery ranch just south of our place, and south of the ferry. Jim Akers, owner of the old China Ranch to the north is standing beside his saddle horse. I believe that one of the men on the landing was Buck Akers, Jims son. Another man on the landing is possibly my brother-in-law, Frank Christy, who owned his uncles place, the Dickey ranch, again, south of the landing. The other man, I believe was Art Heigh. He was the ferry-man at the time, and owned the Blue ridge ranch directly above the landing. The Gammons brand is F3, Christys was Diamond K, Heighs was BR bar. I don't know if Akers had a brand or not. They must have. Diamond S was NEVER on the west side of the river. Merle Gammon still runs the Gammon place, located between Blackhill creek and Lee creek. Franks and my propertys both have been sold and resold over the years, is located between Lee creek and Red creek. Red creek was renamed by some hotshot surveyor for the forestry when they surveyed the present day West Pavilion road in 1960, to Slok creek.

Thanks Bob! Here are some of Bob's own pictures of the Pavilion stretch of the Fraser Canyon and the old ferry connecting to West Pavilion, where he lived for many years:

Pavilion
BC Archives # D-02962
Aerial pic from Photos by Kat
	BC Archives # E-05604
BC Archives # I-22331	BC Archives # H-00638
Pavilion lies about 20 miles upstream from Lillooet at the outlet into the Fraser Canyon of the valley of Pavilion Creek, which begins in the karst landscape of Marble Canyon and connects through via Lower Hat Creek towards rhe Cariboo Highway and the main part of the Interior. The picture at the top of the page was taken looking up the Fraser from somewhere near Pavilion along the PGE; the picture at above left is a view of the lower benchland below Pavilion proper; the gorge in the middle of the picture is that of the Fraser, which lies a thousand feet or so below the lip of the benchland. The picture at above right is a much older one taken a mile or so further south, also looking north up the Fraser; the road in the foreground is the old Cariboo Wagon Road, but is the same route as followed by today's Highway 99; Pavilion Store and the village are to the right of the treed hill on the picture's right edge; the PGE line is just visible on that same hill, at the lower edge of the treed area. The Pavilion Store, by the side of today's Highway 99, was the site of the 21 Mile roadhouse of the first Cariboo Road;
BC Archives # I-22334
This is of the valley of Pavilion Creek, a few miles east of the store and village, and are part of the Bryson Ranch, now the Termuende Ranch and for a while part of the "Diamond S" ranch owned by Spencer, who also had bought the upper benchland from the Carsons. The high wall of Marble Canyon's north rim is the bluff at centre-right; Chimney Rock is discernible immediately below and to the left of the bluff ("bluff" is an understatement; the marble ramparts of the canyon soar thousands of feet from the valley bottom). The summit of Pavilion Mountain is the bulge at the left end of the ridge; some 9000+ plus in elevation; the elevation of the farmhouse is in the 3000' range. The buildings above are in the area of the fields in the valley in the picture at right; just about where the second patch of sunlight begins. The valley of Pavilion Creek, which is depicted here, is part of the limestone karst topography which helped form Marble Canyon and is associated as well with the Hat Creek lignite coal deposits nearby. Pavilion Creek itself is intermittent, disappearing underground for some of the distance between Pavilion Lake and its re-emergence in the area of Pavilion Village. From there down to the Fraser it cuts its own deep canyon with many waterfalls and deep gorges in a rapid descent nearly 3000' to the Fraser. At the bottom is the Pavilion Ferry, or rather where the Pavilion Ferry used to be. Most of the bridges are washed out and there has been no maintenance of this road in decades so the road is undriveable. Mountain bikers and hikers may wish to try it, but must be prepared for the long jourrney back up, especially in the summer heat when even the shadows can be scorchingly hot. Experienced and equipped outdoors people may wish to bring something to get them across the Fraser; if the old ferry cables are still there, as they used to be I think, they coulc be used for guide-stays to drag yourself along by. The river is large and swift here, with dangerous rapids just downstream, so this is not to be attempted lightly. The benefits are a journey back down the Fraser to Lillooet - a dirt-road "circle tour".
Aerial pic from Photos by Kat	Aerial pic from Photos by Kat
The high benchland that shoulders Pavilion Mountain was chosen for the route of the original Cariboo Wagon Road, which climbs up from Pavilion Store and the junction with the Marble Canyon Road to Hat Creek and Carquile, connecting with the newer Cariboo Wagon Road (from Yale via Spences Bridge and Ashcroft; the two Cariboo Wagon Roads met at Clinton). Mrs. Harris comments that it was somewhat surprising the Pavilion Mountain route for the Wagon Road was chosen, given the easier route available via Marble Canyon; apparently the technical difficulties of building along Moran's long talus ("scree") were too much even for the Royal Engineers, since the PGE route via Arden Forest, the narrow valley between Kelly Lake and the Fraser, has a much lesser grade than the long and very steep grades of the Pavilion Mountain route. The descent to Kelly Lake from the crest of the mountain ridge above the benchland is comparable in grade and number of switchbacks to the Mission Mountain Road, though with not as much difference in vertical, although the summit is much higher and must have been a strain on the animals hauling goldfields-bound loads. As with Mission Mountain, it's very taxing on vehicles although it remains a public road today - much of it on the original Wagon Road grade. As can be seen in these photos by the linear cut across the benchland, high-tension powerlines traverses the ranchland, coming from the Kelly Lake Substation and making high crossings of the Fraser at Pavilion and Glen Fraser, and then of the Bridge River near its mouth at the fishing grounds. There was an old fire lookout on top of Pavilion Mountain, accessible via roads in questionable condition branching off near the summit of the road; the mountain does not have alpine in the crag-and-ice sense, and its higher regions are hilly country riven by limestone valleys, the larger and southwesterly of which emerge in Marble Canyon, the biggest of them being the Great Cut. Pavilion Mountain as a land-mass is the southern terminus of the Marble Range, which continues up the Fraser past Jesmond to Dog Creek and forms the east wall of the Fraser Canyon throughout this stretch. Despite its containment within the triangle of Hwys 99 and 97 and the Pavilion Mountain-Kelly Lake Road, there's a surprising amount of wilderness in the central, higher parts of Pavilion Mountain and the country is very rugged and dangerous despite not being heavily mountainous like the Camelsfoot; hikers and mountain bikers should be aware of a high wildlife presence, and be on guard for grizzly, cat and wolverine - and hunters at appropriate times of year (as with most of the country on this website). Given the extreme karst topography of the Pavilion Mountain high country and Marble Canyon and the limestone composition of the whole Marble Range north towards Dog Creek, it's reasonable to suspect that there may be cavern or crevice systems here yet undiscovered, so anyone straying off the forestry and range roads in this area should be wary; caves should be considered to very probably be active lairs for something the unprepared individual will not want to encounter, so casual spelunkers should think twice about exploring this area. Similar dangers apply to climbers in the side-canyons off Marble Canyon.
BC Archives # E-05572	BC Archives # NA-11079

Aerial pic from Photos by Kat
BC Archives # I-22335	BC Archives # I-22333
The ranches at Pavilion are among the oldest spreads in BC. The upper ranch on the high benchland was founded by Richard Hoey (?) but was bought and developed by Carson in 1866 and stayed in that family until 1942 when it was bought by Spencer. In 1949 Spencer bought up the Bryson Ranch, which is the lower benchland and the lands in the valley of Pavilion Creek farther above. 26 Mile House was the old Carson ranch house, built in 1867, and was located on the upper part of Pavilion, located on the broad high benchland that stretches to the road summit of Pavilion Mountain (the actual mountain summit is some miles SE of the pass); the Carsons were known for their hospitality and their ranchhouse was one of the favourite stopping-places along the long journey from Lillooet to Barkerville. From the higher edge of this plateau, the Cariboo Wagon Road made a staggering switchback descent to the valley of Kelly Lake, which leads towards Clinton where it meets the newer Cariboo Wagon Road (and today's Highway (97) from Yale via Spences Bridge and Ashcroft-Cache Creek. A picture of Kelly Lake and its valley can be found just below, possibly taken from the Cariboo Wagon Road (I'm not sure; it may be looking back towards Pavilion Mtn in fact).

Aerial pic from Photos by Kat
Pavilion Store & Village
BC Archives # D-08884	BC Archives # I-22327
Pavilion is generally considered to be the eastern and northern extremity of the Lillooet country, and this area also marks the boundary between the St'at'imc (Lillooet) and Secwepemc (Shuswap) peoples and languages; the native people of Pavilion call themselves the Tskwaylaxw Nation and are related to both Lillooet and St'at'imc peoples. The native village is glimpsed through the trees in the old vintage photo at left; the picture at right was taken from the BCR line looking back down towards the Pavilion Store, which the line passes in front of only a few miles back down the track; the line does a horseshoe bend into the Pavilion village area before climbing back out to the main valley of the Fraser at this point; the village is out of sight to the left. For more information, it is best to visit the Tskwaylaxw Nation website directly.

BC Archives # B-02678	BC Archives # B-02679
I've never been down to the Pavilion Ferry, although once we followed the old road down a few switchbacks by mountainbike but never made it past one of the washed-out bridges across the hiden canyon of lower Pavilion Creek . Knowing how far down it was (around 2500' vertical from the Pavilion store), we reconsidered, and hiked back up the lower canyon of Pavilion Creek instead. The ferry road crosses and recrosses the creek and its canyon several times before reaching the banks of the Fraser, where the above pictures were taken (those horses are tired!). I'm not sure, but I think the picture on the left looks to have been taken on the west bank, where an equally long and torturous trail climbs up through the vermilion-coloured rock of the Red Creek Canyon (renamed Slok Creek by the Ministry ofForests in the mid'70s using the St'at'imcets word for "red", even though that's not the St'at'imcets or Tskwaylaxw name for the creek. The Pavilion Ferry's aerial system was only built in the 1950s, an older ferryboat operated here before then; erial ferries and cable-drag ferries (using barges or rafts) were used on the Fraser at several places north of Yale due to the river's turbulent and rapid current. Note the boat in the picture on the right, which probably was attached by tow-rope to the cable-ferry's platform for carrying extra supplies or people across. Thanks to Bob Wilson, in his day known as "the West Pavilion Hillbilly" I have his personal account of the ferry and the Pavilion area's ranches, including identification of the men in the pictures above and will quote it here: I lived in that area for years, and can tell you that back in the 40's and early 50's, one had to leave their vehicles at the Pavilion store, which was owned by John Moss at that time, and walk about 4 miles back toward Lillooet, then follow a trail down to the ferry. (About another 4 miles.) The ferry in those days was a wooden rowboat manned with oars only. The ferryman, Tony Montgomery, would seat us in the boat, pull it up-river a distance, then push off and row to beat blazes to get across. In the early 50's, the highways department put in the road and cable ferry. The photo you show was the first cable 'car' we had, but it was replaced with a larger one with a hand winch set up in the centre of the 'car', and later had a briggs & stratton engine mounted under the winch. The next, and last 'car' was a heavier version of the one it replaced, but the engine was mounted on the top, above the cable, and drove the wheels on the cable itself, leaving the 'car' box open. In the 50's, Andy and Florence Hay bought the Pavilion store from John, and ran it into the 60's sometime. The photo of the horses is correct, it was taken on the west side of the river, but the man with his back to the camera was Bert Gammon. He owned the old Montgomery ranch just south of our place, and south of the ferry. Jim Akers, owner of the old China Ranch to the north is standing beside his saddle horse. I believe that one of the men on the landing was Buck Akers, Jims son. Another man on the landing is possibly my brother-in-law, Frank Christy, who owned his uncles place, the Dickey ranch, again, south of the landing. The other man, I believe was Art Heigh. He was the ferry-man at the time, and owned the Blue ridge ranch directly above the landing. The Gammons brand is F3, Christys was Diamond K, Heighs was BR bar. I don't know if Akers had a brand or not. They must have. Diamond S was NEVER on the west side of the river. Merle Gammon still runs the Gammon place, located between Blackhill creek and Lee creek. Franks and my propertys both have been sold and resold over the years, is located between Lee creek and Red creek. Red creek was renamed by some hotshot surveyor for the forestry when they surveyed the present day West Pavilion road in 1960, to Slok creek. Thanks Bob! Here are some of Bob's own pictures of the Pavilion stretch of the Fraser Canyon and the old ferry connecting to West Pavilion, where he lived for many years:
Photo: Bob Wilson	Photo: Bob Wilson

Photo: Bob Wilson	Photo: Bob Wilson
Photo: Bob Wilson	Photo: Bob Wilson
Slok Creek (Red Creek) The pictures below do not even come close to the deep red-purple of the Red Creek Canyon, which sits directly across the Fraser Canyon from Pavilion, slicing the broad benchlands on either side apart. Like all the rock and sand in the Lillooet Country, the canyon's colour changes with the angle and quality of the light. It is a dark red-purple, maybe described as vermilion but somehow almost shifting right outside our usual spectrum; subtly purple and not-purple at the same time. I've seen other vermilion-coloured cliffs and canyons in BC, but Red Creek's is really odd; I don't if Pavilion locals have ever noticed this and it may sound strange, but I invite you to have a look if you're in the area. It may just be the effect of the canyon's deep shadow or the brightness of the light against the north wall, but I've always been struck by it on drives and walks along Highway 99 (in my day Highway 12) just as you come out of the Pavilion Valley. These views are looking nearly due west - the creek comes down from the fight and has its source in the outer ridges of the Camelsfoot Range; the Slok Creek Forest Road has a main spur that runs up into there, onto a broad, high and very flat plateau that is a yet higher benchland from those of the West. The roads t
Photo: Mike Cleven	Photo: Mike Cleven

BCArchives # H-02933
Marble Canyon is a narrow limestone gorge connecting Pavilion and the Lillooet country to the rest of the Interior via the Hat Creek basin. It is intrinsically interconnected with the placename 'Pavilion' - the ranchlands of the Pavilion comprise both the canyon's mouth and its edge, and the largest lake in the canyon's bottom is Pavilion Lake; the site of Pavilion itself is really the canyon's outlet onto the main Fraser Canyon. The photo gallery concerning Marble Canyon is very large, so I have created a separate Marble Canyon page. The above picture was taken - I think - from a hillside above the canyon's east end; Upper Hat Creek is to the left, and the Lower Hat Creek Valley stretches down to Carquile on Hwy 97, also known as Cottonwood House.

Pavilion

Pavilion Store & Village

Pavilion Ferry

Slok Creek (Red Creek)

Marble Canyon

Plane Crash, Pavilion Schoolhouse, c.1959

Slok Creek
(Red Creek)