Trekking 1,400 Kilometres With Two Mules to Celebrate Canada

When Ida DeKelver set off by foot from her ranch home in an isolated British Columbia valley, she was accompanied by two donkeys, Jack and Bill. Between them, they carried 140 pounds of provisions. She planned on riding Bill much of the way.

Her destination was her hometown in Saskatchewan, some 1,400 kilometres to the east on the other side of the Rocky Mountains.

On the morning of Sept. 15, 1967, she sent the children off to school before bidding adieu to her husband, Emil, who was left to carry out chores on their sheep ranch.

DeKelver’s Centennial trek was planned as an homage to the Overlanders, a group of some 115 settlers, all men but for one woman and her three children, who traveled from Ontario to the British Columbia Interior in 1862. After arriving in Fort Garry (present-day Winnipeg), the Overlanders hauled Red River carts to Fort Edmonton, where they traded the carts for pack horses. A returning party of gold miners from the Cariboo fields encouraged them to follow the Yellowhead Pass through the mountains. Native guides were hired to lead them through the treacherous passage.

The story of the Overlanders was well known in the North Thompson region of British Columbia. DeKelver wished to honour them and promote the Yellowhead Route while celebrating Canada’s 1967 Centennial. An overland trek of her own seemed the way to do so.

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