Mac McGarvey freighted and carried mail on the Peace River between Rolla Landing and Hudson's Hope for many years. Boats were the link to the outside. Each day saw boats coming and going. They carried mail, passengers, and freight - all busy supplying the transportation needs of the scattered settlers along the Peace River from Peace River Crossing to Hudson's Hope. To be a riverman on the Peace was not a job for an amateur. It required skill and resourcefulness. Mac McGarvey was an old master of the trade. He, and a few others, could 'read' the water. They could tell by the look of it where the sand bars had shifted, where the water was deep enough for their craft. In winter when the river froze, the Peace was once again the highway. Men with teams freighted on the ice, risking their lives and the lives of their horses when a Chinook softened the ice, or in spring trying to got in 'one more trip' before breakup. Mac filed and built on a quarter section between the Gates and Lynx Creek in about 1918, on the River which provided his livelihood. It was here that his son, George, was born

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