Charlie Barrett - Packer
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One
of the first packers on the Yukon Telegraph Trail was Charlie Barrett. He owned a
big pack train of about 100 horses and mules. Later, he bought the ranch were the
pack trains were kept each winter. This ranch was called the "Diamond
D". It is located on the east bank of the Bulkley River
by the mouth of the Morice River.
Diamond
D Ranch, Bulkley Valley, 1913
Image Courtesy of BC Archives - Detail of Call #NA-03948
After returning from one of his first trips up the Yukon Telegraph Trail, Charlie realized he had missed the ninth cabin on the trail. In this cabin, two men were still waiting for their winter supplies. It was already getting late in the autumn and it was over 200 miles to the ninth cabin. Charlie quickly loaded his pack train with the year's supply for the two men, and headed north up the trail. He travelled as quickly as possible. He wanted to get over the bad places on the trail before the first snow fell. But, as luck would have it, snow began to fall one night just as he came to the rock ledges.
Travelling on these rock ledges was difficult at the best of times. The horses could not get their footing on the icy rocks. One by one they slipped and went down, until it was impossible to go on. Many of his horses had fallen over ledges and many had died falling on the trail. Charlie decided to cache the supplies on the trail and return to Hazelton to get dog teams. He put the carcasses of the dead horses up in trees so the wolves would not eat them. Again he started out. This time he had 128 dogs. When he came to the place where he had turned back, he fed some of the horse meat to the dogs. He loaded the supplies onto the sleighs and started north once again. He finally got through to the cabin where the two men were waiting for their supplies.
On the return trip to Hazelton, progress was very slow. Charlie found the wolves had reached the cache of horse meat and finished it up. The dogs were short of food. He killed one dog after another to feed the rest, but they weakened and all died on the trail.
It was a cold, snowy night when Charlie finally arrived on foot. He walked into the hotel in Hazelton. He had lost everything, but he had delivered the supplies. That was the important thing to him.
After a few years, Jean Caux or "Cataline" as he was called, took over the packing contract from Charlie Barrett to supply the telegraph cabins.
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