Hooker and Brown
Encyclopedia
Hooker and Brown are two mythical mountains, once reputed to lie on the great Divide of the Canadian Rockies
in Jasper National Park
, bordering the Athabasca Pass
, the old passage for the fur
trade. These two peaks were reputed to be the highest mountains in North America at over 16,000 feet, and were maintained to be so on maps and atlases, for almost a hundred years, spurring the early mountaineers arriving on the railway (1890) to explore the Rockies and discover features such as the Columbia Icefield
.
, a Canadian surveyor, explorer and geographer, first established the route through Athabasca Pass in January 1811 when the Peigan Indians closed Howse Pass
to prevent his trading with their rivals, the Kootenay people.
Although he mapped the route carefully, Thompson was not interested in mountains and did not name or note them in his journals. His journey joined with the Columbia river and the trail became the premier trade passage over the Rockies until the decline of the fur trade.
In April 1827, David Douglas, a Scottish Biologist collecting for the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow
, and sponsored by Sir William Hooker
, crossed the pass. Lagging the other voyageurs, he made a unprecedented decision to abandon the trail and to ascend the northern peak in deep snow.
This he named Mt. Brown. The southern peak he named Mt. Hooker.
Douglas wrote in his published journal:
But Douglas was off on another expedition (one from which he would not return, as his eyesight had become so poor that he fell into an occupied wild boar trap on the Sandwich Isles – Hawaii
) when his journal was published. The editing of his journal may have been conducted by Hooker himself, which calls into question the motivation and objectivity of such a noted figure.
This publication was in a secondary journal which was quickly forgotten, however, the heights had made an indelible impression, most notably on Aaron Arrowsmith
, the great English mapmaker.
On all maps following the publication of the journal, maps of the Rockies showed Hooker and Brown between 15,000 and 17,000 feet tall. When the transcontinental railway was pushing through the mountains on it way to join with the British Columbian spur, it opened the area to the mountaineers of Europe and the East Coast. After Assiniboine was summitted, a race began to claim the highest peaks. The maps unequivocally stated that Hooker and Brown were thus, but after several seasons of exploring and hardship, no trace of such high mountains were found. They did impel the men to discover and map the entire Rocky Mountains system of ranges.
The peaks remain a fable of the twenty-first century. Albertan author Jerry Auld's 2009 novel, Hooker & Brown, is centered around the mythology and the mystery of the mountains.
Canadian Rockies
The Canadian Rockies comprise the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains range. They are the eastern part of the Canadian Cordillera, extending from the Interior Plains of Alberta to the Rocky Mountain Trench of British Columbia. The southern end borders Idaho and Montana of the USA...
in Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, spanning 10,878 km² . It is located in the province of Alberta, north of Banff National Park and west of the City of Edmonton. The park includes the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, hot springs, lakes, waterfalls and...
, bordering the Athabasca Pass
Athabasca Pass
Athabasca Pass is a high mountain pass in the Canadian Rockies. It is the headwaters of the Whirlpool River, a tributary of the Athabasca River.The pass lies between Mount Brown and McGillivray Ridge...
, the old passage for the fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
trade. These two peaks were reputed to be the highest mountains in North America at over 16,000 feet, and were maintained to be so on maps and atlases, for almost a hundred years, spurring the early mountaineers arriving on the railway (1890) to explore the Rockies and discover features such as the Columbia Icefield
Columbia Icefield
The Columbia Icefield is an icefield located in the Canadian Rockies, astride the Continental Divide of North America. The icefield lies partly in the northwestern tip of Banff National Park and the southern end of Jasper National Park. It is about 325 km² in area, 100 to 365 metres in depth and...
.
Discovery and Naming
David ThompsonDavid Thompson (explorer)
David Thompson was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer"...
, a Canadian surveyor, explorer and geographer, first established the route through Athabasca Pass in January 1811 when the Peigan Indians closed Howse Pass
Howse Pass
Howse Pass is a pass through the Rocky Mountains. The pass was used by First Nations people such as the Kootenay and Piegan. European explorers first discovered the pass in 1806, and David Thompson explored it in 1807...
to prevent his trading with their rivals, the Kootenay people.
Although he mapped the route carefully, Thompson was not interested in mountains and did not name or note them in his journals. His journey joined with the Columbia river and the trail became the premier trade passage over the Rockies until the decline of the fur trade.
In April 1827, David Douglas, a Scottish Biologist collecting for the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow
Glasgow Botanic Gardens
Glasgow Botanic Gardens is an Arboretum and public park located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It features several glasshouses, the most notable of which is the Kibble Palace. The gardens were created in 1817, and run by the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow , and were intended to supply...
, and sponsored by Sir William Hooker
William Jackson Hooker
Sir William Jackson Hooker, FRS was an English systematic botanist and organiser. He held the post of Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, and was the first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He enjoyed the friendship and support of Sir Joseph Banks for his exploring,...
, crossed the pass. Lagging the other voyageurs, he made a unprecedented decision to abandon the trail and to ascend the northern peak in deep snow.
“After breakfast at one o’clock, being, as I conceive, on the highest part of the route, I became desirous of ascending one of the peaks, and accordingly I set out alone on snowshoes to that on the left hand or west side, being to all appearances the highest. The labour of ascending the lower part, which is covered with pines, is great beyond description, sinking on many occasions to the middle. Halfway up vegetation ceases entirely, not so much a vestige of moss or lichen on the stones. Here I found it less laborious as I walked on the hard crust. One-third from the summit it becomes a mountain of pure ice, sealed far over by Nature’s hand as a momentous work of Nature’s God. . . . The view from the summit is of too awful a cast to afford pleasure. Nothing can be seen, in every direction as far as the eye can reach, except mountains towering above each other, rugged beyond description. . . . The height from its base may be about 5,500 feet; timber 2,750 feet; a few mosses and lichens 500 more; 1,000 feet of perpetual snow; the remainder, towards the top, 1,250, as I have said, glacier with a thin covering of snow on it. The ascent took me five hours; descending only one and a quarter.”
This he named Mt. Brown. The southern peak he named Mt. Hooker.
“The view from the summit is of too awful a cast to afford pleasure. Nothing can be seen, in every direction as far as the eye can reach, except mountains towering above each other, rugged beyond description. This peak, the highest yet known in the northern continent of America, I feel a sincere pleasure in naming 'Mount Brown,' in honour of R. BrownRobert Brown (botanist)Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
, Esq., the illustrious botanist...A little to the southward is one nearly the same height, rising into a sharper point. This I named Mount Hooker...”
Historical Mystery and Impact
Douglas did not know of the height when he crossed. This was not measured until a party just before him, by a Lieutenant Simpson. This officer bore a name so similar to Lieutenant-Governor Sir George Simpson that many attributed his erroneous altitude calculation to the more eminent person, and thus gave it credibility.Douglas wrote in his published journal:
"Being well rested by one o'clock, I set out with the view of ascending what seemed to be the highest peak on the north. Its height does not seem to be less than 16,000 or 17,000 feet above the level of the sea. After passing over the lower ridge I came to about 1,200 feet of, by far, the most difficult and fatiguing walking I have ever experienced, and the utmost care was required to tread over the crust of the snow..."
But Douglas was off on another expedition (one from which he would not return, as his eyesight had become so poor that he fell into an occupied wild boar trap on the Sandwich Isles – Hawaii
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
) when his journal was published. The editing of his journal may have been conducted by Hooker himself, which calls into question the motivation and objectivity of such a noted figure.
This publication was in a secondary journal which was quickly forgotten, however, the heights had made an indelible impression, most notably on Aaron Arrowsmith
Aaron Arrowsmith
Aaron Arrowsmith was an English cartographer, engraver and publisher and founding member of the Arrowsmith family of geographers. He moved to Soho Square, London from Winston, County Durham when about twenty years of age, and was employed by John Cary, the engraver and William Faden. He became...
, the great English mapmaker.
On all maps following the publication of the journal, maps of the Rockies showed Hooker and Brown between 15,000 and 17,000 feet tall. When the transcontinental railway was pushing through the mountains on it way to join with the British Columbian spur, it opened the area to the mountaineers of Europe and the East Coast. After Assiniboine was summitted, a race began to claim the highest peaks. The maps unequivocally stated that Hooker and Brown were thus, but after several seasons of exploring and hardship, no trace of such high mountains were found. They did impel the men to discover and map the entire Rocky Mountains system of ranges.
The peaks remain a fable of the twenty-first century. Albertan author Jerry Auld's 2009 novel, Hooker & Brown, is centered around the mythology and the mystery of the mountains.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1811 | David Thompson David Thompson (explorer) David Thompson was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer"... establishes the fur trade through Athabasca Pass. |
| 1826 | Thomas Drummond, another biologist, and Lieutenant Simpson, an officer, cross the Pass. Simpson makes a boiling point calculation for altitude, fixing the Pass at 11000 feet (3,352.8 m). |
| 1826 | Lieutenant-Governor George Simpson crosses the Pass. |
| 1827 | David Douglas David Douglas David Douglas was a Scottish botanist. He worked as a gardener, and explored the Scottish Highlands, North America, and Hawaii, where he died.-Early life:... crosses the Pass, climbs northern peak. |
| 1827 | Drummond and Douglas meet at York factory waiting for boats home. Drummond tells Douglas that Simpson set the height at 11,000 feet. |
| 1834 | Douglas killed in Hawaii, Drummond in Cuba. |
| 1834 | Hooker publishes Douglas’ journal in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine v 2 |
| 1844 | Aaron Arrowsmith’s maps of North America include Hooker and Brown at 16,000 ft. |
| 1857 | David Thompson dies. Most maps are lost and fur trails forgotten. |
| 1885 | Professor of geology at Toronto, Arthur Philemon Coleman Arthur Philemon Coleman Arthur Philemon Coleman was a Canadian geologist and academic.-Biography:Born in Lachute, Quebec, the son of Rev. Francis Coleman and Emmeline Maria Adams , he received his Bachelor of Arts in 1876 and Master of Arts in 1880 from Victoria College in Cobourg, Ontario. He received a Ph.D... takes second trip west (first expedition to look for Hooker and Brown) on the unfinished railway. |
| 1888 | Coleman tries to reach Athabasca Pass from the west, going up the Columbia River. |
| 1892 | Coleman tries to reach Athabasca Pass from the south. Reaches Fortress Lake. |
| 1893 | Coleman reaches Athabasca Pass from the North (the Yellowhead via Miette) and is disappointed to find no mountains of stature. |
| 1896 | J. Norman Collie J. Norman Collie John Norman Collie FRS , commonly referred to as J. Norman Collie, was a British scientist, mountaineer, and explorer.- Life and work :He was born in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, the second of four sons... arrives in Rockies. The death of Charles Fay from his party on Mount Lefroy Mount Lefroy Mount Lefroy is a mountain on the Continental Divide, at the border of Alberta and British Columbia in western Canada. The mountain is located on the eastern side of Abbot Pass.The mountain was named by George M... ignites a scandal and highlights the potential for mountaineering in Canada. |
| 1897 | J. Norman Collie and party summit Mt. Gordon and look north at distant giant. Start off for Mt. Murchison and Forbes (thinking they might be Hooker and Brown) and decide to forgo the virgin Mt. Assiniboine. |
| 1898 | Collie searches again for Hooker and Brown. Later, in England, reads Douglas’ journal and decides the entire story is a mistake. |
| 1900 | Collie is back, still searching. |
| 1901 | Rev. James Outram James Outram (mountaineer) Sir James Outram was a British clergyman, who made many first ascents in the Canadian Rockies in the early 1900s.... , on leave from England, climbs Mount Assiniboine Mount Assiniboine Mount Assiniboine, also known as Assiniboine Mountain, is a mountain located on the Great Divide, on the British Columbia/Alberta border in Canada.... . |
| 1902 | Outram and Collie race north, looking for the highest, and succeed in climbing Mount Forbes Mount Forbes Mount Forbes, the eighth tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, is located southwest of the Saskatchewan River Crossing in Banff National Park. The mountain was named by James Hector in 1859 after Edward Forbes, Hector's natural history professor at the University of Edinburgh during the... , Mount Freshfield Mount Freshfield Mount Freshfield is located on the border of Alberta and British Columbia. It was named in 1897 by J. Norman Collie after Freshfield, Douglas William.-See also:*List of peaks on the British Columbia-Alberta border*Mountains of Alberta... , Mount Bryce Mount Bryce Mount Bryce is a mountain at the southwestern corner of the Columbia Icefield, in British Columbia near the border with Alberta. It can be seen from the Icefields Parkway.... , and Mount Columbia. The search for Hooker and Brown is abandoned. |
External links
- “The Canadian Alps – The History of Mountaineering in Canada” R. W. Sandford, Altitude Publishing, 1990
- PeakFinder.com – Canadian Rockies Reference
- Information on Jerry Auld's novel, Hooker & Brown, can be found on his website, the book site and the Publisher's website