The Bulkley River Valley

The Bulkley River is a major tributary of the Skeena River and is paralleled by Highway 16 in the region of Smithers. Despite the fact that its major tributary, the Morice River, is actually larger, the confluence was still called the Bulkley by Poudrier, a government cartographer who, it is rumored, never saw the region.

And for another piece of trivia, the inhabitants of Smithers are commonly called Smithereens.

B.C. Border Crossings

Another trivia question: how many times have Dee and Cal crossed a border into the province of British Columbia? By my count the number is seven (7), once from Alberta, five times from Yukon, and once from Alaska. They have crossed the border out of BC six (6) times: five times into the Yukon and once into Alaska. That makes a total of thirteen (13) BC border crossings so far. All this is assuming they made it off the ferry in the wee hours of this morning. The coverage map shows Verizon service right around the Prince Rupert area so hopefully we will hear something from them yet this evening.

Alaska's "First City"

The picture Dee posted of the entrance to Ketchican claims that it is "Alaska's 1st City." Yet Sitka claims that it is "The First City in Alaska." Which one is correct? Without going into the details of determining exactly when a given city is established, it is clear that Sitka is the older. Ketchican's history dates to 1883, while Sitka's history begins around 1800. How, then, can Ketchican claim to be Alaska's first city?

Well Ketchican calls itself "First City" simply because it is the first stop in Alaska for ferries and many cruise ships traveling north through the Inside Passage. Its vibrant native Alaskan heritage, scenic location, and picturesque hillside houses and staircases make it a popular destination for travelers. It is also known as the "Salmon Capital of the World."

Ketchican is situated on Revillagigedo Island, 90 miles (145 km) north of Prince Rupert, BC. It is separated from Gravina Island, where Ketchikan International Airport is located, by the Tongass Narrows. In August 2005 the 2005 Highway Bill provided for $223m to build the Gravina Island Bridge (nicknamed "the Bridge to Nowhere" by its critics) between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. The bridge would have connected the island of Ketchikan to Gravina island where the airport is located so you can drive to the airport rather than taking the ferry across the waters. After years of national and international ridicule over the expense of this project, the Alaska government ultimately chose not to build the bridge, and will spend the appropriated funds elsewhere.

Largest U.S. City

More trivia. Name the largest city in the United States. Notice I did not say the most populous city. What I am after here is the largest in area. If you named Oklahoma City, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Antonio as your top five you would have been correct as far as cities are concerned. But what if we also include consolidated city-counties (city-borough in AK and city-parish in LA)? In this case it turns out the the largest city is Sitka, AK at 4811 mi². (See wikipedia.)

Saskatchewan River

Dee mentioned yesterday that Saskatoon is the "city of bridges" with seven river crossings. The river they span is the South Saskatchewan River. Shortly after leaving the campground this morning the trikers crossed the North Saskatchewan River, which they then paralleled the rest of the day. They are still north of this river tonight, but tomorrow they will cross it again as the river swings north of Highway 16.

The province of Saskatchewan gets its name from the Saskatchewan River, which gets its name from the Cree word meaning "swift flowing river."

Queen City from Pile of Bones

Wascana is an anglicization of the Cree word for "pile of bones." Wascana is also the name of small spring run-off creek in south central Saskatchewan, so named for the large piles of bison bones in the area. "Pile-of-Bones" was the first name for a small site along the Wascana Creek adjacent to the future route of the Canadian-Pacific Railway, and the hamlet that resulted. The choice of this site for the headquarters of the Northwest Territories was a national scandal at the time, but the choice stuck anyway. The town was renamed Regina in 1882 after Queen Victoria, i.e. Victoria Regina (regina is Latin for "queen"), by her daughter Princess Louise, wife of the then-Governor General the Marquess of Lorne. Wascana Creek was dammed to create Wascana Lake, around which Wascana Centre was built.

Quiz: Longest Rivers and more

Quick, name the longest river in the United States. If you said the Mississippi River, you are close. Acording to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Mississippi is the second longest river (2340 mi), followed by the Yukon (1980 mi), Rio Grande (1900 mi), St. Lawrence (1900 mi), Arkansas (1469 mi), and Colorado (1450 mi). First place, however, belongs to the Missouri River, at 2540 miles in length.

Next, name the three largest man-made lakes in the country. If you got the first two, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, both on the Colorado, I am impressed. If you knew the third, Lake Sakakawea on the Missouri River, I am very impressed. Yesterday Dee and Cal crossed the Missouri River at the upper end of Lake Sakakawea.

Now name the explorers who followed this river into the Pacific Northwest from 1803 to 1806? This question is a bit easier, but I will let you follow the link to confirm their names. On Christmas Eve of 1804 they finished building Fort Manden on the river at what is now the other end of Sakakawea Lake.

Finally, can you name the longest undammed river in the contiguous U.S.? This would be the Yellowstone River, which flows into the Missouri ten or fifteen miles upstream from where Dee and Cal crossed it. The explorers I'm talking about followed both rivers because they appeared to be about the same size.

The river crossing by satellite. Williston is at the top and the lake is to the right.

The Center of the U.S.

On April 15, Dee and Cal took a little side trip to the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states near Lebanon, KS. Yesterday they passed within 30 miles of the center of the 50 states (44°58'N, 103°46'W). The nearest town is Belle Fourche (the "ch" is /sh/), French for "beautiful fork" for the fork of Hay Creek, the Redwater River, and the Belle Fourche River at the site. It should be pointed out, however, that neither point is exact, since there is no agreement on which mathematical model to use. The Lebanon point was determined in 1918 by balancing on a point a cardboard cutout shaped like the U.S. This obviously would not work for the 50 states, and I don't know how that point was arrived at.

Last night the trikers were stuck in a little place called Crow Buttes Mercantile, a few miles south of Redig, SD, outside the Verizon broadband coverage. We could assume as much from the fact that they did not post on the blog, but to confirm this fact I placed a link to the Verizon coverage map in the Tools for the Journey section. This may come in handy again as they get further north.

Anselmo B. Smith

This morning I was reading about the "TINY" town of Bingham, where Dee and Cal spent last night (Wed). The population is said to be twenty, give or take a few, but it may have been as high as 200 in the 1920's. Surfing from this page, I clicked on links to Ashby, back down the road where the trikers stopped for a break yesterday, and Whitman. This then brought me to Hyannis. Hyannis, NE was named for Hyannis, MA, home town of the civil engineer who surveyed the Nebraska town, Anselmo B. Smith. End of story, except for the fact that Mr. Smith shows up in the histories of a number of Nebraska towns, including one named after the man himself, Anselmo, NE. Dee and Cal rode through this town between Broken Bow and the National Forest on Monday.

In the town of Anselmo, NE there happens to be St. Anselm's Catholic Church, nicknamed the Cathedral of the Sandhills. The church, of course, is named for St. Anselm. No one else may find this remotely curious, but it seems like a strange coincidence that the church named for a late 11th century cleric in a town named for a 19th century surveyor should have such similar names.

Incidentally, Anselmo B. Smith also platted the metropolis of Kearney, and one source I found indicates that he may have surveyed the city of Lincoln for the state.