50

Henningville, Mile 49
1914
Henningville (Mile 49), Tete Jaune area, British Columbia, Canada


Credits:
The Exploration Place (Prince George)

51

Officials representing William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, contractors for the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) asked Palmer Brothers & Henning to build a difficult portion of their line near the headwaters of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers, from Blue River Junction to Red Pass. It was a huge undertaking over a rugged rout more than 80 miles long, but they had offered more than two million dollars, and Palmer Brothers and Henning finally decided to tackle the job.
Towards the end of 1912, Henningville was built two miles east of Tete Jaune. By spring of 1913, work began on a tote road from Red Pass to Henningville and from there, 200 miles to Kamloops. Scows supplied crews working along the Fraser.
By summer of 1914, trains from Winnipeg were traveling the Grand Trunk. Besides carving a railroad out of the mountains, Peter Henning, the head engineer of Palmer Bros and Henning, also had to superintend Henningville and all the camps along the line. Despite his distaste for the sleazier aspects of camp life, Peter was a practical man and worked to keep the lid on the pool halls, saloons and bordellos that gave Henningville its colour.
In January 1914, Henningville had grown large enough to receive its first postmaster. After the Grand Trunk abandoned Tete Jaune that spring, its Canadian, British and American workers and their Chinese, East Indian and Russian colleagues wandered over to make Henningville even more cosmopolitan. Each worker was paid three to four dollars a day.