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Frontier Medicine in the Chilcotin Region of B.C.By Sterling Haynes, MDDr. Haynes has beenpublished in theMedical Post,Okanagan Life,Harvard Alumnimagazine and the BCMedical Journalwhere this articleoriginally appearedin September 2004.His book BloodyPractice is availablein independentbookstores.IAuthor’s note: ’m indebted toWilliams Lake historian,raconteur and archivist, Dr. JohnRoberts, the staff of the WilliamsLake Library, my daughter,Elizabeth, and my wife Jessiewho edited and helped me selectpertinent archival material.Dr Wright home andhospital, painted byhimself, early 1900.Courtesy of Dr. John Roberts,Williams’ Lake archivist.In 1960 Dr. Barney Ringwood, a Williams Lakesurgeon, was mooching around the attic of theAlexis Creek Red Cross Hospital when he cameacross two notable finds. The first was asaddlebag found under the eaves of the roof’sbuilding. In the saddlebag was a set of surgicalinstruments. There were bone saws, hemostats, needledrivers and needles, scalpels and even a completecollection of metal catheters. They were wrapped invelvet, packed into the saddlebag and thrown in acorner for safekeeping. They looked new, butprobably had been lying there for 40 years. The secondfind in the attic was a portable rectangular boxcontaining a cathode tube; it too was lined with velvetand looked pristine. On the side was a large silvercrank handle. Accompanying this primitive x-ray unitwas a bulky cassette and film impregnated with silversalts. In 1960, the four doctors of the War MemorialHospital in Williams Lake gathered around the findand, using modern x-ray cassettes with film, tried itout. We took x rays of hands and arms while crankingthe handle vigorously and initiating a visible sparkfrom the cathode tube, The films we took were hazybut I’m sure would be useful in taking post reductionviews of new fractures. Dr. Ringwood sent both theseitems to the B.C. Medical Museum in Vancouver.As I was at one time an attending physician atthe Alexis Creek Hospital I became interested in earlyfrontier medical care, the hospital and the men andwomen who dedicated their lives to the care of the ill.The first log hospital in the Chilcotin was builton Alex Graham’s land in Alexis Creek. Alex built italong with Bob Miller, Fred Burdette and Bob Miller,the axeman. The site chosen in 1912 was on hilloverlooking highway 20. Highway 20 used to be aterrible road and for years there was a warning signthat read – “This road is not passable, not evenjackassable”. Eighty years ago it must have been acow trail, driving to and from the hospital would havebeen an arduous job.In 1915 the first baby born in the hospital wasBill Graham. Many babies have been born there since,the first resident physician and midwife was Dr.William Wright. Dr. Wright was Australian and priorto coming to Alexis Creek had been a CPR ship’sdoctor who sailed the South China seas. His lastmedical practice began in 1912 and ended with hisdeath in Vancouver in 1924. Doc Wright’s companionwas also Australian; nurse Mary Goode who was anable assistant. When it was late at night the Doc wasprone to say, while giving advice, “well, why don’tyou put a little iodine on it.” Then Mary would takeover and institute a plan of treatment and mollify thepatient.A small cozy ‘lean to’ was built for the twoand attached to the hospital. I’m sure it was a welcomebeacon in the long winter nights in the chilly Chilcotin.A picture Dr. Wright painted of the hospital and staffquarters is easily seen against the snow boundproperty.Dr. Wright traveled the Chilcotin and theCariboo regions by saddle horse, buggy and cutter.Irene Stangoe in her book History and Happenings inthe Chilcotin describes pioneer Mike Farwell’sdescription of driving Dr Wright from theBeecher House Hotel at Riske Creek to theFarwell home place at the Pothole Ranch toattend Mrs. Farwell.“The good doctor, who hadbeen celebrating his birthday, not too wisely,was asleep in the sleigh when Mike startedhis descent to the river down a hogs backwith a steep gully on each side called ‘thetobaggan slide’. It was wide enough for thesleigh. Farwell wakened and warned theDoc – ‘Hang on tight because if you gooverboard here, you’ll break your neck forsure.’ The horses had gone two steps whenDoc took a nosedive over the front of thesleigh taking Farwell with him. The teamstopped dead. In the melee, the back of thesleigh tipped up and under the seat was anopen tin of cigarettes sprayed over us like10 BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORY - Vol. 39 No. 1
confetti at a wedding. I got out of the messimmediately but the Doc was lying under the tongueof the sleigh, between the horses, on his face and deadto the world.”Mike wrestled the big man from the brink ofthe bank and dumped him like a sack of potatoes intothe back of the sleigh, and continued onto the PotholeRanch [now part of the Gang Ranch].“The next day Doc Wright commented – ‘It’sa most curious thing; I’ve had a complete lapse ofmemory since the morning at the hotel’.”Diane French, in The Road Runs West, tellsanother story of Dr. Wright. “One December the menof Alexis Creek ordered liquor for themselves and hadit delivered to the hospital for safekeeping to keepthe many bottles secret from their wives. OnChristmas Day the men found that Dr. Wright haddrunk every drop.”Next to come to Alexis Creek was Dr. Charter,his wife and three sons and sister-in-law nurseNelmes. Things were cramped in the living quartersbut the Charters managed and made the adjustmentfrom their previous practice with the AnglicanMedical Mission in China. They took over in 1925.“One of Dr. Charter’s first duties was to accompanythe police, coroner and jurymen to attend an inquestinto the shooting of Alex Deschamps at the upper endof Chilko Lake.”The trip lasted 23 days by horse, sleigh androwboat. The group returned to Alexis Creek forChristmas, all were exhausted. The doctor sufferedthe most from fatigue and saddle sores, as he hadnever ridden a horse before.Dr. Charter and his family stayed until 1930 whenthey left for Vancouver where his sons attended UBC.Next were Dr Kniphel and nurse Foster butsoon they tired of the workload and isolation and werefollowed came a series of young men – DoctorsMcRae, Haugen and Oliver. Dr Haugen moved toArmstrong, BC, and practiced medicine there formany years.An English surgeon, Dr. Hallows came in 1938with two able nurses – Nan Hopkins and Ruby Craig.During this time Lord Nuffield of England donatedan ‘iron lung’ to the Alexis Creek Hospital. It sat in acorner and was never used, as Lord Nuffield hadn’trealized that the town of Alexis Creek had noelectricity. Dr Hallows left in 1945 and had the ironmachine shipped to the Vancouver General Hospitalwhere it was put to use during the polio epidemics ofthe 1940s and 50s.The provincial government paid a stipend of$1200.00 per year to keep the hospital open until theRed Cross took it over, renamed it the Alexis CreekRed Cross Hospital in 1949, improved the livingquarters, and installed central heating in this twowardhospital. Staffed by an English nurse practitionerLillian Whiteside from 1950 to1956 [otherwise knownas “old Whitesides”], the hospital served about 1500people including the Native people of the reserves atAnahim Lake. Stone, Redstone, Alexis Creek andNemiah Valley. Public Health nurses and Grey Nunnursing Sister Robert did yeoman service in thebackwoods country as visiting practitioners.Sister Robert was a competent and dedicatednurse and excellent diagnostician. I can remember herbringing in twelve Indian babies with meningitisduring a blizzard in January 1962 to the CaribooMemorial Hospital. Dr. Donald MacLean, SisterRobert the Campbell sisters and nursing staff andmyself looked after these babies for twelve days. Nobabies died thanks to the quick action of Sister Robert.I asked Sister Robert why she chose such an isolatedjob. Her reply was that she liked lonesome places andthe job satisfied her calling as a nurse. After fifteenyears the Catholic Church recalled Sister Robert fromthe Chilcotin to a cloistered retreat in Montrealbecause the churchmen felt she had lost contact withGod. When she left I never saw my friend again.There were many dedicated nurses over theyears and finally nurse- practitioner Marie Engelberttook over and has been a favorite of everyone for thepast few years.In 1979 an ambulance service was establishedin Alexis Creek with volunteer drivers. Patients weretransferred to the Cariboo Memorial Hospital inWilliams Lake.Nurse Engelbert says that, “with the ambulanceservice more babies are born in the ambulance thanin the hospital.” I can imagine women in labour inthe local ambulance careening down the manyswitchbacks on Sheep Creek hill to the Fraser RiverBridge then up the hill onto the hospital in WilliamsLake. This in itself would be a potent induction oflabour in any pregnant woman.The Alexis Creek Hospital with its Red CrossFlag out in front has been a beacon for those seekingmedical help. It has been a safe haven for all living ina frontier environment in the chilly Chilcotin. •ReferencesVeera Bonner, Irene E. Bliss andHazel Henry Litterick, Chilcotin:Preserving Pioneer Memories.(Surrey, B.C.: Heritage House,1995).Irene Stangoe, History andHappenings in the Chilcotin.(Surrey, B.C.:Heritage House,2000).Diane French, The Road RunsWest – A Century along the BellaCoola – Chilcotin Road.( MadeiraPark, B.C: Harbour Publishing,1994).The Williams Lake Tribune,January 5, 1973, January 17,1985.BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORY - Vol. 39 No. 1 11
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