Kicking Horse Pass, B.C.

Drawing

-

The Union Club of British Columbia

Note: Harris pastel image of the Pass to be added.: Hon. Donald A. Smith driving the last spike to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway [Craigellachie B.C., Canada]. Reproduction from photograph by Alexander James Ross (1851-1894), Best & Co., Winnipeg, , Nov. 7, 1885. Key figures depicted are CPR director Donald Smith (later Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal) driving the spike, and to Smith's right - the then CPR general manager William Van Horne (dark beard) and the then surveyor and company director Sandford Fleming (white beard) From Library and Archives Canada (Item ID number 3194527)
Note: Harris pastel image of the Pass to be added.

Hon. Donald A. Smith driving the last spike to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway [Craigellachie B.C., Canada]. Reproduction from photograph by Alexander James Ross (1851-1894), Best & Co., Winnipeg, , Nov. 7, 1885. Key figures depicted are CPR director Donald Smith (later Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal) driving the spike, and to Smith's right - the then CPR general manager William Van Horne (dark beard) and the then surveyor and company director Sandford Fleming (white beard) From Library and Archives Canada (Item ID number 3194527)

Name/Title

Kicking Horse Pass, B.C.

Entry/Object ID

2024.12.06

Description

IN PROCESS Drawing Landscape of Kicking Horse Pass, B.C.

Type of Drawing

Pastel on paper

Artwork Details

Medium

Pastel on paper

Subject Place

Region

Pacific Northwest

Continent

North America

Context

The legendary Kicking Horse Pass (el. 1,627 m) is a high Rocky Mountain pass located in Banff and Yoho National Parks of Canada, the highest point of the Trans-Canada Highway. The Kicking Horse Pass National Historic Site of Canada is a major rail and highway transportation corridor across the Continental Divide of the Americas in the Canadian Rockies. Spectacular mountain scenery frames this transportation corridor on either side. This corridor is part of the Trans-Canada Highway, Canada's principal highway and the world’s longest national road, extending between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts across the country for over 7,800 km between Victoria (Vancouver Island, B.C. and St. John’s (Newfoundland, Nfld. and Labrador). First Nations had long known and used this pass, but it was first explored by Europeans in 1858 by the Palliser Expedition. Both the pass and the adjacent river were named Kicking Horse after James Hector, surgeon to the expedition, was kicked by a horse. The pass was little used until after 1881 when the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) decided to confirm it as their route through the Rockies. Thus, the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was constructed between Lake Louise, Alberta and Field, B.C. using this southerly Kicking Horse Pass route in 1884, in preference to the original survey proposal through the more northerly and less direct Yellowhead (Leather) Pass. This opened B.C. to the rest of Canada by rail, and later highway (1962), and radically affected the development of the West. The ceremonial "Last Spike" of this railway was driven at Craigellachie, B.C. on November 7, 1885 with the first transcontinental train arriving the following day in Port Moody, B.C.. On July 4, 1886, the first regular passenger train arrived from Montreal, thus “completing the bond of union and making Canada independent in the matter of railway transportation” (Parks Canada : Completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway National Historic Event - see Web Links). _______________________ The story of how Canada was forged into one nation by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway was recounted in Pierre Berton's renowned 1958 book, "The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885", available in the UCBC Library.

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

R.H. Harris

Role

Artist

Date made

1934

Time Period

20th Century

Notes

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Further research is needed.

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type

Date, Signature, Label

Location

Signed and dated lower right: R. Harris '34 Verso frame - Label (printed): Hudson's Bay Company ART Department 891 WINNIPEG Label (handwritten): Kicking Horse Pass, B.C. Original Pastel painting by R.H. Harris Winnipeg.1934

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Visible

Height

26.4 cm

Width

21.4 cm

Acquisition

Acquisition Method

Purchase

Date

Sep 11, 2018

Notes

Lunds Lot #173

Relationships

Related Entries

Notes

2015.04.07 Portrait of Sir William Van Horne (1843-1915), President of the Canadian Pacific Railway

Web Links and URLs

Parks Canada: Kicking Horse Pass National Historic Site of Canada, Parks Canada: Completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway National Historic Event, Canadian History Ehx: The Kicking Horse Pass, Revelstoke Railway Museum

Copyright

Notes

Images are provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these images must be obtained from the copyright holder. It is the sole responsibility of the applicant to determine the copyright holder and to obtain permission(s) as needed.