Hudson's Hope is situated on the banks of the Peace River in North Eastern British Columbia. It is a small rural town of 1100 people, some 80kms from the nearest major Peace River city of Fort St. John and 375kms from the regional city of Prince George. After the exploratory adventures of Alexander Mackenzie and Simon Fraser in the later 1700’s, the Northwest Trading Company established a fur trading post here in 1805. Hudson’s Hope is home to one of the world’s largest earthen dams, the W.A.C. Bennett Dam and G.M.Shrum Generating Station. This dam stretches 2 kms across the Peace River creating B.C.’s largest reservoir, Williston Lake, covering 410,000 acres.


The museum site in winter

Museum Awarded BC Museums Association

Museums in Motion "Award of Merit”

The museum was thrilled to receive the BCMA “Museums in Motion:  Award of Merit” for the Bedaux project “Our Hudson’s Hope Cowboys: Packers on the Trail – a 75th anniversary celebration of the 1934 Charles Bedaux Expedition.”  The announcement was made at the BCMA Annual Conference in Osoyoos on October 16th. This was an exciting culmination for all the hard work put in by museum staff and volunteers from the community and further afield. 
   Ross Peck with BCMA Award

On October 17th, the museum’s annual fundraising “Harvest Social” rounded off the year of Bedaux related events with the theme: “The Bedaux Expedition: Coming Home to Hudson’s Hope.”  In October 1934, Bedaux abandoned his ill fated expedition and hired boatmen to take his entourage and crew from the Whitewater post  down the Peace River to Hudson’s Hope.  They arrived on October 18th and held a baseball game and a farewell dinner.

Supporters of the museum came from across the region and province to replicate this homecoming.  Relatives and community members took advantage of the mild weather and played a baseball game on the afternoon of the 17th.

     
Photo: Wally Harwood, Clark Lavallee, Ed Forrester, Dave Kyllo waiting their turn to read from the Bedaux cowboy’s diaries.

Later on, everyone enjoyed a fun evening of readings from the Bedaux cowboys as well as photos and film footage from the expedition.  Some even dressed the part and we appreciated having “Mr. & Mrs. Bedaux” in attendance (aka Kaspar Michel & Heidi Bolliger).

Copies of the Bannock & Beans book are available for purchase at the Hudson’s Hope Museum as well as Bedaux T shirts and limited edition copies of Frank Swannell’s map (with kind copyright permission from Lorne Swannell).