In 1887, disputes which arose between white settlers and local
Ktunaxa people over land ownership in the Kootenay region caused
alarm among the white residents of the region. The settlers had
always been highly outnumbered by Ktunaxa in the Kootenays, but a
particularly serious dispute with Colonel James Baker inflamed the
Ktunaxa in the late 1880's. The disagreement between Baker and the
Ktunaxa regarded ownership of Joesph's Prairie, which was a very
important Ktunaxa gathering place and the site of present-day
Cranbrook. The quarrel over ownership of Joseph's Prairie, however,
was simply one of many long-standing grievances regarding the
injustice of pre-emptions and other dealings between whites and the
Ktunaxa.
Nervous settlers, believing the threat of an Indian uprising to
be quite real, made petitions to the federal and provincial
governments for protection. This action resulted in 'D' Division of
the North-West Mounted Police being assigned to the Kootenay
region. In the late summer of 1887, Superintendent Samuel Benfield
Steele with three officers and 75 men marched into British Columbia
to establish the NWMP's first post west of the Rocky
Mountains.
During the NWMP’s brief stay, at what was later to be named Fort
Steele, four young constables became sick and died from what was at
the time diagnosed as “Putrid Malignant Fever” or “Slow Nervous
Fever”. This was later assumed to have been Typhoid Fever. These
constables were initially buried closer to the Kootenay River and
were subsequently moved so as to be in the Fort Steele Cemetery.
Another officer succumbed to typhoid when he committed suicide
while delirious with the fever. These five gravesites will be found
close together enclosed within a steel fence.
You will need to visit the graves of these NWMP constables to
enable you to answer the following questions and so locate the
cache’s final resting place.
Cst. H. Mitchell’s age AB
Cst. H. Mitchell’s date of death Dec YZ 1887
Cst. A.W. Fisher’s age CD
Cst. H.O. Lasmby’s date of death Sept EF GHIJ
Cst. A.W. Fisher’s date of death Oct KL MNOP
Cst. J. Mason’s age QR
Cst. J. Mason’s date of death Oct ST UVWX
The cache is hidden at:
N 49 BD.LRR
W 115 BP.BTZ
KR
