Walter Moberly

Walter Moberly

Walter Moberly (born August 15, 1832 in Steeple Aston , England , † May 14, 1915 in Vancouver ) was a British-Canadian engineer and explorer .

Walter Moberly was in Steeple Aston, County Oxfordshire born; however, his parents moved to Penetanguishene , Ontario in 1834 , where he attended elementary school. After attending high school in Barrie , he first worked on building the railway in Collingwood . He became a lumberjack and timber dealer, for which he bought forests near Essa, Tossorontio and Muskoka. In addition, he worked in the context of the development of the American West, mainly in what is now British Columbia and Utah .

The area of ​​today's city of New Westminster near Vancouver was the first work as a surveyor in British Columbia, from 1861 to 1864 he was busy with the surveying of various roads on behalf of the colonial government of British Columbia. Together with Edgar Dewdney he explored and built the Dewdney Trail from Hope to the Okanagan Valley , the predecessor of today's Crowsnest Highway . He was then involved in the construction of a section of the Cariboo Road north of Lytton in the Fraser River Canyon.

His most significant discovery came in 1865 when he was assistant surveyor for the colony of British Columbia. While looking for a transition over the Monashee Mountains between Shuswap Lake and the Columbia River valley, he discovered the 550 meter high Eagle Pass , which is now used by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Trans-Canada Highway .

From 1865 to 1871 he was busy exploring and surveying various mining projects in Utah .

After British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871 , Lieutenant Governor Joseph Trutch Moberly called back with a request to explore a route for the railroad, where he was active in the area between Eagle Pass, Revelstoke and Golden . The chief engineer of the railroad project, Sanford Fleming , sent Moberly with his crew to Yellowhead Pass for the 1872 season , which led to Moberly ending his work for the railroad project and retiring into private life.

The discovery of a transition over the Selkirk Mountains in 1882 by Albert Bowman Rogers - which followed a route through the valley of the Illecillewaet River suspected by Moberly as early as 1871 - in the 1,330-meter-high Rogers Pass named after him, set Moberly's fame back, but became during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the site of the ceremonial setting of the last sleeper nail in Craigellachie, the Eagle Pass, was recognized as a decisive discovery.

Moberly Lake in northern British Columbia was named after fur trader Henry John Moberly (1835-1931), Walters younger brother.

Web links

• Walter Moberly ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .