Luxor Creek Outfitters - British Columbia Big Game Hunts & Guide Outfitting

An excerpt from "The Eastern Kootenay - A History of Exploration & Adventure," by Ken Tyson.

The first explorers and fur trappers, were soon followed into the wilderness of the Canadian Rockies by several pioneering naturalists who studied the plants and fauna. Others, such as adventurers and religious missionaries continued to explore the area through the mid-1800s.

In 1858, Scottish geologist and naturalist Sir James Hector led a group of the Palliser Expedition, the first formal survey of the area by the British Columbia government, into the Kootenay region within the vicinity of modern-day Luxor Creek Outfitters. Hector's party journeyed south from the Bow Valley, through Vermilion Pass, and followed the Vermilion River to its confluence with the Kootenay River. From here, the group headed north, following the Kootenay River directly across the northern portion of Luxor Creek Outfitters to the Beaverfoot River, and finally arrived at what would later be known as the Kicking Horse River.


	While Sir Hector's group was struggling east, one of the packhorses fell into the river whilst trying to navigate around fallen timber. Hector described what happened next: "The banks were so steep that we had great difficulty in getting him out. In attempting to recatch my own horse, which had strayed off while we were engaged with the one in the water, he kicked me in the chest, but I had luckily got close to him before he struck out, so that I did not get the full force of the blow." Hector's guide continued the tale: "We all leapt from our horses and rushed up to him, but all our attempts to help him recover his senses were to no avail. . . Dr. Hector must have been unconscious for at least two hours when Sutherland yelled for us to come up; he was now conscious but in great pain." Hector's party was so convinced that the injury to their leader was mortal that they dug a grave and almost buried him alive, it it wasn't for the blinking of his eyes. The group was already experiencing extreme hardship and was on the brink of starvation, so they left Hector for dead and continued on, eating wild blueberries along the way until one of the men was able to shoot a moose, which provided sustenance for them. Hector, however, did not die, and

and later recovered. The river where his close brush with death occurred was known ever after as the Kicking Horse River.

The Palliser Expedition itself was led by Captain John Palliser, from 1857 - 1860, with the goal of leading a group of scientists and naturalists to explore the unknown territory to the west of modern Manitoba. Officially titled the British North American Exploring Expedition, Palliser's group was given the task by the government to map and explore the plains between the North Saskatchewan River and the American border, and also to locate passes through the southern portion of the Canadian Rockies. John Palliser himself was not a scientist, but instead had an extensive background in wilderness travel and hunting in the western United States. His assigned task was to organize and lead the expedition, while the entourage of British scientists completed the desired work for the government.

Sometime in 1858, the Expedition first approached the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. With no real map to guide them, and virtually everything un-named and un-explored, the vastness of

of the mountainous spectacle that stretched out before them must have been overwhelming. Palliser divided his group into smaller parties to explore different parts of the Rockies. John Palliser himself sought out the headwaters of the Kananaskis River, and then followed what would later be known as the Palliser River down to the Kootenay River. Thomas Blakiston travelled to the area of Waterton Lakes, and then crossed through the Kootenay and South Kootenay Passes. Sir Hector, whose misfortune led to the naming of the Kicking Horse River, took the route from the Bow Valley, down the Kootenay River, and then north into what is now Yoho National Park.

The legacy of the Palliser Expedition was the drafting of the first maps of the Canadian Rockies in western Alberta and the East Kootenay region of British Columbia, as well as the first detailed description of the geologic structures west of the Great Lakes. The group also named many of the features, generally after friends and colleagues, political figures who supported the Expedition, or even from pure imagination, such as the naming of Molar Mountain.