Exhibited:

Milton and Cheadle’s Great Adventure, Jonny’s Antiques, Shakespeare (with label, #7)

Note:

The Trail At An End (Dessert Plate 7)
“In the place we are it is very difficult to find a road; rivers on all sides & sand banks frequently flooded leave no trace. We must have a thorough investigation tomorrow & find out where the Americans went & if there is an Indian trail forward to Kamloops – It now became quite plain that many of the American party at any rate had become weary of the difficulties of the road & had made canoes & rafts to go down the river. They had also killed up their oxen & dried the meat, for their was a large chapeau for that purpose – What had they done with their horses? We were tremendously non-plussed at this event, as the road appeared at an end.”
July 29th 1863, Cheadle’s Journal, pages 193-4 (2 days after Milton’s 24th birthday)

The expedition followed the trail blazed the previous year by a group of over 200 heading to the gold fields. Known as the Overlanders (referred to as ‘the Americans’ by Milton & Cheadle), they had crossed the Rockies, some travelling down the Fraser River, others along the North Thompson to Kamloops; most eventually reached the Cariboo gold rush. Catherine Shubert, the only woman in the group, went into labour on a raft on the Thompson River and gave birth to her fourth child, Rose, in Kamloops. Her family remained in British Columbia, becoming part of the fascinating history of that province’s settlement.