Arthur Oliver Wheeler

 Arthur Oliver Wheeler was born in Kilkenny (The Rocks, Maddoxtown) on 1st May 1860. 

The Rocks

After attending school in Dublin and Galway he spent two years in Dulwich College in London from age fourteen. Emigrating to Canada with his family in 1876 he lived in the town of Colingwood, a port on Lake Huron, until he went to work for the Surveyor General of Canada, Dr Edouard Deville who was pioneering the use of photography as a means of land surveying.  Wheeler was to be one of the pioneers in this work.

After qualifying as a surveyor in 1881 he spent some time working in the prairie provinces around Winnipeg and Saskatchewan.  He enjoyed travelling by canoe and became an expert in handling the craft and was impressed by the vast lonely spaces of the region - the 'Great Lone Land' as portrayed by William Francis Butler.

In 1885 the North West Rebellion (Riel Rebellion) took place; an armed resistance movement by the Metis, and first nations of  Cree and Assiniboine that was suppressed by the Canadian Militia.  Wheeler had joined a special Surveyors Corp and was wounded in action.

from 'Wheeler'
by Esther Fraser

In 1888 he married Clara Macoun, the daughter of another Irish immigrant and their son Edward Oliver was born in 1890.  The family moved west to Calgary where Arthur spent the next decade working as a surveyor.  By this time the Canadian Pacific Railway had been completed and the company was  encouraging mountaineers from Europe and the United States to use its services to reach the spectacular mountains of the Selkirks and Rocky ranges.  Chalets were built at Glacier House, Swiss mountain guides were hired to assist aspiring climbers and in 1901 it even 'persuaded the great Edward Whymper to spend a season  in the Rockies - the "Lion of the Matterhorn" would make headlines'.

Their meeting on a westbound train may have inspired Wheeler to use the services of experienced mountain guides in his survey work, carrying heavy photographic equipment on the high, glaciated summits in the Selkirk range.  He was thrilled and excited by his first venture on to a glacier.  The Swiss guides were employed for the higher climbs but by 1902 Wheeler had mastered the climbing techniques and of thirty five high camera stations only two required the assistance of the guides.  He made a number of First Ascents, notably Mt Oliver  (8,379ft) and Mt Wheeler (11.023ft).  The first was named for his son, Oliver, who accompanied him on the climb and the latter he, without modesty, named for himself!

Mt Wheeler.  Wikipedia

The purpose of the two year Selkirk survey was to provide accurate maps and information for the ever increasing number of climbers and explorers in the region.  The Selkirk Range was his report of all that was known about every aspect of the range and was published in 1905 and by this time Wheeler was acquiring a distinct reputation among the climbing fraternity.

Through his meetings with some of the renowned visiting mountaineers (particularly Edward Whymper of Matterhorn fame) Wheeler became convinced of the value of a national mountaineering club. Others supported him in this; a countrywide campaign was launched and in 1906 the Alpine Club of Canada was founded. Arthur Wheeler was elected its first President, a position he held (under the title of Managing Director) until 1926. He also acted as editor of the club's Alpine Journal for the twenty years up to 1927.  Although others were certainly involved in the club's foundation, it is claimed that "... without Wheeler, Canada would have had to wait a long time for an Alpine Club"  In a publication to mark the centenary of the discovery of the Columbia Icefield it is recorded that "the people of Canada owe a special debt to A.O. Wheeler for the important role he played in expanding the boundaries of Jasper National Park to include a large part of the Columbia Icefield."

In the winter of 1907/8 Arthur visited Europe. He attended the Alpine Club's Jubilee celebration dinner in London and went on to make his only recorded climb in Swiss Alps.  He also took the opportunity to visit the place of his birth and took a stroll on the banks of the River Nore at his childhood home. In the following years he disposed of his remaining property in Kilkenny thus severing the last direct link with this country and setting his roots firmly in Western Canada. 

He continued his work with the Alpine Club of Canada for some years after his retirement. He died in 1945 in Banff, British Columbia, where he rests in Banff cemetery among the mountains he loved.

Wheeler home near Banff,
before demolition.

Courtesy: Whyte Museum, Banff

         

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Mapping of Ireland

Recorded mountains
 to 1700

 The mountains of Ireland appeared and were named on maps of the island as early as 1572.

John de Courcy has detailed the summits that appear on maps up to 1700.

(see Mountaineering Ireland. IMEHS Journal, Vol 2, 2005)

Charles Vallencey produced a military survey
of parts of the island around 1780.

Various land owners produced estate maps of their property and it was William Edgeworth, who had been involved in the Bogs Commission survey, that produced a trigonometrical survey of Co Longford and part of Roscommon. With him, 'native Irish cartography attained a new high level'.  Alexander Nimmo, for the same survey, produced a comprehensive map of the Kerry region in 1811.

                    

                                                      

See Finnian O Cionnaith Land Surveying in Ireland 1690-1830  for details of earlier surveyors.

      

In 1824 the six-inch Ordnance Survey mapping of Ireland was begun under Thomas Colby. As a consequence the surveyors were the first group to systematically get to all the significant mountain summits on the island. 

Principal triangulation
with dates.

 There is hardly a prominent peak that does not bear evidence of this in the ubiquitous 'trig pillars' that are familiar to hikers and are the result of 'retriangulation' carried out in the 1950s and '60s. 

Ireland was the first country to be completely mapped at a scale of  6 inches to a mile.

Much discussion  took place as to the merits of contour lines or hachuring to represent altitude and slope and it was not until about 1890 that the complete hill edition was produced.

A full account of the operation and proceedings of the OS in 19th Century Ireland is given by 

JH Andrews in  A Paper Landscape.

Thomas Colby was the director of the OS in Ireland  and John O' Donovan played 

John O'Donovan

an important role in the toponymical aspects of the survey.  'The OS made a crucial contribution to scholarship. Its work on antiquities, the Irish language and literature was of immense importance because it studied...sources (many for the first time) using the new scientific methodologies of contemporary European scholarship.'  G.M Doherty The Irish Ordnance Survey

Of course, the surveyors climbed the mountains for professional reasons rather than for recreation.  However, their activities may have had an influence on a generation of people that became interested in the activity of surveying, some of whom carried this interest abroad to Europe and North America and carried out surveys of their own in these places.  Among such people were John Palliser, Anthony Adams Reilly, Edward Oliver Wheeler and there will be more about these to follow.

A fascinating 'biography of the Ordnance Survey' is Map of a Nation by Rachel Hewitt (Granta, 2010)

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John Palliser

 John Palliser was a landlord who lived at Comragh House, just south of the Comeragh Mountains a large swathe of which was part of his property and  where he was known to have hunted and hiked. 

Taken in Rome

He was an 'adventurer' and his large extended family lived, not only on their Irish estates, but also in Dublin, London and Rome and were widely travelled in Europe. 

In 1847/8 he undertook an 11 month long hunting trip to Missouri Country in the United Sates and overwintered there with the native peoples.

However, it is his later exploits in North America that are of interest here.  This became known as the Palliser Expedition, or more formally 'The British North American Exploring Expedition' that took place from 1857-60.  Palliser's plan for the expedition was put before the Royal Geographical Society (RGS).  The RGS was interested , extended the plan and laid it before the Colonial Office of the Westminster Parliament, with a request for funding.  

It was supported by the under-secretary of state for the colonies, John Ball ( mountaineer and friend of Palliser's - more about him later), and two members were recommended by Sir Edward Sabine (born in Dublin) and Dr Edward Purcell (of Royal Naval College Greenwich, born in Cork) - Thomas W Blakiston and John W Sullivan respectively.

Purcell Range

The expedition had a number of aims but that of greatest interest here is the investigation of possible passes through the Rocky Mountains in British territory.  In the three seasons of work, the explorers had,  along with much else, traversed six passes through the southern Rockies.  Although no attempts were made to climb summits many months were spent exploring and travelling through the mountains of western Canada.

(see Mountaineering Ireland. IMEHS Journal, Vol 1, 2002;  From Comeragh to Calgary)

Although not 'mountaineering' in a modern sense the expedition left its mark on the Rocky Mountains. The expedition members were among the first Europeans to venture into these regions of the Rockies and as such they provided many topographical features with the English names they still bear (e.g. Mounts Ball, Rundle, Bourgeau and Murchison; Cascade and Grotto Mountains; Palliser and  Fairholme Ranges, Purcell Range, Palliser River and Lake, along with many others).

To John Palliser, the expedition was not only a matter of serious exploration but also a journey 'in search of adventure and heavy game'.  A niece of his wrote, many years later, 'the months he spent in the wilds... were among the happiest of his life'.

This Irishman led an expedition that had long lasting effects on the region and a distant cousin of his (A.O Wheeler) greatly influenced mountaineering in that part of North America.

Furthermore, he was not the first, nor the earliest Irishman to explore the mountain regions of North America.  Some of these were the 'Mountain Men' of the American west.

More about all these to follow.

Map detail

Expedition Map

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People involved (a list with links)

The following are some of the people involved with mountains, mainly during the 19th Century.  There will be further additions to the list in due course.

 John Ball                                                                1 Mary Burtchell

 Charles Barrington                                                 2 Susan Gavan Duffy

 Richard Barrington                                                 3 Elizabeth Hawkins-Whithed

 James Bryce                                                           4 Elizabeth Le Blond

 Edmund Burke                                                       5 Mrs Main

 Arthur David Mc Cormick                                      6 Mary Tighe

 Richard Cotter                                                         7 Beatrice Tomasson  

Frederick Fitzjames Cullinan                                     8 Louisa Tyndall

Maxwell Cormac Cullinan                                         9. Frederica Plunkett                                                  

 Darby Field                                                                                                                        

Tom Fitzpatrick  

Robert Fowler                                                         

Robert James Graves

William Spottswood Green

Ewart Grogan

 Henry Chichester Hart

Brian Merriman

John Palliser

Richard Pococke

Anthony Adams Reilly

Henry Russell

Henry Swanzy

John Tyndall

Buck Whaley

Arthur Oliver Wheeler

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Henry Swanzy

Henry Swanzy (1841-1906) was a scion of the family of Henry Swanzy who came to Ireland with the army of William III (of Orange) in 1689 and settled in Co Monaghan.  His father (also Henry) was curate in Youghal in 1835 when he married Elizabeth Green (aunt of Willliam S Green).  Henry, born in December, 1841,  was cousin (once removed) to the latterly famous artist Mary Swanzy and was Rector of Castlemagner, Co Cork, for 35 years.

There seems to be very little information available on his early years.  He attended Mr Wall's school in Portarlington for a time and then Rathmines School under Mr Benson, before entering Trinity College in 1861 from where  he graduated BA in 1865 and MA in 1868. Ordained Deacon in 1866, then priest in 1868, he was curate in Kilshannig from 1866 to 1871.

His first foray to the Alps was in 1870 when he joined his cousin, W.S. Green and another Irish clerical gentleman, J.S. Lyle, and climbed the Brevant.  They went on that season to cross a number of Switzerland's notable passes (Col d'Herens, Adler and Grimsel Passes) and climbed two 4,000m peaks - Finsteraarhorn and Monte Rosa, with eminent guides, Alexander Burgener and Peter Knubel.

There appears to be little mountain activities in the following years. However as a member if the British Association for the Advance of Science (now the British Science Association) he is likely to have had a serious interest in scientific matters and when that association held its annual meeting in Canada in 1884 he attended, along with another Irish climber and naturalist Richard M. Barrington.  In a post conference excursion they travelled to Lake Louise (Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Railway) from where Swanzy and Barrington continued on foot on the proposed route of the rail line through 170 miles of the Rocky Mountains. The trek took 17 days, crossing the Roger's Pass to Shuswap Lakes and Kamloops.

The Canadian mountains may have greatly impressed him for in 1888, at his suggestion and along with his cousin, W.S Green, he set off again in what was probably the first all Irish expedition team to explore and map any mountain range outside Europe. They spent from mid July to early September in the mountains, much of the time surveying the hitherto unexplored part of the Selkirk Range 'lying immediately south of the Canadian Pacific railway track and enclosed by the highest peaks of the Selkirks' in the region of the Illecillewaet Glacier.  It was particularly difficult terrain, especially below the tree line and on one occasion they spent seven hours in travelling 1.5 miles.

On Mt Bonney

Swanzy hunting.

Swanzy leading

 They used pack horses to carry their 'gear' and sought the   services of a 'packer'.  When 'some mighty hunter expressed   a desire to join us...when he heard we were two parsons he "chucked it up" in disgust... he would have to knock off   swearing for a month and that that was utterly impossible". 
 When their badly packed horse took a fall, smashing much   of  their technical equipment, they would have given their   erstwhile packer "permission to swear for five minutes   without stopping".

(Illustrations from Among the Selkirk Glaciers, Aquila Books, Calgary - reprint)

Despite such misadventures  they completed the survey, made a first ascent of a 3,000m summit (they named Mt Bonney for the Alpine Club president) and named numerous topographical features that retain the name to this day (Mounts Dawson, Fox, Donkin, Deville -later changed to Selwyn, Macoun - for Prof John Macoun, Dominion Botanist and Naturalist who assisted them, born in Co Down in 1831). Marion Lake was named for Green's daughter and Lily Glacier for Swanzy's daughter.  Mount Swanzy (1895) and Mt Green (by A.O.Wheeler) were later named in their honour.

After their survey work they spent time in the Lake Louise area and it was at their suggestion that an hotel be located there that resulted in the subsequent construction of what is now Chateau Lake Louise.

https://www.chateau-lake-louise.com/

Further details of the survey are available in Frank Nugent's In search of Peaks, Passes and Glaciers

On their return to Ireland it was Green who gained fame as a result of the expedition from his lectures and the resulting book Among the Selkirk Glaciers. Swanzy seems to have faded into relative obscurity and it might be wondered if they ever hiked again in the mountains of Cork and Kerry in Ireland.

  

Mt Swanzy. Wikipedia

Mt Green. Wikipedia

                                                                                                  

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