Bute Inlet Route
The British Colonist, May 6, 1861

May 6, 1861

Exertions are being made by some of our public-spirited citizens to start an exploring party on the Bute Inlet route to Fort Alexandria. The expedition will start in a few weeks, or as soon as the snow on the mountains may not interpose any difficulty to the explorers. It is very desirable that our citizens lend a hearty support to the enterprise. If no other good results from the expedition but the exploration of the belt of country from Bute Inlet to Chilcoaten and Alexandria it will amply repay the trifling outlay. The prospective advantages are, however, much greater, and should a practicable route be discovered it will have a direct tendency to benefit Victoria. Without professing to possess any accurate knowledge of the intervening country between the head of Bute Inlet and Chilcoaten, we can only state that as far as the geography of the proposed route is concerned, it is certainly shorter and more direct than any previous route heretofore projected from the Northwest Coast to the interior.

To test its practicability, and discover whether it will supercede the routes via Fraser River to Alexandria, is a matter of pressing necessity. So far as the people of Cariboo are concerned, they want the most direct and shortest route to be opened through which to convey their supplies. As Victoria is the supplying point, her interest in the matter is as great as that of the Cariboo. Moreover, if a land route by Bute Inlet 250 miles long to Cariboo can be opened, the Portland route of 710 to 750 miles, is rendered worse than useless for the transportation of supplies to the Northern mines. As it is, the Fraser River route is far less expensive, is shorter, and takes less time than the Dalles route; and after the present season the latter trail will not be of much account. To make it wholly impossible for Oregon to send supplies overland to compete with our merchants, should be our fixed policy; and so far as our limited information of a coast route enables us to judge, we are inclined to the opinion that Bute Inlet may prove all we could wish to give us the entire command of the northern trade, without any chance of competition.