Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Chandler, Charles Ernest
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
[1867?]- February 8, 1946
History
Charles "Charlie" Ernest Chandler was one of the earliest of the Alta Lake settlers. Originally from Wisconsin, Charlie arrived in British Columbia to help solve his problem with the bottle, "to get the hell away out in the woods, some place where it wouldn’t be too handy”, in his words. On his arrival in 1908, Charlie pre-empted 160 acres on the north end of Alta Lake and spent three or four years improving the land in order to gain title from the Crown. In 1913, he sold ten acres to Alex and Myrtle Philip. He then moved further North and settled on land that is now the lower part of Alpine Meadows. There, he built a homestead and remained for the rest of his life. He operated a trapline on Wedge Creek running as far as Wedge Pass and a mile down the Billy Goat Creek on the Lillooet divide. Charlie trapped this line during the winter and did odd jobs during the summer. When he had a ‘stake’ he would head for town and blow it all, then come home and carry on with his basic lifestyle. Part of his income came from taking others along on his hunting trips. Charlie died peacefully sitting in his chair outside his home on February 8, 1946. When he was found, he was completely frozen. Unable to straighten him out, a number of Alta Lake residents carried Charlie, in his chair, down to a speeder on the railway tracks. He was transported by speeder to Rainbow Station, where he remained seated in his chair until the train arrived the next day. Dick Fairhurst recalled that Charlie’s friends threw a wake for him right there in Rainbow Station. The following morning, he was given a great send-off on the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, presumably still seated in his favourite chair.
Places
Wisconsin
Whistler
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Trapper
Tour guide
Hunter
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Catalogued December 2021.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
1) BC Archives Death Index
2) Archival material
3) Petersen, Florence. "First Tracks" Self-published.