Welcome Up River!

Up River is an historical fiction by Denton Pendergast that strings a narrative of the actual life of Captain William Moore (1825-1909) from one of some 300 researched facts on to the next. From a cabin boy’s berth in the tumultuous North Sea schooner trade to the founding of Skagway, Alaska, the story documents the captain’s far-reaching exploits in the age of muscle, steam, and determination.

From his Mississippi steamboat service to the Sierra Nevada rush of ‘49, we follow the skipper, his wife Hendrica, and their growing family south to Peru in search of Incan treasure, up to Haida Gwaii for the ill-fated rush of 1850, then through British Columbia’s Fraser, Cariboo, Stikine, Big Bend, and Ominica gold rushes, followed ultimately by the Yukon’ Klondike rush. 

The captain takes us aboard his steamboats, schooners, sailing barges, river scows, and canoes while he challenges the Fraser River, west coast tidal waters and challenges uncharted rivers as the wild Columbia District matures into the province of British Columbia.

Though the number and scope of the skipper’s accomplishments are worthy of legend, their current lack of documentation is surprising. Other than Norman Hacking’s excellent 1993 chapbook Captain William Moore: B.C.’s Amazing Frontiersman and a rather comprehensive Wikipedia entry, there has been little to celebrate the captain’s impact on our province during the latter half of the 19^th Century.

Up River is an attempt to connect us to the captain, his family, and the heroism that helped create today’s British Columbia.