Joe Trulson’s Park
by Stan Rough as originally published in the booklet Along the Totem Trail
Kleanza Creek 13 miles east of Terrace on Highway 16 has one of the most attractive Government Picnic and Campsites in the Province. Kleanza, the Gitksan word for gold, has its source in the Bornite Mountains and wends its way through narrow valleys and canyons 20 miles before reaching the Skeena. It is one of a number of creeks in the area that over the years have been prospected and pack trails cut to claims. The other creeks are Chimdemash, St. Croix and Legate. The Copper or Zymoetz River area has also been prospected and a trail between Copper City and Telkwa was in use for a time. As a matter of fact the Copper River Valley was once considered as a possible route for the railroad.
The development of the Kleanza Creek Campsite is the story of 80 year old Joe Trulson who came from Sweden to America in 1900. For a number of years he worked on railway construction in the States, Canada and Alaska.
In 1928 he took up placer mining and panned for gold on Graham Island in the Queen Charlottes and on Fiddler and Gold Creeks, also around Doreen on the Skeena, making as he put it “Just enough to buy bacon and get by.” His supplies consisted of flour, sugar, salt and for the rest he lived off the country. “I never went on relief” he states proudly. For many years he prospected the Gold Creek area and made his headquarters in a cabin half a mile above the canyon.
In 1945 he had a heart attack and decided prospecting over the rugged terrain was too strenuous. “I was sick and at the same time lonesome so I decided to keep myself busy”, he told me when I visited him at his cabin in Usk.
“Keep busy” resulted in a picnic and campsite that has afforded pleasure for thousands over the years.
Around 1917 a company known as Cassier Hydraulic built a road to the foot of the canyon on the creek and by a series of switchbacks pushed it to the top of the ridge which now serves as a lookout. C. W. D. Clifford, one of the promoters of the proposed Kitimat Railway in 1906, was one of the prime movers. Over this road they hauled their machinery and skidded it down the opposite side. No gold in paying quantities was discovered and the project was abandoned. A flood later washed the machinery into the canyon where some of it can still be seen today.
In the 1930’s three men from Bella Coola built the cabin that now stands near the foot of the canyon, generally considered by the romantic public to be a trappers cabin. After using up a barrel of gas and a drum of oil on a pump that was supposed to pump pay dirt from the bottom of the creek the party gave up when little gold was produced.
The land on the east side of Kleanza Creek was a dense thicket when Joe Trulson started on his project to keep busy. With a wheelbarrow he hauled gravel to repair the overgrown tote road and filled in hollows, many of them several feet deep, for campsites. He cleaned out thickets of devils club and salmon berries year after year until they gave up the battle against the persistent Swede.
He cut out the dead trees and sawed the branches off the others “as high as I could reach” he explains. More roads were built, every yard of fill being brought from the creek in the wheelbarrow. At each campsite Joe made an outdoor grill using scrounged metal for the cross pieces and, with salvaged lumber, picnic tables and benches were made.
From early spring until freeze up Joe worked with pick, shovel, and a beach was dug out of the bank at the foot of the canyon.
The trail to the top of the bluff was cleared and repaired by wheelbarrow, brush knife and saw. In the winter he moved from the cabin in his park to one above the canyon.
Each year an increasing number of people discovered the beautiful spot to picnic and camp. Being half a mile off the highway beside the clear cold stream it had a special appeal to many. Here was a place where one could relax in surroundings that were unspoiled and natural.
E. T. Kenny then the M.L.A. was interested in Joe Trulson and his park and arranged for the Provincial Government to take it over as a Public Campsite. He was anxious that it be named after its creator but Joe Trulson refused. “It’s for people to enjoy, the name means nothing” is his verdict.
From 1954. to 1957 Joe was on the Government payroll for several months, two or three days a week, the rest of the time he worked for the love of it.
For the past three years Joe has retired permanently to his cabin at Usk where he works in his garden and listens to his radio. I asked him if he ever was in Kitimat. “No” he said “I thought of going there in 1905 when there was talk of a railway in there but it folded up. I went to Rupert instead and found only one cabin so I shacked up at Port Essington until the spring when things picked up and I took a fill contract.”
One of these days I’m going to take him to Kitimat to see the sights. It won’t be a big deal affair for Joe Trulson is not impressed by big production, red carpet affairs.
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More information about Kleanza Creek Park can be found at the BC Parks website: Kleanza Creek Park
