A life that Swannell loved...
Remains of tripod from Swannell survey station along Thutade Lake
Leaving Victoria each spring, Swannell and his survey crew would spend at least six months in the field. For most of the time they lived in tents, away from the comforts of civilization.
They worked six days a week, and ten to twelve hours each day. Conditions were difficult, and the weather often inclement. The men had to adapt to the situations they faced, and overcome any obstacles they encountered.
Yet by all accounts from people who knew him, it was a life that Swannell loved.
Frank Swannell Career Highlights 1908-1911
Frank Cyril Swannell was born in Ontario in 1880. After graduating with a two-year degree in mining engineering from the University of Toronto in 1899, Swannell intended to work in mining in the Klondike gold fields. By the time he reached Victoria, BC, he realized that he did not have enough money to get to the Yukon, so he obtained a surveying job with Gore and McGregor.
Swannell articled under T.S. Gore and in 1903 received his Provincial Land Surveyor's license (PLS #75). The next year he received his DLS (Dominion Land Surveyor's) license. From 1901 to 1908 Swannell worked with Gore and McGregor on surveys throughout BC.
In 1908 Swannell decided to start surveying on his own. At times he worked in partnership with another surveyor, but he was always in charge of his own survey crew in the field. Most of his surveying was done on contract with the BC provincial government.
In 1908 Swannell worked in the Nechako Valley dividing the land into sections for settlers who were coming to farm in the area. He also did a triangulation survey of Fraser Lake and part of the Nechako River.
Swannell surveyed in the Pemberton and Lillooet area in spring 1909 before returning to continue surveying in the Nechako Valley. That summer he and George Copley took a canoe trip from the Nechako Valley up the Stuart River waterway to the head of Takla Lake.
In 1910 Swannell began his surveying in late March in the Whistler area. During the spring and early summer he surveyed in the Pemberton and Lillooet area, along with a Reserve at Seton Portage. In August Swannell and his crew took their famous trip with Captain Bonser on the sternwheeler Chilco to the upper Nechako River. During the late summer and fall Swannell and his crew worked on surveys in the upper Nechako and did a triangulation of Cheslatta Lake. Swannell also took two men with him to do the Great Circle tour of the lakes above the Grand Canyon of the Nechako.
During spring and early summer of 1911 Swannell completed some surveys in the Lillooet and Seton Lake areas, and finished his surveys of the upper Nechako River. Then he surveyed Native reserves at Bear Lake and Takla Lake. In the fall he did triangulation surveys of Hallett, Bentzi, and other lakes near the upper Nechako River before going to Cheslatta Lake to survey some Native reserves.