The Fate of Father De Smet’s Cross

by Peter Ross

Reprinted from Mountain Heritage Magazine Summer 2000

It was the year 1865, and Jesuit missionary Father De Smet was nearing the end of a successful crusade to convert the native people of western North America to Christianity. His travels eventually took him north of the 49th parallel and into the camps of the Kootenay nations on the western slope of the Rockies. There he hears about the Stoneys who live in the Bow Valley — on the far side of the continental divide.

With Shuswap guides to lead him, De Smet made his way across the mountains to a place called “The Summit of the Cross River.” There, Father De Smet and his guides constructed a cross out of two fallen trees. They raised the cross to the glory of God and the success of their mission, and lo, it is visible far and wide — one of the first European landmarks in the region.

But despite its size and reputation, the cross disappears and the search for it by explorers, traders, surveyors and settlers becomes one of the first recorded quests of the Canadian Rockies. Alas, the cross has never been found. In part, the reason might be that the actual location — The Summit of the Cross River — is disputed. It seems to be somewhere near the continental divide between Windermere on the one side and Canmore on the other.

While the actual location remains and enigma, it may be that the mystery of the cross itself has been solved. The tale was told by Bill Round to a Catholic priest, Father O’Byrne, on an oral history tape from 1963 at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. In his tale, Bill Round explains that he is relating the words of Tom Wilson, legendary outfitter of the Rockies and the first European to lay eyes on Lake Louise. Round approaches the tale delicately as he had promised Wilson that he wouldn’t reveal the tale until Wilson had been dead for 25 years.

Father O’Byrne: What happened to Father De Smet’s cross at the head of the Cross River?

Bill Round: That is a question that a lot of people would like to know the answer to. It is a question your predecessor Father McGuiness tried hard to find out. I know that he made several trips to the Cross River. I did my best to convince him, without telling him the facts, that the trip would be useless. The reason I did that was because I made a promise to a certain man that I would not divulge [the truth] until he had been in his grave a certain number of years. That time is practically up. The man felt guilty, which he had no reason to do. To understand the question properly, we must go back into history: 1845 — Father De Smet — he was a missionary to the Kootenays down around Lake Windermere there. He decided to pay a visit to the Stoney Indians. It is believed, though we haven’t proof, that he crossed the Sinclair Pass, went down the Kootenay to a river that leads to the continental divide. He climbed with two Kootenay Indians. I had two De Smet’s journal in my home. I’m telling you what I’ve read from his own journals. He climbed the river to the summit. With great rejoicing, he prepared a cross and he planted it and he held some form of service. Maybe you could tell us what that would be, Father. I'm not conversant with your … I wouldn’t be Mass, would it?

Father O’Byrne: Hardly, under those conditions.

Bill Round: And with great rejoicing. And them he continued his trip. He went over the mouth of the Spray … [and] along the side of Spray Lakes along back of the Three Sisters and over to where the Calgary Power flume is today. Whiteman’s Pass [above Canmore] is clearly the summit of the river which he named Cross River before he planted the cross there — and Dawson, the geographer, held onto that name, the Cross River. So Tom Wilson wanted to go prospecting and enlisted the partnership of a man named Ed Barrett. They worked their way up the river and it was a very, very wet day in July. When they reached the summit, everything was soaking wet. They managed to get a little dry kindling, and then found a pole in the bush. They pulled it along to where it was dry, and all that night they took turns sleeping and keeping the fire going. As the log burned, they pulled it down to a new part. In the morning, they found at the end of it a crossbar. That was Father De Smet’s cross. Now that is the first time the story has been told.

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