Coal Creek: A Short Social History of the Fernie Region

Michael Phillipps, one-time Hudon's Bay Company trader at Tobacco Plains, arrived in southeastern B.C. just as the placer-mining camps were opening in 1864. While he was employed by the Company, he spent many of his "off-seasons" exploring the adjacent valleys, and after leaving "the service" in 1869, he remained in the area. While he was not needed at work, he trapped, prospected and occasionaly [sic], worked for the Provincial Govt. When the Reservation system was established in B.C., he became the first Indian Agent in the Kootenays. But perhaps his greatest fame derives from his record of the first European use of the Crow's Nest Pass, which he discovered in 1873 - the only pass which was first traversed and opened west to east.