The Bedaux Canadian Subarctic Expedition

Everyone said it couldn't be done, but Charles Bedaux tried anyway, and the result was the legendary Bedaux Subarctic Expedition of 1934.

The Bedaux expedition of 1934, also named the Bedaux Canadian Subarctic Expedition, was an attempt by eccentric French millionaire, Charles Eugène Bedaux, to cross the wilderness of the northern parts of Alberta and northern British Columbia in Canada, while making a film, testing Citroën half-track vehicles and generating publicity for himself. Bedaux set off on this unusual excursion accompanied by more than a hundred people, including his wife, his mistress (an Italian Countess), and an Academy Award-winning film director from Hollywood, Floyd Crosby, who would later be praised for his work on High Noon. Also along for the trip were several dozen Alberta cowboys and a large film crew. To map the route of the expedition, the Canadian government sent along two geographers, Frank Swannell and Ernest Lemarque. The expedition started off at Edmonton, Alberta on July 6, 1934 and their goal was to travel 1,500 miles (2,400 km) to Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. Much of the trip would have to be made through regions that were relatively uncharted and had no trails, not to mention proper roads that would have made the going smoother for the expedition's vehicles.

Bedaux was acquainted with car manufacturer, Andre Citroën, who designed the Citroën-Kégresse equipped half-track trucks that were used on the expedition. Of the five Citroëns that the party used, two slid off of cliffs and a third was used in a shot where it was put on a raft where it was supposed to meet a stick of dynamite and explode. However, the shot was ruined when the dynamite failed to explode and the truck floated down river and was stuck in a sandbar. The last two Citroëns were abandoned near Halfway River. When the Alaska Highway was built in the 1940s, a Fort St. John man discovered the remains of these last two half-tracks and one was donated to the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. The expedition began at Edmonton, moved to Athabasca and Grande Prairie and then into British Columbia to Dawson Creek, and Fort St. John. From there the expedition headed north to Montney and then northwest to Halfway River on to Whitewater Post over the Northern Rocky Mountains. From there, Bedaux had planned for the expedition to cross over the Sifton Pass, to Dease Lake and the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek, and ultimately the Pacific Ocean. However, this final leg of the trip was never completed.