sentences:  In 1862, John Giscome and Harry McDame, approached the Lheidli T'enneh at Fort George regarding a suitable route to the Peace River Country, where the two men planned to prospect for gold.The next year, a guide from the tribe led them across the nine-mile-long portage and John Giscome later wrote an article for a Victoria newspaper.Despite the newspaper coverage, the trail saw little use until the height of the Omineca Gold Rush in 1871, when nearly 400 miners successfully petitioned the government to build a wagon road over the portage to facilitate travel to the goldfields.