Raymond M. Patterson

Raymond M. Patterson (1898 - 1984) was an Oxford educated writer and explorer of the Canadian northwest.

Raymond M Patterson was born in England in 1898. He was educated at Rossall School [ [http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic44-1-85.pdf Raymond Murray Patterson (1898-1984) ] ] and later attended Oxford University, where he trained for a career at the Bank of England. Patterson served in World War I as an artillery officer, was captured toward the end of the conflict and was a POW at the end of the War.

In 1924, longing for adventure, Patterson went to Canada where he obtained a homestead on the Peace River. About 1927 he explored the Nahanni River in a canoe. Many years later, he wrote his most famous book Dangerous River, about his two trips into the Nahanni River Valley during this period.

Patterson met and married his wife Marigold in 1929. Also in 1929 he sold his homestead and moved to Buck Spring Ranch near Cochrane, Alberta. From this location, for the next four years, he completed a series of explorations throughout the region. Of particular note was his exploration of the Highwood River, Highwood Pass and the Kananaskis Lakes region.

In 1933 he purchased the Buffalo Head Ranch in the Highwood Valley. From this location, between 1933 and 1945 he explored the Highwood and Elk Valley region. In 1945, aggrieved over the opening of a road into the Highwood Valley and the aftermath of the Phillips fire, he sold the ranch and resettled to Victoria, British Columbia. Over the next twenty-five years he wrote a series of books about his explorations and adventures. He died in 1984.

Further reading

*Dangerous River, William Sloane Associates, New York, 1954
*The Buffalo Head, William Sloane Associates, Inc. New York, 1961
*Far Pastures, Gray's Publishing Ltd., Sidney. 1963,
*Trail to the Interior, Macmillan, Toronto, 1966
*Finlay's River, William Morrow & Co, New York. 1968
*R.M. Patterson: A Life of Great Adventure by David Finch, publishing in 2000 by Rocky Mountain Books of Calgary.

References