Christina MacDonald, for whom Christina Lake was named, operated a trading post in Kamloops competing with the Hudson’s Bay Company and other independent traders. Through her early experience with her father, she knew fur trading well and overcame the prejudice of the time against independent women. A hard winter hit Kamloops in 1873-74 and Christina took the initiative to outwit both the wealthy merchants and the Hudson’s Bay Company in getting supplies delivered. Using her connections with First Nations couriers and pack trains, she bought and brought her supplies over the mountains long before the other freight teams could get through. She sold the other merchants her supplies at a tidy profit.