History of the Fraser & Thompson River Canyons

Long before man settled this region known as British Columbia, some time between the dinosaurs and their disappearance, it's believed that the Fraser River started taking shape.

Aeons passed, and very slowly the Rocky Mountains took shape, altering the flow of rivers and streams. It appears that part of the Fraser River, north of the Chilcotin drained east, into the Inland Sea, while south of the Chilcotin, it drained south and west to the Pacific. During the Tertiary period, these two rivers formed what is now the Fraser River and the canyon.

Just as the Fraser River made its way through the outer Coast Mountains, the Thompson has managed to make its way through the inner mountains. The gorge the Thompson has made is stark, mountains are barren and colourful, sagebrush is everywhere and the sun beats down sucking up what little moisture there is in this area.

This part of British Columbia is steeped in history. Hundreds of years before any European saw or explored this land, the aboriginals lived here. They traveled up and down the rivers and trails trading with other tribes. Where the river was unpassable, they had paths that connected, thus making travel from the interior to the coast possible.

The first Europeans to see this region, were Simon Fraser and his party. In the year 1805, Fraser and his men made their way west, but it wasn't until 1808 that they started their expedition down the river. With the help of the aboriginals who lived along the Fraser, they were able to make their way down to the Pacific Ocean and back.

Sometime in 1856 or '57, near Fort Kamloops, James Huston discovered gold. The search for gold soon spread from the Thompson River to the Fraser River, and in March of 1858, the first big gold discovery was made at Hill's bar, just south of Yale.

By the year 1859, prospectors had made their way up to the Quesnel River area, and in 1861 gold was found on Williams Creek, in the Cariboo. The gold rush was on.