Dr. J.S. Helmcken (Sign missing)
Helmcken, a pioneer Hudson's Bay Company doctor, played a leading role from 1856-71 in the colonial politics of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. A spokesman for those who thought Canada was...
- british columbia
- canada
Paddlewheels North
Down river lay the perilous and unnavigable canyon. Up-river the Fraser was swift and strong, but sternwheelers could travel for 400 miles from Soda Creek. Men and supplies embarked here in...
- british columbia
- canada
The Yale Convention
By 1868, the gold rushes that had founded British Columbia were over, the public debt was soaring and many were dissatisfied with the colonial government. On September 14, 1868, 26 delegates from...
- british columbia
- canada
Greenwood Smelter
In this wilderness of rugged mountains, ore was first found in the late 1880's. Further prospects led to the building of a large smelter by the B.C. Copper Co. From 1901, copper, gold and...
- british columbia
- canada
Irrigation (Sign missing)
Irrigation has been the key to development of the Okanagan. So often taken for granted elsewhere, water has magically unlocked the wealth in this dry valley, giving life and industry to...
- british columbia
- canada
Gold in Nickel Plate
From the heart of this mountain, men took over $45,000,000 in gold. It started in 1904 when Hedley boomed with the opening of the mill in town and the Nickel Plate Mine on the mountain-top....
- british columbia
- canada
Fairview Gold
Fairview Gold: The 1890's held high hopes for the lode gold of miles such as Stemwinder, Morning Star and Rattler. By 1902, when the Fairview Hotel or 'Big Teepee' burned, the golden years...
- british columbia
- canada
Dawson Creek (Sign missing)
Once called 'The Beaver Plains', this townsite was named in honour of Dr. G.M. Dawson, outstanding Canadian geologist and scientist, whose expeditions in B.C. covered almost every field of natural...
- british columbia
- canada
J.M. Robinson
When John M. Robinson, a former Manitoba legislator and newspaper editor, came to the South Okanagan in 1898, he found only dry grazing land. Seeing its potential, he introduced irrigation and led...
- british columbia
- canada
Ponderosa Pine (Western Yellow Pine) (Sign missing)
The Ponderosa Pine occurs in Canada only in British Columbia where it has adapted to a zone of low summer rainfall through the southern interior of the province. The mature tree can be...
- british columbia
- canada
Southern Crossroads
From BC's Stops of Interest
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- canada
The First Highway
In 1793 Alexander Mackenzie and North West Company adventurers discovered this route through the Rocky Mountains. During 1805-08 Simon Fraser built forts and trading posts west of the...
- british columbia
- canada
Yukon Trail
In 1898 a North West Mounted Police party laboured northward past here blazing an overland route from Edmonton to Dawson City and the goldfields of the Klondike. Its plan was to prove the...
- british columbia
- canada
Bridge River Gold (Sign missing)
The famed Bralorne and Pioneer mines constitute British Columbia's leading gold camp. In the 1860's prospectors from the Fraser River and Cariboo region found gold in the gravel of Bridge River....
- british columbia
- canada
Alexander Mackenzie
Seeking a route to the Pacific Ocean, this resolute fur trader and explorer, with his party of 9 men and a frail bark canoe, portaged nearby in May 1793 to avoid the awesome Peace River Canyon. On...
- british columbia
- canada
Powell River (Sign missing)
Israel W. Powell, M.D., 1836-1915, whose name is honoured here, was a consistent supporter of the movement which led B.C. into Confederation with Canada in 1871. The plant, Western...
- british columbia
- canada
Empire of Grass
Back in the 1870's the bunchgrass hereabours came up to a horse's belly. Some of the transient miners saw wealth in these broad rolling grasslands and swapped gold pan for saddle. In time several...
- british columbia
- canada
- rewritebc
Trail of '98 (Sign missing)
The Yukon Trail, which crossed British Columbia, was the shortest route to the Klondike. Thousands of gold-crazed stampeders in '97 and'98 fought their way over the Chilkoot Pass to Lake...
- british columbia
- canada
III
Canada's largest cattle 'empire', the Douglas Lake Cattle Co., uses this simple 'Three Bar' brand. Homesteaded by John Douglas in 1872, the 'spread' grew while supplying meat in the 1880's to...
- british columbia
- canada
Lillooet (Sign missing)
Here was the gateway to gold! Yellow gold lined bars of the Fraser and beyond was the lure of the Cariboo. Like a magnet it drew thousands of miners on the long Harrison trail through the...
- british columbia
- canada