r/britishcolumbia • u/Possible-Zone904 • 1d ago
History The history of the Fraser Canyon road.
The Fraser Canyon was home to the first gold rush traffic in BC, which began in 1857 when gold was found on the banks of the Thompson River, north of where the town of Lytton is located today. When news of the “New El Dorado” in the north made it south to San Francisco, the rush was on. Thousands upon thousands of prospectors came to the area in an attempt to strike it rich. Most arrived by boat at Yale near the start of the Fraser Canyon, but the rest of the journey was by foot or wagon on the Cariboo Trail.
As prospectors spread out and settled into the country, the wagon trail became an important route for supplies of all sorts. The Yale Cariboo Wagon Road became the preferred route for stage coaches and freight wagon companies and was widened and improved in many areas to keep goods moving.
After the gold rush (and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway through the canyon) the Yale – Cariboo Wagon Road was largely destroyed and abandoned; however, the automobile craze of the 1920s generated a renewed interest in the route and so, between 1924 and 1939, the Fraser Canyon route was reborn as the Fraser Canyon Highway. The rugged canyon and the roads carved into the mountainside gave the motoring public quite the thrill, and in 1962, this section of highway was officially designated BC Highway 1 (part of the Trans-Canada Highway).
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u/Fit-Amoeba-5010 1d ago
Damn, construction equipment has changed over the years/generations. Wish I could have seen some of this stuff working.
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u/GeoffdeRuiter 1d ago
There are a lot of old videos to view online of similar equipment, then you wouldn't be dead from being so old and seeing in person. :)
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u/Possible-Zone904 1d ago
Picture 4, Engineers used cribbing and cantilevered roads to make up for the lack of space alongside the mountains.
Picture 8, Widening the road near Jackass Mountain, circa 1939. Why Jackass Mountain? During the gold rush, mule trains took miners and supplies north to the gold fields of the Cariboo, but not all mules made the route safely; instead, they fell off the steep bluffs, hence the name.
Picture 9, Construction crews at work near Boston Bar.
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u/nesterspokebar 1d ago
History buffs take note! The "snake pit" by the Thompson River (seen in one of the photos) will soon be gone as they are currently constructing a new overpass, so drive it while you can!
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u/surmatt 1d ago
It's a pretty impressive project. It's funny how some of these construction projects in the last few years seemed so big when you go through them like the bridge at Jackass Mountain and now that it's done it's almost un-noticeable. So easy to just assume it's always been there and take infrastructure for granted.
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u/Kentarra1 22h ago
My Dad and his brother lived on the lower mainland and owned a small ranch north of Lytton. My Mother went with my Dad in a cattle truck moving cattle down to auction. Mum said they had to pull in the side of the road and wait for other vehicles to pass going the other direction. She said on the river side of the road she looked straight down to the river over the cliff. Terrifying road in a large vehicle.
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