Quesnel River
Encyclopedia
The Quesnel River is a major tributary of the Fraser River
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...

 in the Cariboo
Cariboo
The Cariboo is an intermontane region of British Columbia along a plateau stretching from the Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. The name is a reference to the woodland caribou that were once abundant in the region...

 District of central British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. It begins at the outflow of Quesnel Lake
Quesnel Lake
Quesnel Lake is a glacial lake or fjord in British Columbia, Canada, and is the origin of the Quesnel River. With a maximum depth of 610 meters , it is the deepest lake in British Columbia, though not the deepest lake in Canada, as is often claimed. That distinction belongs to Great Slave Lake...

, at the town of Likely and flows for about 100 kilometres (62.1 mi) northwest to its confluence with the Fraser
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...

 at the city of Quesnel
Quesnel, British Columbia
-Demographics:Quesnel had a population of 9,326 people in 2006, which was a decrease of 7.1% from the 2001 census count. The median household income in 2005 for Quesnel was $54,044, which is slightly above the British Columbia provincial average of $52,709....

.

History

Just downstream from the outlet of Quesnel Lake, at the confluence of the Cariboo River
Cariboo River
The Cariboo River is a river in the Cariboo District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is a tributary of the Quesnel River, joining that river just northwest of the settlement of Likely. Its reaches below Cariboo Lake were formerly known also as the North Fork Quesnel...

, is the historically important ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

 of Quesnel Forks, aka "the Forks", which was a junction point of the Quesnel and Cariboo Rivers. Various trails and wagon roads leading to the Cariboo goldfields
Cariboo Gold Rush
The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Although the first gold discovery was made in 1859 at Horsefly Creek, followed by more strikes at Keithley Creek and Antler Horns lake in 1860, the actual rush did not begin until 1861, when these discoveries were...

 lay across the low-hill range north of Quesnel Forks in the basin of the Cottonwood River. Both the Lillooet
Lillooet, British Columbia
Lillooet is a community on the Fraser River in western Canada, about up the British Columbia Railway line from Vancouver. Situated at an intersection of deep gorges in the lee of the Coast Mountains, it has a dry climate- of precipitation is recorded annually at the town's weather station,...

 to Fort Alexandria wagon road and the later Cariboo Wagon Road came by Quesnel Forks but preferred to follow the valley of the Quesnel River to Quesnel
Quesnel, British Columbia
-Demographics:Quesnel had a population of 9,326 people in 2006, which was a decrease of 7.1% from the 2001 census count. The median household income in 2005 for Quesnel was $54,044, which is slightly above the British Columbia provincial average of $52,709....

 and then east from there to the gold towns of Barkerville
Barkerville, British Columbia
Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia, Canada and is preserved as a historic town. It is located on the north slope of the Cariboo Plateau near the Cariboo Mountains east of Quesnel along BC Highway 26, which follows the route of the original access to...

 and Wells
Wells, British Columbia
Wells is a small mining and tourist town in the Cariboo District of central British Columbia, located on BC Highway 26, 74 km from Quesnel and 8 km before the highway's terminus at Barkerville...

.

The river took its name from Jules-Maurice Quesnel
Jules-Maurice Quesnel
Jules-Maurice Quesnel was a fur trader, businessman and political figure in Canada East.He was born Julien-Maurice Quesnel in Montreal in 1786, the son of Joseph Quesnel, and studied at the Collège Saint-Raphaël. He joined the North West Company as a clerk and assisted David Thompson in his...

, who explored this region with Simon Fraser
Simon Fraser (explorer)
Simon Fraser was a fur trader and an explorer who charted much of what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. Fraser was employed by the Montreal-based North West Company. By 1805, he had been put in charge of all the company's operations west of the Rocky Mountains...

 in the early 19th century.

See also

  • Big Canyon
    Big Canyon
    The Big Canyon is a stretch of the Quesnel River in the Cariboo Country of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, near the city of the same name....

  • Little Canyon
    Little Canyon (Quesnel)
    The Little Canyon is a stretch of the Quesnel River in the Cariboo Country of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, near the city of the same name....

  • List of British Columbia rivers
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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