BOSTON BAR

Boston Bar is an unincorporated village, located 66 kilometers north of Hope in the Fraser Canyon, just east of the Fraser River.

Boston Bar dates back to the days of the 1858 Gold Rush. It was established as a mining camp near the Nlaka’pamux (Thompson) village of Quayome, just west across the Fraser River from the present location of where Boston Bar sits today. It was at this time that Boston Bar became a stopover point for fur traders and miners heading north to Barkerville in search for gold.

The term “Boston Bar” comes from the local first nations people who referred the miners as “Boston men”. The miners came to British Columbia by ship from America’s east coast (mainly from the Massachusetts area) to mine gold in the river’s sandbar during the Gold Rush.

When construction of the Canadian Pacific Railways in 1885, Boston Bar moved to its new site east across the river and the old site became known as North Bend. From 1940 until 1986 an aerial tramway originally crossed the Fraser River to and from North Bend until was it replaced by a new bridge, the Cog Harrington Bridge.

Since the Coquihalla Highway from Kamloops to Hope via Merritt was first opened to traffic in 1986, Boston Bar has since seen a steady decrease in population.

In North Bend, tourists will find a cemetery that commemorates the original Boston Bar settlement. Also a park in Boston Bar near the Pig's Ear Saloon/Charles Hotel property, commemorates the history of both the North Bend and Boston Bar communities, along with a story of the aerial ferry.

As tourists or travelers drive from Boston Bar to Yale, 42 kilometers south, there are 7 tunnels in the Fraser Canyon that drivers and travelers alike will encounter. Constructed in the 1950s, as part of a highway project through the Fraser Canyon, the tunnels are China Bar, Ferrabee, Hell’s Gate, Alexandria, Sailor Bar, Saddle Rock, and Yale. At 610 meters long, the China Bar Tunnel is one of North America’s longest tunnels while the Hells’ Gate Tunnel (101 metres long) is the only tunnel that does not have lights.

Despite being an unincorporated community, Boston Bar offers many worthwhile and sufficient amounts of amenities for travellers. This includes 2 gas stations, accommodations, restaurants, bowling alley and a library. It is serviced by Greyhound's passenger and frieght service. It also serves as a gateway to several recreational areas including Blue Lake and the Nahatlatch River and the Mehatl Valley.

Boston Bar's population: 601