QUESNEL

QUESNEL

Is a small city located at the confluence of the Quesnel and Fraser Rivers, 118 kilometers south of Prince George, and is the largest and most commercialized city of the North Cariboo region of British Columbia.

Previously known as Quesnellemouth, Quesnel is named after fur trader Jules-Maurice Quesnel, who in 1808, escorted Simon Fraser on his exploration of the Fraser River.

Quesnel started out as supply center for the goldfields with the discovery of gold in the Williams Creek area near Barkerville in 1857 because of this Quesnel was made into a stopover point for miners on their way towards Barkerville. Quesnel boomed during the 1860s when the Fraser River became a frequent stopping point for paddle wheeler ships on their way towards Fort George (now known today as Prince George) from Soda Creek. The city celebrates its history and ties with the Cariboo Gold Rush, every July with Billy Barker Days, a 4-day family-fun weekend event that brings families and the community together to celebrate and pay tribute to this era.

In 1865, the Collins Overhead Telegraph arrived at Quesnel. This telegraph was to provide sufficient communication from California to Moscow, Russia and an effective telegraph from North America to Europe but abandoned in 1866 after a line was successfully put down across the Atlantic instead. A cairn commemorating this event is one of many historic highlights in downtown Quesnel, an old Hudson’s Bay Company trading post that dates from 1867 (now gift shop) and an old traffic bridge across the Fraser River that dates from 1929 are among many others.

With several pulp and sawmills and a plywood plant located within the city, Quesnel mostly relies on forestry as its main economic activity. An observation tower at the north end of town provides a panoramic view of most of the sawmills as well as many signs of interest that tell the history of this industry of Quesnel and on how forestry plays a huge economic role here.

Quesnel is also positioned at the junction of 2 highways, Highways #97, and 88-kilometer long Highway #26, which goes to communities such as Barkerville Historic Town, Wells, as well as the provincial park at Bowron Lake, the latter being a popular canoeing area. Highway #97 meanwhile, goes north towards Prince George and the rest of the north-eastern corner British Columbia while the highway south goes from here to Williams Lake, 100 Mile House, Cache Creek where it eventually goes to communities in the Okanagan and eventually the Canada/United States border, just south of Osoyoos.

Quesnel was incorporated as a village in 1928 and became a city in 1979.

Quesnel’s population: 9,326