YALE

^YALE

Yale's population: 169

Yale is a tiny and historic village, located in the Fraser Canyon and Trans-Canada Highway (Highway #1), 24 kilometers north of Hope.

^{Long been inhabited by the Yale First Nation, Yale dates back to 1848 when the Hudson’s Bay Company operated a fort and became a mainland terminus for sternwheelers paddling up and down the Fraser River. During the Cariboo Gold Rush of the 1860s, Yale almost immediately became a gold rush town with saloons, gambling houses, stores and bar rooms and a population of 20,000. This boom was a result of gold been found on a river sand bar 2 miles south of town.}

^{All of the hustle and bustle soon made Yale (at the time a population of 20,000 people), the largest town north of San Francisco and west of Chicago (this distinction, however was later shared by several towns in British Columbia including Barkerville, Lillooet, Quesnel Forks and Greenwood). Also during the Cariboo Gold Rush, Yale became the starting terminus and point for the Cariboo Wagon Road, all the way to Barkerville in the North Cariboo.}

^{Yale prospered for the next 20 years after the gold rush when the Canadian Pacific Railway was constructed during the 1880s.}

^{Unfortunately, as gold quickly ran out, so to did Yale’s glory and its population soon dwindled but its has since recovered today to be a tourism, forestry and service community for the Fraser Canyon. It has a gas station, motels, pioneer cemetery, museum, and the St. John the Devine Church, which is one of the province’s oldest churches still on its orginal foundation.}

^{Yale was named in 1847 after James Murray Yale (1796-1871), whom at the time, was a supervisor of the Fort Langley Hudson’s Bay Company.}

^{The Fraser River is named after Simon Fraser, one of British Columbia’s most well-known explorers whom in 1808, camped near here while on his famous trek along the Fraser River to the Pacific Ocean near Vancouver.}

^{One final interesting fact, Yale is one of 4 main communities that begin with “Y”. The others are Yahk, Youbou, and Ymir. All of them are unincorporated and have a population of less than 1,000 people.}