This week our featured place is Fort Fraser, British Columbia. Today, Fort Fraser, named by the explorer, Simon Fraser in 1806, is a community of about 1000 people that is active in the tourism and forestry industries.
Mill at Fort Fraser, BC-1456-2-11. This photograph of a lumber mill in Fort Fraser comes from the B.C. Historical Photograph Album Collection . RBSC collects photographs both individually and as parts of larger collections. On our website you will find tutorials on how to search for photographs in our collections.
Historically, Fort Fraser played an important role in the development of British Columbia for a number of reasons, including:
- It is found near the geographical centre of British Columbia, 44 km west of Vanderhoof on The Yellowhead Highway.
- Originally established in 1806 as a North West Company fur trading post by the explorer Simon Fraser, it is one of present-day British Columbia’s oldest permanent European-founded settlements. The area around the community is also recorded as the site of the first land in British Columbia cultivated by non-First Nations people.
- The present community is located at the site of the last spike of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, driven on April 7, 1914.
The Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) reading room is named after the community of Fort Fraser. We think that it is a very fitting name for our reading room. Similar to the way in which Fort Fraser is located near the geographical centre of British Columbia, physically, the RBSC reading room is located at the heart of the Barber Learning Centre.
If you have some extra time before we close for the holidays at 3pm on December 24, please drop in to visit the RBSC Fort Fraser Reading Room and a take a look at ‘Tis the Season, a winter holiday-themed exhibition.
- Holiday exhibition in the Fort Fraser Reading Room
