Quesnel Forks , historically Quesnelle Forks , also simply known as " The Forks " or grandly known as " Quesnel City " is a ghost town in the Cariboo region of British Columbia , Canada . It is located the junction of the Quesnel and Cariboo Rivers and is 60 km southeast of Quesnel and only 11 km northwest of Likely .
36-520: Quesnel Forks was founded in 1860 and was a major supply center for the Cariboo Gold Rush . Between 1860 and 1862 it catered to 2,000 or more transient miners annually and a resident population of approximately 100. When gold was discovered on Antler, Lightning and Williams Creek, on the north side of the Snowshoe Plateau, prospectors and packers continued to use the route via Quesnel Forks until
72-579: A decent trail system was established via the Quesnel and the Cottonwood rivers. The Quesnel Forks Bridge (initially a toll bridge) provided the only access to the village and the mining regions of Keithley Creek and the Snowshoe Plateau until the 1920s. However, when the Cariboo Wagon Road was completed in 1865, Quesnel Forks was bypassed and Barkerville became the major center of gold mining activity. By
108-406: A gold-rush town is also reflected, as there are over 30 heritage sites around the city. Quesnel is home to the world's largest gold pan, measured at 5.5 m (18 ft) in diameter and weighing 1,400 kg (3,100 lb), although this is disputed by Nome, Alaska . As of 2020 the gold pan resides in its new location, one deemed controversial, near the local Visitor Centre and Museum. Quesnel
144-433: A little over 10,000 people living within the city, with roughly 13,000 people living outside the city limits but within the metro area. According to the 2021 census , religious groups in Quesnel included: Quesnel is a city known for its forestry, particularly the production of pulp and lumber. Forestry is the single biggest employer in Quesnel. Quesnel is home to a Bleached Chemi-ThermoMechanical Pulp (BCTMP) mill that
180-618: A living from gold mining. They were supported by a branch of the Chee Kung Tong Association who erected a two-storey building in the village. During that period the region contained the third largest group of Chinese residents after Victoria and Nanaimo. The CPR also facilitated a hydraulic mining boom in the Cariboo, delivering large mining equipment such as water canon and metal for pipes to Ashcroft. From there, ox teams and stage coaches transported equipment and mining speculators up
216-472: A population density of 279.7/km (724.5/sq mi) in 2021. According to the same census, Quesnel had a census agglomeration population of 23,113, which represented a decrease from 23,146 in the 2016 census. The median household income in 2015 for Quesnel was $ 60,651, which is slightly below the British Columbia provincial average of $ 69,995. As of 2018, the population of Quesnel is estimated to be
252-466: A population of 23,113 making it one of the largest urban centres between Prince George and Kamloops . Quesnel is a sister city to Shiraoi, Japan . Quesnel hosted the 2000 BC Winter Games , a biennial provincial amateur sports competition. To the east of Quesnel is Wells , Barkerville , and Bowron Lake Provincial Park , a popular canoeing destination in the Cariboo Mountains . Long before
288-694: Is also the closest city to Barkerville , the largest historic site western North America, and epicentre of the Cariboo Gold Rush . Troll Ski Resort , or simply Troll, is located 44 km (27 mi) east of the city. Quesnel is also home to Hallis Lake Cross Country Skiing Facility , a 75 km (47 mi) network of trails maintained by the Cariboo Ski Touring Club for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. In addition, Ten Mile Lake Provincial Park , Pinnacles Provincial Park , and Dragon Mountain Provincial Park are also located just outside
324-758: Is home to the Central Interior Hockey League's Quesnel Kangaroos Senior AA hockey team. The team plays at the West Fraser Centre in Quesnel. The city was formerly home to the Quesnel Millionaires , a British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) team, before they relocated to Chilliwack as the Chilliwack Chiefs in 2011. Quesnel also has soccer , airsoft and paintball , minor baseball , softball , lacrosse , ringette , roller derby , and football leagues. A Mountain biking skills park
360-762: Is part of School District 28 , which contains several elementary schools, as well as a junior and a senior secondary school (Quesnel Junior High School and Correlieu Senior Secondary School respectively). Also, within the school district is McNaughton Centre which is an Alternate High school. For post secondary education, Quesnel has the College of New Caledonia and University of Northern British Columbia shared campus, which offers several programs, including four year nursing and social work degrees, foundation or apprenticeship-level trades certification, health sciences, human services, academic upgrading, or industry and continuing education courses. The Quesnel CNC Campus also offers students
396-719: Is set in 1862. Quesnel, British Columbia Quesnel ( / k w ɪ ˈ n ɛ l / ; Kee-nel in French) is a city located in the Cariboo Regional District of British Columbia , Canada. Located nearly evenly between the cities of Prince George and Williams Lake , it is on the main route to northern British Columbia and the Yukon . Quesnel is located at the confluence of the Fraser River and Quesnel River . As of 2021, Quesnel's metropolitan area ( census agglomeration ) had
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#1732855290979432-580: The Quesnel . Quesnel was incorporated in 1928. Considering it is located inland and around the 53rd parallel north , Quesnel's humid continental climate ( Dfb ) is mild by Canadian standards, being subject to marine air flows from the Pacific. Overnight lows are still cool even in summer, but daytime temperatures average above 24 °C (75 °F) in that season according to Environment and Climate Change Canada . The highest temperature ever recorded in Quesnel
468-503: The Cariboo Wagon Road and supplied nearby Barkerville, the commercial centre of the Cariboo Gold Rush . It also marks one end of the Alexander MacKenzie Heritage Trail . Because of its location on the Fraser River , it was also an important landing for sternwheelers from 1862 to 1886 and then, from 1909 until 1921. The last sternwheeler on the upper Fraser was Quesnel's own namesake craft, and home town product,
504-590: The 1950s, and is now the largest manufacturer of wood products in North America, with operations also in Europe. Quesnel's city government consists of a seven-member council, that is one mayor and six councillors. The current city council, elected in 2022 for a four-year term, is composed of mayor Ron Paul and councillors Scott Elliott, Tony Goulet, Debora McKelvie, Laurey-Anne Roodenburg, Martin Runge, and Mitch Vik. Quesnel
540-529: The Cariboo Road include Clinton, 100 Mile House and Williams Lake , although most had their beginnings before the Cariboo rush began. During the rush, the largest and most important town lay at the road's end at Barkerville, which had grown up around the most profitable and famous of the many Cariboo mining camps. The Cariboo Wagon Road was an immense infrastructure burden for the colony but needed to be built to enable access and bring governmental authority to
576-471: The Cariboo Road to The Forks. The Bullion Pit mine nearby produced $ 1,233,936 (1900 dollar value) over eleven years and attracted large numbers of itinerant men who placed heavy demands on the resources of the village. The horse trail to the Cariboo Road was widened into a wagon road and the Quesnel Forks Bridge strengthened to accommodate heavy wagons in 1895. In that same year a new jail was built at
612-507: The Cariboo gold rush era were Keithley Creek , Quesnel Forks or simply "the Forks", Antler, Richfield , Quesnellemouthe (which would later be shortened to Quesnel ), Horsefly and, around the site of the Hudson's Bay Company's fort of the same name, Alexandria . The Cariboo Gold Rush is the most famous of the gold rushes in British Columbia , so much so that it is sometimes erroneously cited as
648-582: The Cariboo goldfields, which was necessary in order to maintain and assert control of the wealth, which might more easily have passed through the Interior to the United States. The wagon road's most important freight was the Gold Escort, which brought government bullion to Yale for shipment to the colonial treasury. Despite the wealth of the Cariboo goldfields, the expense of colonizing the Cariboo contributed to
684-756: The Fraser rush. The boom in the Cariboo goldfields was the impetus for the construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road by the Royal Engineers , which bypassed the older routes via the Fraser Canyon and the Lakes Route (Douglas Road) via Lillooet by using the canyon of the Thompson River to Ashcroft and from there via the valley of the Bonaparte River to join the older route from Lillooet at Clinton . Towns along
720-540: The Likely Cemetery Society and teacher/historian David Falconer. The cemetery area was cleared and secured, graves identified with headboards, and the Chee Kung Tong house stabilized with the assistance of local residents. Thanks to people like Brian Giesbrecht and his crew who have been restoring the old buildings to save them from a slow death into the soil, and from the river which is slowly eating away at
756-602: The Mainland Colony's virtual bankruptcy and its forced union with the Island Colony, and similarly into Confederation. A 1976 young adult novel, Cariboo Runaway , by Sandy Frances Duncan , is set in the Cariboo area during the Cariboo Gold Rush. "Cariboo Road" by Alan Sullivan - published 1946, is a fictional historical novel about a family that travels from San Francisco to seek gold near Williams Creek. The story
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#1732855290979792-563: The arrival of prospectors during the Cariboo Gold Rush of 1862, the First Nations peoples, the Dakelh or Southern Carrier, lived off the land around Quesnel, occupying the area from the Bowron Lakes in the east to the upper Blackwater River and Dean River in the west. The Southern Carrier Nation were known among themselves as ‘Uda Ukelh’, meaning ‘people who travel by boat on water early in
828-511: The banks of the ghost town (half the town has been swept into the river over the past 8 years). Quesnel Forks was featured on the historical television series Gold Trails and Ghost Towns , season 1, episode 8. Cariboo Gold Rush The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia , which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia . The first gold discovery
864-464: The chance to start arts or sciences degrees and then, transfer to university. Quesnel is served by the Quesnel Airport , with several commercial flights daily to and from Vancouver . The city has a local transit system provided by BC Transit . Quesnel is served by GR Baker Memorial Hospital. A new emergency section was added to the hospital on 14 April 2023. This increased the overall size of
900-423: The city. Quesnel Museum is home to numerous artifacts, including Mandy, a " haunted doll " made in the early 20th century that is claimed to have paranormal abilities and eyes that follow visitors around. Mandy appeared on The Montel Williams Show . There are twenty-three decorated fire hydrants in the streets of Quesnel. This work was sponsored by the local businesses in the vicinity of the hydrants. Quesnel
936-562: The first wave of the rush was largely American. By the time the Cariboo rush broke out there was more active interest in the Gold Colony (as British Columbia was often referred to) in the United Kingdom and Canada and there had also been time required for more British and Canadians to get there. The electorate of the Cariboo riding were among the most pro-Confederation in the colony, and this
972-498: The hospital as well as making it easier for patients to move from building to building. Quesnel's tourism industry is largely based on the city's access to nature, with hunting and guiding outfitters, fishing, hiking, canoeing. The Rocky Mountaineer , a rail-tour train also travels through and stops overnight at Quesnel at the Pacific Great Eastern Railway Station , owned by BC Rail . Quesnel's history as
1008-620: The mid-1870s most of the population had left, but a small, stable group of Chinese miners and merchants remained in Quesnel Forks which supported a widely dispersed mining community. Many of these people came from the Four Counties region of Guangdong Province, South China. Following completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway through Ashcroft in 1885 their population increased when discharged Chinese railroad labourers sought to make
1044-466: The morning’. The name "Quesnel" is derived from Jules-Maurice Quesnel , who accompanied Simon Fraser on his journey to the Pacific Ocean . Quesnel came to be called 'Quesnelle Mouth' to distinguish it from Quesnel Forks , 97 km (60 mi) up river. In 1870, it had been shortened to Quesnelle and by 1900, it was spelled the way it is now. Quesnel is located along the gold mining trail known as
1080-560: The population that came for the Cariboo rush stayed on as permanent settlers, taking up land in various parts of the Interior in the 1860s and after, that wasn't the general rule for those involved in the Fraser rush. Many veterans of the Cariboo would spread out to explore the rest of the province, in particular triggering the Omineca and Cassiar Gold Rushes , just as the Cariboo itself had been found by miners seeking out in search of new finds from
1116-473: The rear of the Government Agent's house (shown at the head of the bridge in the above photo which should be dated 1899) and the land around these buildings kept vacant in case of fire. The town was not abandoned until the 1950s. Today, visitors to Quesnel Forks can explore the restored pioneer buildings and historic cemetery . Historical research and work projects began in the 1990s under the leadership of
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1152-481: The reason for the creation of the Colony of British Columbia . The Colony's creation had been prompted by an influx of American prospectors to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush three years earlier in 1858, which had its locus in the area from Lillooet to Yale . Unlike its southern counterpart, the population of the Cariboo Gold Rush was largely British and Canadian , among them 4000 were Chinese, although
1188-439: Was 41.7 °C (107.1 °F) on 29 June 2021. The coldest temperature ever recorded was −46.7 °C (−52.1 °F) on 31 December 1927 and 17 January 1950. In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada , Quesnel had a population of 9,889 living in 4,508 of its 4,766 total private dwellings, a change of 0.1% from its 2016 population of 9,879. With a land area of 35.35 km (13.65 sq mi), it had
1224-454: Was built in 1981, and a NBSK ( northern bleached softwood kraft ) pulp mill that started production in 1972. The BCTMP mill is currently 100% owned by West Fraser Timber , and the NBSK mill is a 50 / 50 joint venture between West Fraser and Mercer International. There is also a large sawmill, a plywood mill, and a MDF plant all owned and operated by West Fraser Timber. West Fraser started in Quesnel in
1260-656: Was in no small part because of the strong Canadian element in the local populace. One reason the Cariboo rush attracted fewer Americans than the original Fraser rush may have been the American Civil War , with many who had been around after the Fraser Gold Rush going home to take sides, or to the Fort Colville Gold Rush which was largely manned by men who had been on the Fraser or to other BC rushes such as those at Rock Creek and Big Bend . While some of
1296-515: Was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly River , and on Keithley Creek and Antler Creek in 1860. The actual rush did not begin until 1861, when these discoveries were widely publicized. By 1865, following the strikes along Williams Creek , the rush was in full swing. Towns grew up, the most famous of these being Barkerville , now preserved as a heritage site and tourist attraction. Other important towns of
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