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44-628: The Spuzzum First Nation reserve community and offices are located at Spuzzum in the lower Fraser Canyon , near the Alexandra Bridge and about 10 miles north of Yale . Other Nlaka'pamux governments belong either to the Nicola Tribal Association or the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council . The chief of the Spuzzum in 1858, Kowpelst ("White Hat") was one of the first to work Hill's Bar at

88-405: A 27-metre (90 ft) clearance above the river and a 2.7-tonne (3-short-ton) load capacity. Soon after, Trutch became Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works and Surveyor-General, which created a conflict of interest as the bridge owner-operator. An independent review estimated the toll revenue as £58,000 and recommended that the government pay Trutch a discounted amount of £40,000. However, no action

132-481: A higher elevation and the second Alexandra Bridge became redundant. During a 2010 accident, two semi-trailers plunged from the Spuzzum Creek bridge, killing one of the drivers. In 2016, a jackknifed semi-trailer blocked the bridge for hours. In May 2018, Greyhound Canada axed Fraser Canyon stops such as Spuzzum, leaving no bus service in the area. During the goldrush, Frank May, the ferry operator, established

176-541: A new type of steel grid deck was installed. The bridge, a national historic site, was decommissioned in 1964. Since 2009, Spuzzum First Nation and the New Pathways to Gold Society (NPTGS) have led a coalition to preserve the structure. Using a $ 900,000 grant from the provincial government for the first step, work began in 2022 on what will likely be a three- to five-year project. The present highway bridge opened in 1962. The 51-hectare (126-acre) park, which straddles

220-469: A residence. In 1954, Joyce Gyoba of Spuzzum tied for the top score in the scholarship exam. On receiving her nursing degree in 1959, she was noted as the most outstanding student in her class. In 1958, the general store/gas bar relocated to new premises on the present highway. The store closed and the building became the Sasquatch Dining Lounge in the mid-1970s. In 1995, a used fire truck

264-426: A roadhouse close by, sometimes known as California House. Although a large, single-storey log structure, a bishop visiting in 1860 described it as a roadside hut, and a detached bakehouse , which could house an overflow of travellers. Most of the settlers who outlasted the goldrush did not remain much longer. However, pre-emptions increased after each infrastructure development. Mark Francis Andrew, who pre-empted on

308-490: A seven-year period. Agreed contract modifications included reducing the width from 5.5 metres (18 ft) inside the handrails to 3.9 metres (12 ft 10 in) inside the curbs, which eliminated the sidewalks. The bridge, which was named prior to construction, commemorates the marriage of Princess Alexandra of Denmark to the future Edward VII that year. The official opening was September 1863. The either 80-metre (262 ft) or 82-metre (268 ft) span provided

352-469: A train struck a CP track watchman within a mile of Spuzzum causing fatal injuries. Six months later, when eight cars of an eastbound CP freight train derailed nearby, damage was minimal and nobody was injured. In 1943, a CP train struck a man walking the track nearby, causing severe head and back injuries. In 1951, three crew died in a CP freight train wreck in the vicinity. Alexandra Bridge Provincial Park Alexandra Bridge Park lies within

396-469: A westbound passenger train mounted a snowslide around 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) south of Spuzzum, derailed, and the two lead locomotives and four cars slid down an embankment to the river edge. In May 1913, the eastward advance of the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) rail head reached the shore opposite Spuzzum. In 1919, a roadmaster sustained a fatal skull fracture during a rockslide at

440-402: Is often referred to in humorous contexts owing to its small size. Examples are "Don't blink or you'll miss it", "beyond Hope", "If you ain't been to Spuzzum, you ain't been anywhere", and "Spuzzum Institute of Technology". At one-time, both sides of a highway sign read, "You are now leaving Spuzzum". Although the highway did not bypass the hamlet until 1962, the reputation as an object of mockery

484-532: Is on the western side of bridge. The Nlaka'pamux and Sto:lo First Nations have inhabited the area for about 10,000 years. Evidence exists of an early pole bridge to access important fishing spots. Traditional fishing has continued at the bridge site during the salmon runs. In 1862, Joseph Trutch completed the Chapmans Bar– Boston Bar leg of the Cariboo Road along the east shore. In 1862,

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528-618: The Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) construction during the 1880s severely damaged the Yale–Spuzzum road, this section had become passable by the early 1900s. After the 1894 Fraser River flood had destroyed the Spuzzum Creek bridge, the 91-metre (300 ft) railway bridge became the only means of crossing the creek. A new bridge erected around 1900, which was again east of and lower than the railway bridge, had fallen into disrepair by 1920, when rehabilitated. In 1924, W.P. Tierney

572-482: The Cariboo Road , bridges, railways, and pre-emptions by settlers. By 1863, pre-emptions had compressed the indigenous entitlement mostly to the south side of the creek. In the 1870s, 149 indigenous people lived south of the Alexandra suspension bridge and about 8 hectares (20 acres) was under cultivation, principally potato crops. The Spuzzum First Nation is the name of the local band government . Downstream from

616-571: The Fraser River and north shore of Spuzzum Creek. The locality, on BC Highway 1 , is by road about 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Hope and 69 kilometres (43 mi) south of Lytton . First Nations have inhabited the canyon for thousands of years. When Simon Fraser stayed overnight in June 1808, he was perceived as a supernatural being. Fraser noted blankets made from the wool of mountain goats and dog's hair and burial boxes set on posts. At

660-450: The 50 cents per passenger fare filled a tin bucket with silver and gold. When the ferry capsized on another occasion, all the passengers drowned. When later interviewed, the operator was asked if there was much loss. He replied, "Oh no, I always collect the fares in advance." In 1858, private enterprise erected a bridge over Spuzzum Creek, which was tolled for six months. In 1862, the government awarded Joseph Trutch & Thomas Spence

704-630: The Alexandra bridges, the reserves from north to south are Skuet 6, Papsilqua 2B, Papsilqua 2, Papsilqua 2A, Spuzzum 1 (formerly Spuzzum Rancherie), Spuzzum 7, and Spuzzum 1A. In 1848, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) built Simon's House as a store, where the fur brigades crossed the Fraser. During the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush a decade later, this name had been replaced by Spuzzum. However, Rancheria

748-644: The CP installed ferries at Chapmans Bar and Camp 13, which was just south of Hells Gate . The precise location unclear, an aerial wooden basket ferry existed at least from the early 1920s. Pulling hand over hand on a rope powered this four-person contraption. This appears to have preceded the aerial basket ferry installed in 1925. Tendered in October 1862, the bridge contract was awarded to Joseph Trutch, who engaged Andrew Smith Hallidie , an experienced San Francisco-based suspension bridge engineer. Steamboats transshipped all

792-468: The CP tunnel. Built in 1884, the standard-design (Bohi's Type 5) single-storey station building with gable roof and dormers (identical to Keefers ) was destroyed in 1964 by a landslide. In 1923, a CP freight train fatally struck a track watchman. In 1930, an eastbound freight train ran over an eight-year-old boy, who died in hospital. During a nearby 1932 CP derailment of 30 cars, one freighthopper died and two were seriously injured. In 1942,

836-462: The Spuzzum people were destroyed by armed parties of miners coming up from Yale, even though relations with the Spuzzum were considered friendlier than with their Nlaka'pamux kin farther upriver. Spuzzum First Nation has sixteen different reserves ranging greatly in size, and totaling 648 hectares (2.50 sq mi). The largest two (Spuzzum 1 and 1a) stand on the West Bank of the Fraser River near

880-420: The bridge was for risk takers only. That year, the government's severing of the main cables for safety reasons brought all use to an end. During railway construction, the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) installed several temporary suspension bridges across the river to access the CP line. Such a structure at the original bridge site fell onto the river in 1912 when the ropes gave way. In 1925, A.B. Palmer Co

924-461: The community's peak population. Other estimates places the Indigenous population at the time around 400. As of September 2015, the community had a registered population of 274, though only 46 lived on reserve. Spuzzum, British Columbia Spuzzum is an unincorporated community in the lower Fraser Canyon area of southwestern British Columbia , Canada. The place is on the west shore of

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968-432: The east side of the railway track opened in the late-1920s. The gas bar installed later was Gulf , then BA , and finally Esso . The building has since become a residence. In 1923, a house was built at 38191 Front St with seven decent sized bedrooms to be used as a hotel when the new highway opened in 1926. In the 1930s, a police detachment was established within the village. By 1941, two officers resided, possibly using

1012-415: The government awarded Trutch & Thomas Spence the southward leg of the road to Pike's Riffle along the west shore. The 13-kilometre (8 mi) length was to be completed by the following spring. During construction in the early 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) often obliterated existing roads, which in this instance replaced the more durable wagon road southward with flimsy wooden trestles at

1056-528: The hotel building. In 1947, the police post moved to Boston Bar. In the late 1940s, Japanese Canadians released from internment wholly occupied the hotel building. Employment opportunities diminished when the Neville Lumber sawmill closed around 1950 and only three Japanese families remained in the village. The building has reverted to a residence. A one-room school, which operated 1945–1965, closed with only five students. The building has since become

1100-573: The land adjacent to the river is low and marshy and subject to spring flooding. North of the creek is higher and flatter. A rope guided the punt-shaped reaction ferry , which struggled to cope with the heavy and frequent wagon traffic during the goldrush. Part of the Old Mountain Trail from Yale , the ferry ran intermittently from 1848 for 10 years, then actively for five years before the first Alexandra suspension bridge opened in 1863 about 4 kilometres (2 mi) upstream. On one particular day,

1144-411: The lower Fraser Canyon of British Columbia , Canada . This provincial park is adjacent to the historic suspension bridge from 1926, which spans the Fraser River and was built using the eastern abutment of the bridge from 1863. The locality, on BC Highway 1 , is by road about 44 kilometres (27 mi) north of Hope and 65 kilometres (40 mi) south of Lytton . The Teequaloose 3A reserve

1188-407: The mouth of Spuzzum Creek. Coloncial Chief James Hobart, Councillor Diana Stromquist and Councillor Angie Mitchell were elected on June 13, 2020. The 1878 Reserve Commission census found 237 people living in Spuzzum and neighbouring villages. The 1881 census listed only 146 people, but the number is dubious since that era (during construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway ) would likely have been

1232-563: The onset of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush and was considered a "friendly Indian" during the Fraser Canyon War of that fall, which took place between the American miners and the upstream Nlaka'pamux of Camchin . He was appointed as a magistrate by Sir James Douglas During the Fraser Canyon War , a few thousand miners from bars farther up the canyon thronged at Spuzzum in terror of the upstream Nlaka'pamux, and some villages and food caches of

1276-475: The opening of the Hope– Princeton highway in 1949 provided an alternative route. In 1936, motorists were given the option of $ 5 season tolls, instead of $ 1 each way. In 1938, year-round tolling was introduced, instead of only April 15 to November 15. That year, the toll booth was relocated from Spuzzum to a point about 800 metres (0.5 mi) east of Yale. In December 1945, tolls were removed. In 1949,

1320-476: The original wagon road destroyed earlier by the railway builders. The Fraser Canyon highway officially reopened in May 1927. During the non-winter season, this narrow, gravel road was often blocked by washouts, slides, or freak snowstorms. Paved but not widened in the mid-1930s, passing oncoming traffic often required backing up to the nearest pullout. Since the bridge could handle rigs no longer than 9.1 metres (30 ft),

1364-583: The rolling stock. In 1898, a few miles south, a freighthopper fell between two cars and was decapitated. While present at the extinguishing of a fire in the tunnel about 7 kilometres (4 mi) north of Spuzzum in 1901, Edmund Juchereau Duchesnay, the CP Assistant General Superintendent of the Pacific Division, was killed by a falling rock. In 1909, two locomotive engineers died and about 30 on board sustained minor injuries when

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1408-470: The southward leg of the new wagon road from the proposed bridge to Pike's Riffle along the west shore, for completion the following spring. The Royal Engineers supervised such work. The road width was 5 metres (17 ft) extended to 7 metres (22 ft) through tunnels and cuttings. When a stage plunged over a cliff below Spuzzum in March 1881, two horses died and two passengers suffered broken legs. Although

1452-416: The steelwork from San Francisco to Yale , from where First Nations completed the conveyance by canoe. Abutments were built upon the bedrock. Stretched over the timber towers of the superstructure were steel cables, from which iron rods were attached to the wooden deck. The construction costs, which Trutch financed, were to be recovered by collecting a specified schedule of tolls (pedestrians being free) over

1496-469: The time, the two villages of Spuzzum and Schwimp of the Nlaka'pamux peoples existed but later possessed the collective name of Spuzzum, meaning "little flat". The boundary between the Upper Sto:lo (Tait) and the Nlaka'pamux peoples was at Sawmill Creek, about 9 kilometres (6 mi) south. In mid-1858, the first miners passed through the area, which began the co-existence and intermarriages between

1540-465: The track in the vicinity. In 1892, a CP employee, thrown from and run over by a handcar nearby, was badly injured. In 1895, after a dump car ran over a track worker, he died in hospital after a foot amputation. In 1896, when an eastbound passenger train struck an intoxicated person in the tunnel, the injuries were fatal. Two months later, a collision between a freight train and a work train 6 kilometres (4 mi) south caused considerable damage to

1584-413: The two cultures. That August, two miners were killed in an encounter with First Nations just below Spuzzum. In retribution, a party of about 40 from Yale travelled north as far as Boston Bar , killed several in battle, and burned their villages to the ground. Historically, summer and winter dwellings, and fishing, hunting, and gathering locations, covered a wide area. From 1860, land was lost to trails,

1628-418: The water's edge. When clearing the track of snow or slides, CP regarded the wellbeing of the road below as an ongoing encumbrance. Commencing in 1848, the ferry at Spuzzum ran intermittently for 10 years, then actively for five more years. In the early 1860s, a reaction ferry operated at Chapmans Bar. However, this may well have been the rope ferry close to the planned bridge site. During construction,

1672-413: The west shore of the ferry in 1862, was the hotel proprietor by 1866. Magistrate E.H. Sanders, whose duties included registering claims, pre-empted the adjacent land south to the creek. A general store has existed at least since 1890. The post office operated 1897–1975. A school existed 1897–1906. During World War I , a military camp was constructed. The former two-storey general store building on

1716-617: Was also sometimes used. Spuzzum Mountain to the northwest is part of the Lillooet Ranges subdivision of the Coast Mountains . The river is narrow and turbulent at Spuzzum. The large bar was worked by placer miners . The location lies in a constricted part of the Fraser Canyon north of the Yale highway tunnel; the area is dominated by granitic or gneissic bedrock. South of the creek,

1760-415: Was awarded the bridge substructure (including towers) contract. In 1926, day labour erected the steel superstructure and the crossing was completed. The new bridge passed over the eastern abutment of the first bridge but the orientation is different. The length is 84 metres (277 ft), and the width is 4.9 metres (16 ft) to the inside curbs. The bridge was an integral part of the reconstruction of

1804-419: Was awarded the reconstruction of the Yale–Spuzzum leg of the road for completion during the following year. In 1947, this section was paved. In 1956–57, contracts were awarded for the replacement of Spuzzum Creek bridge and associated roadwork, lying west of and higher than the railway bridge. In 1957–58, this work was completed. Once the new Alexandra Bridge opened in 1962, the highway bypassed Spuzzum at

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1848-566: Was purchased, but the scheme to form a fire brigade does not appear to have eventuated. In 1996, the BC Hydro substation received a $ 10.3 million upgrade. Better known as the Spuzzum Café, the diner was advertised for sale in April 1995, and from November 1997 to November 1998. The property, which burned to the ground in 2001, was the only remaining business in the community of 14 people. The town

1892-471: Was taken, because the government could not afford this settlement. The expedient solution was the placing of some restrictions upon his government job description. In 1886, the tolls were lifted. During the 1894 flood , one of the cable anchorages was damaged, which twisted the bridge deck, when the river rose 27 metres (90 ft) from low water level. The CP arrival in the early 1880s, had already reduced usage to mainly foot traffic. By 1912, crossing

1936-449: Was widely understood at least a decade earlier. In June 1882, the northward advance of the CP rail head from Yale passed through Spuzzum to a temporary terminus at Alexandra Bridge. That August, a train fatally struck an individual on the track near Spuzzum. In 1885, a member of the section crew was killed nearby when a locomotive struck their handcar . In 1890, a freight train fatally injured an inebriated individual sleeping upon

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