More BC Stops :
(At view point on top of Merritt (Hamilton/Hill)
The name commemorates N-kua-la, a local Indian Chief. Settlers in this valley in
1867 named their own village ‘The Forks’. When coal mining and ranching brought the railway in 1906, the settlement was renamed Merritt to honour one of the rail promoters. The collieries are closed, but mining, ranching and lumbering continue to maintain the development of ‘the country of N-kua-la’.
»More
More BC Stops :
(1 mile south of Spences Bridge)
Suddenly on the afternoon of August 13, 1905, the lower side of the mountain slid away. Rumbling across the valley in seconds, the slide buried alive five Indians and dammed the Thompson River for over four hours. The trapped water swept over the nearby Indian village drowning thirteen persons.
»More
More BC Stops :
(At the Hell’s Gate Fishways view point, 17 miles north of Yale) This awesome gorge has always been an obstacle to transportation. Indians used ladders and road builders hung ‘shelves’ to skirt its cliffs. Canoes rarely dared its whirlpools, only one sternwheeler fought it successfully. Railroads and highways challenged it with tunnels and bridges, but today man and nature still battle for supremacy.
»More
More BC Stops :
(In Skihist Campground on Highway 1, 5 miles east of Lytton)
Water, cutting deeply into the pre-glacial floor of this valley over countless centuries, has gradually eroded the almost vertical dykes of the mountain of solid rock. The awesome display of crags and cliffs is vivid evidence of the might of the river and the ceaseless power of water at work. In place like this, man sees his true size.
»More
More BC Stops :
(At the Alexander Bridge on the Fraser, north of Spuzzum)
Construction of the Alexander suspension bridge was the greatest achievement of one of British Columbia’s first civil engineers, Joseph Trutch. Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works after 1864, he sat on the colony’s Legislative Council. He led the delegation in 1870 which negotiated the terms of union with Canada and from 1871-76 served as the province’s first lieutenant-governor.
»More
