1 mile south of Yale
This was the head of navigation on the Fraser River. Founded in 1848 as a Hudson’s Bay Co. fur post, Fort Yale later became a roaring gold-rush town and for 20 years was the starting point of the famous Cariboo Wagon Road. Yale faded with the gold-rush but boomed again in CPR construction days as a wide open western town.
In 1848, the Hudson's Bay Co. established a fort here along the Fraser River, named after one of the Company employees, J.M. Yale. The fort was abandoned a year later as it proved difficult to get to.
Ten years later when gold was discovered and miners flooded the area, the post was reopened. When the Cariboo Road opened in 1863, Yale became the starting point for travel to the interior. During the 1860's, Yale boomed and rivaled the colony's capital, New Westminster, in size and importance. However, when the gold rushes were over the town also diminished.
In 1879, Yale experienced another period of growth when Andrew Onderdonk received the contract to build the Fraser Canyon portion of the Canadian Pacific transcontinental railway. When the railway was completed, the town shrank once more. In 1911, construction of the second transcontinental line, the Canadian Northern, on the opposite bank, caused Yale to boom for the third time in its history. Riverboat traffic was briefly revived, but faded for good the following year. Today Yale bears few traces of the boom town of former days.
