×

The History of the Fraser River (British Columbia, Canada)

Fraser River

Today we are going to talk about the Fraser River. The Fraser River is the longest river inside British Columbia, Canada, growing at Fraser Pass close to Blackrock Mountain within the Rocky Mountains and flowing for 1,375 kilometres (854 mi), into the Strait of Georgia simply south of the City of Vancouver. It is the eleventh longest river in Canada.[citation needed] The river's annual discharge at its mouth is 112 cubic kilometres (27 cu mi) or 3,550 cubic metres consistent with second (125,000 cu ft/s), and it discharges 20 million lots of sediment into the ocean.

The river, additionally called the Salmon River, carries tens of thousands and thousands of salmon, which swim into the sea and lower back to the river to spawn. The Fraser became named after explorer Simon Fraser who led the 1808 North West Company day trip from Prince George to the river’s mouth. It became a crucial meal supply and transportation direction for the indigenous human beings earlier than the Europeans arrived. The Fraser River precipitated a devastating flood in Vancouver in 1948, killing ten human beings and reducing the town nearly completely from the relaxation of the country.

History

On June 14, 1792, the Spanish explorers Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés entered and anchored inside the North Arm of the Fraser River, turning into the primary Europeans to locate and input it. The life of the river, however now no longer its location, have been deduced at some point of the 1791 voyage of José María Narváez, below Francisco de Eliza. The top reaches of the Fraser River had been first explored through Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1793, and absolutely traced through Simon Fraser in 1808, who showed that it turned into now no longer linked with the Columbia River.

In 1828 George Simpson visited the river, specifically to study Fort Langley and decide whether or not it'd be appropriate because of the Hudson's Bay Company's essential Pacific depot. Simpson had believed the Fraser River was probably navigable in the course of its length, despite the fact that Simon Fraser had defined it as non-navigable. Simpson journeyed down the river and via the Fraser Canyon and afterwards wrote "I ought to take into account the passage down, to be positive Death, in 9 tries out of Ten. I shall consequently no longer communicate approximately it as a navigable stream". His ride down the river satisfied him that Fort Langley couldn't update Fort Vancouver because the company's essential depot at the Pacific coast.

Much of British Columbia's records has been safe to the Fraser, in part as it changed into the vital course among the Interior and the Lower Coast after the lack of the lands south of the forty ninth Parallel with the Oregon Treaty of 1846. It changed into the web website online of its first recorded settlements of Aboriginal people (see Musqueam, Sto:lo, St'at'imc, Secwepemc and Nlaka'pamÅ­), the course of multitudes of prospectors at some point of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush and the primary automobile of the province's early trade and industry. In 1998, the river changed into a Canadian Heritage River for its herbal and human heritage. It is the longest river with that designation.

Fishing

The Fraser River is known for the fishing of white sturgeon, all 5 species of Pacific salmon (chinook, coho, chum, pink, sockeye), in addition to steelhead trout. A usual white sturgeon trap can commonly produce approximately 500 pounds (230 kg). A white sturgeon weighing an predicted 500 kilograms (1,one hundred lb) and measuring 3.seventy six metres (12 feet four in) became stuck and launched at the Fraser River in July 2012. In 2021, a white sturgeon became stuck at the river weighing 890 pounds (four hundred kg), with a duration of 890 cm (29.2 feet). It was predicted to be over one hundred years old. The fish became tagged and launched.

Flooding

After European settlement, the primary disastrous flood within the Fraser Valley took place in 1894. With no safety towards the growing waters of the Fraser River, Fraser Valley groups from Chilliwack downstream had been inundated with water. In the 1894 floods, the watermark at Mission reached 7.eighty five metres (25.seventy five ft). After the 1894 flood, a dyking machine was built at some point in the Fraser Valley.

The dyking and drainage tasks substantially stepped forward the flood problems, however over time, the dykes had been allowed to fall into disrepair and have become overgrown with brush and trees. With a few dykes built of a wood frame, they gave manner in 1948 in numerous locations, marking the second one disastrous flood. Flooding on account that 1948 has been minor in comparison. 1948 flood Edit 1948 noticed big flooding in Chilliwack and different regions alongside the Fraser River. The high-water mark at Mission rose to 7.5 metres (24.7 ft). The height waft turned into approximately 15,six hundred cubic meters in step with second.

Economic importance

The Fraser River is one of the most vital rivers in BC as it helps numerous financial sports within the province. The coniferous wooded area cowl helps wooded areas inside the river basin, with the pulp generators the use of the water from the river to process wood and different products. The river banks also are fertile farmlands that aid a whole lot of crops. The Fraser is likewise a famous fishing floor for Pacific salmon, white sturgeons, and steelhead trout. It holds Canada’s biggest sturgeon populace and is the world’s biggest sockeye salmon producer.

Course

The Fraser River starts on the Fraser Pass within British Columbia’s Rockies, placed a few 2,one hundred forty five meters above sea level. The river flows north from the mountain supply to the Yellowhead Highway and gets the Yellowhead Creek, which originates from the Yellowhead Lake (additionally placed in Mount Robson Provincial Park). It turns west to the Robson Valley and Rocky Mountain Trench, then northwestwards beyond Latitude fifty four tiers north. At Giscome Portage, the Fraser River's flip southwards and gets the Nechako River at Prince George.

Then it maintains its southward adventure via the Fraser Plateau, forming the Fraser Canyon at its confluence with the Chilcotin River in William Lake. The Seton and Bridge Rivers are part of Fraser at Lillooet, and the Thomson River joins at Lytton. From Lytton, the river flows among the Cascade and Lilloote to Yale. At Hope, the Fraser turns west, then southwest, in which it splits into North and South Arms and paperwork a delta because it drains into the Strait of Georgia.