Alexandria, British Columbia

Alexandria or Fort Alexandria is a National historic site on the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada and was the end of the Old Cariboo Road and the Cariboo Wagon Road. It is located on Highway 97, 103 miles north of 100 Mile House and 28 miles south of Quesnel.

History

On June 21st, 1793, explorer Alexander MacKenzie reached the shores of the First Nations village at what would become Alexandria. He was told by the people of the village that the river was not safe for navigiaton beyond that point. Mackenzie heeded their advice and he and his party turned around and returned upriver to what would become the town of Quesnellemouth, (later Quesnel) and continued on to Bella Coola.cite book |last=Ramsey |first=Bruce |title=Ghost Towns of British Columbia|year=1963|publisher=Mitchell Press|isbn=Unknown|pages= page 32] In 1821, the North West Company erected a fort at Alexandria, the last the company would build before it was merged the same year with the Hudson's Bay Company. They also built a grainery and wintered their horses there. that would serve travellers on the Old Cariboo Road once the road's construction was completed in 1863.

When the road was completed as far as Alexandria, the road-builder Gustavus Blin Wright launched his sternwheeler "Enterprise" at Alexandria. The "Enterprise" would ferry passengers and supplies up the Fraser River to Quesnel. [cite book |last=Downs |first=Art |title=Paddlewheels on the Frontier Volume 1|year=1971|publisher=Foremost Publishing|isbn=0888260334|pages= pages 47-49] From Quesnel, a wagon road was built in 1864 so travellers could continue on to Barkerville. [http://www.goldrushtrail.net/indexgrt.asp?p=271]

Another road to the gold fields had been planned to Alexandria, this one from Bute Inlet by entrepreneur Alfred Waddington. However, this road would never be built and its plans would be the harbinger of tragedy. In the spring of 1864, when members of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) First Nations learned of the plans to build the road through the Homathko River Valley to the gold fields at Barkerville, they feared both infringement on their territory and the increased threat of smallpox, (an epidemic that had already killed many of their people) and eight Tsilhqot'in men, led by Klatsassin, attacked one of Waddington's work camps, killing fourteen road construction workers. [ [http://greatcanadianrivers.com/rivers/klinaklini/history-home.html The KLINAKLINI RIVER "Great Canadian Rivers" ] ]

Notes

ee also

* List of ghost towns in British Columbia
* List of National Historic Sites of Canada

Book references

* "Ghost Towns of British Columbia" Bruce Ramsey Mitchell Press, Vancouver, 1963, OCLC: 39371 ISBN Unknown
*"Paddlewheels on the Frontier" Volume One, Art Downs ISBN 0888260334

External links

* [http://greatcanadianrivers.com/rivers/klinaklini/history-home.html Waddington's Road and the "Chilcotin War"]
* [http://www.goldrushtrail.net/indexgrt.asp?p=271 Construction details of the Cariboo Road]
* [http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/klatsassin/archives/map/indexen.html Detailed maps of the region from Canadian Mysteries: Klatsassin and the Chilcotin War]