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Fort Yale
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Fort Yale in 1867 with the SS Captain Irving in dock (credit: BC Archives #A-00316)
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Built in 1848 Fort Yale was a very quiet Hudson's Bay Co. post until ten years later when thousands of gold miners arrived, and it became a Townsite and supply centre on the lower Fraser. By 1860 there were reported to be as many as 700 or 800 people residing there, and as the population increased, the town became a haven for many types of outlaws and criminals such as Ned McGowan and his cohorts, not to say that there weren't just as many upstanding and honest citizens.
Yale was a wild and wooly town for a few years, but as the Goldrush moved north into the Interior, it faded from view, revived for a short time during railway construction in the early 1880s.
Today Yale is an historic tourist destination with a permanent population of 169. (Encyclopedia of B.C., p.785)
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St. John the Divine, Yale B.C. (credit: Branwen C. Patenaude). The Church of England, St. John the Divine church was built in Yale in 1859 and still stands today making it one of the oldest Christian churches in BC.
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Pioneers of Yale
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All Hallows School, Yale (credit: B.C. Archives #A-03610). This
was a private girls school which had once been the residence of
Andrew Onderdonk, contractor of the CPR Railway construction in
the Fraser Canyon during the 1880s.
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All text and images
© Quesnel & District Museum and Archives unless otherwise
noted. Thanks to the B.C. Archives for permission to show various
images. Thanks to the BC Encyclopedia for permission to quote information
on the roadhouse communities. Thanks to the Living Landscapes Project,
the Royal British Columbia Museum, Ministry of Community, Aboriginal
and Women's Services for their support of site development.
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