Founded as a trading post by Simon Fraser of the North West Company in August 1806. It was referred to simply as Stuart Lake post until 1822 when it became Fort St. James. The reason for the new name is not known.

Hudson’s Bay Company governor George Simpson, visiting here in 1828, described the post as “the capital of Western Caledonia.” It was in fact the administrative centre for the Hudson Bay Company’s department of New Caledonia. The original buildings have all disappeared, but the local people are making a commendable effort to preserve the three surviving buildings which date from the late nineteenth century.

Labelled “Fort James” on Trutch’s 1871 map, presumably a mistake.

Fort St. James Post Office was opened 1 May 1899, seems to have closed the following year then re-opened 1 May 1905.

Fort George, modern-day Prince George, was a fur trading post founded in 1807 by Simon Fraser [1776–1862] of the North West Company and named after King George III of Great Britain.

The Carrier (Dakelh) name for this place at the meeting of the Nechako and Fraser rivers is Thle-et-leh, meaning “the confluence.”

The fur-trading post Fort Astoria, built by the Pacific Fur Company at the mouth of the Columbia Riverin 1811, was renamed Fort George in 1813 when the North West Company bought out the assets of the Pacific Fur Company.

By 1892, Canadian Pacific Railway surveyor James Adams Mahood [d. 1901] had cut a trail past Indianpoint Lake on his way to Tête Jaune Cache, where he was to meet the Thompson River party of Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn [1824–1902].

A few months later the CPR chose a route far to the south and the trail fell into disuse.

Ancient Forest / Chun T’oh Whudujut Provincial Park was established in 2016.

In the traditional territory of the Lheidli T’enneh (historically known as the Fort George Indian Band), the 11,190 hectare park protects a portion of the only inland temperate rainforest in the world. Thousand year old western red cedars crown a rich biodiversity of plants, mosses, lichens and fungi.

George Evanoff
The Mountain Knows No Expert

Established in 2000, named after George Evanoff [d. 1988], member of the Prince George Land and Resource Management Plan table and active in a variety of outdoors organizations, who died 24 October 1998 as the result of a grizzly attack while hiking in the McGregor Range.

The park is situated in the Hart Ranges of the Canadian Rockies. This park protects one of the most remarkable caves, the nationally significant Fang Cave complex, which includes the ninth longest cave in Canada. Other caves include the Tooth Decave and Window on the West.

The 1,473 hectare park also provides a scenic, easily accessible destination for backcountry recreation. It includes picturesque alpine bowls, three small alpine lakes, and distinctive limestone pinnacles and ridges. Two separate trails, the Fang Trail and Torpy Trail, provide access to small alpine basins, with a connection over Fang Mountain. The Torpy Trail continues outside the park to Torpy Mountain.

A wide, meandering river system containing floodplain wetlands, numerous oxbow lakes, sandbars, back channels, levees, along the glacier-fed North Thompson River. This 515 hectare park protects a wide meandering river system with a high level of diversity.

North Thompson Oxbows East Park was established in 1996 to protect a stretch of wide meandering river system with a high level of diversity in a very productive part of the upper North Thompson River lowlands. This 293 hectare park protects small patches of old growth hybrid spruce and subalpine fir.

Holliday Creek Arch Protected Area was established in 2001 through the efforts of the Robson Valley Land and Resource Management Plan and the Protected Areas Strategy. This small, 395 hectare protected area showcases a magnificent natural stone arch, a very rare feature of provincial significance. In excess of 80 metres wide and 18 metres high, this arch spans a steep, rocky gully. Mountain goats frequent this area, providing visitors an opportunity to view one of the most interesting geological features in the province, and a chance to see mountain goats in their natural habitat.

For almost three decades it has been a designated Ecological Reserve, but it now enjoys status as a Class “A” provincial park. The park has no road access, but it can be reached via an 8 km hiking trail from Highway 16.

BC Parks posted a warning in 2020 that the trail up to the Holliday Creek Arch is in very bad shape with windfall, washouts and several areas where detours are required. Travel is not recommended unless you are prepared for these conditions.

This 1,011 hectare park, establised in 2000, protects interior cedar hemlock forests on a valley slope above the Upper Fraser Trench, leading to alpine/sub-alpine area at the top of Erg Mountain. Erg Mountain has historically been a hiking destination, and offers an excellent viewpoint of the upper Fraser Valley and surrounding mountains. On a good day, Mount Sir Alexander in Kakwa Provincial Park is clearly visible. Extensive alpine ridge-top hiking outside of the park is accessible from the peak of Erg Mountain (not an official name).