The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a

goldrush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Ze ...

-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the

Lillooet Cattle Trail The Lillooet Cattle Trail, also known as the Lillooet-Burrard Cattle Trail and also as the Lillooet Trail, was an unusual and daring public works undertaking by the Province of British Columbia in the 1877, and was the largest 19th century public ...

, which used some of the same route but was built 25 years later). Over 30,000 men are reckoned to have travelled the route in, although by the end of the 1860s it was virtually abandoned due to the construction of the

Cariboo Wagon Road The Cariboo Road (also called the Cariboo Wagon Road, the Great North Road or the Queen's Highway) was a project initiated in 1860 by the Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, James Douglas. It involved a feat of engineering stretching fr ...

, which bypassed the region.

History

Originally traversed by

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

employees in 1828 and charted by HBC explorer

Alexander Caulfield Anderson Alexander Caulfield Anderson (10 March 1814 – 8 May 1884) was a British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fur-trader, explorer of British Columbia and civil servant. Anderson joined HBC in 1831 and emigrated to Canada from Europe. He was placed ...

in 1846, the route was heavily travelled by prospectors seeking to avoid the dangers of the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser ...

to access the gold-bearing bars of the

Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal e ...

around today's

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abo ...

. Pressure for an alternative route to the Upper Fraser had mounted in the wake of the

Fraser Canyon War The Fraser Canyon War, also known as the Canyon War or the Fraser River War, was an incident between the Nlaka'pamux people and white miners in the newly declared Colony of British Columbia, which later became part of Canada, in 1858. It occurr ...

of the winter of 1859, and miners were wary of travelling through the territory of the

Nlaka'pamux The Nlaka'pamux or Nlakapamuk ( ; ), also previously known as the ''Thompson'', ''Thompson River Salish'', ''Thompson Salish'', ''Thompson River Indians'' or ''Thompson River people'', and historically as the ''Klackarpun'', ''Haukamaugh'', ''Kni ...

(Thompson Indians), even though the war was over. Thousands had travelled the route already, in nightmarish conditions including heavy rain and even heavier infestations of

mosquitos Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "litt ...

, when Governor

Sir James Douglas James Douglas may refer to: Scottish noblemen Lords of Angus * James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Angus (1426–1446), Scottish nobleman * James Douglas, Earl of Angus (1671–1692), son of the 2nd Marquess of Douglas Lords of Douglas * James Douglas, ...

decided to formalize the route with the construction of a wagon road over the land portions in order to avert starvation among the thousands already on the upper

. As one of the first acts of the newly incorporated

Colony of British Columbia The Colony of British Columbia refers to one of two colonies of British North America, located on the Pacific coast of modern-day Canada: *Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) *Colony of British Columbia (1866–1871) See also *History of Br ...

, the Governor commissioned the building of the road in an unusual road-development scheme whereby men willing to work on the road would invest twenty-five dollars each, which would be paid back in goods upon reaching Cayoosh (

). In 1858 five hundred men, in two teams of two hundred fifty, a cosmopolitan mix of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

Mexicans Mexicans ( es, mexicanos) are the citizens of the United Mexican States. The most spoken language by Mexicans is Spanish language, Spanish, but some may also speak languages from 68 different Languages of Mexico, Indigenous linguistic groups ...

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

ns,

Kanakas Kanakas were workers (a mix of voluntary and involuntary) from various Pacific Islands employed in British colonies, such as British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Queensland (Australia) in the 19t ...

(Hawaiians),

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

and others signed up for the job. Controversy erupted at the end of construction over whether prices at the

Port Douglas Port Douglas is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Douglas, Queensland, Australia, approximately 60 km north of Cairns. In the , Port Douglas had a population of 3,504 people. The town's population can often double, however, with the in ...

end of the trail or the more expensive rates at

would be used to reckon the reimbursement as promised. The Governor settled finally on the cheaper

prices. But the construction work was of very poor condition, such that when the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

resurveyed the route a year later it was unusable, and further public funds were dedicated to fixing and improving it, adding bridges and taking down steep hills. Despite their efforts the route was little-used by 1861 or so, although it remained in use by locals and the occasional traveller for years afterwards. Regular steamer service to and from

ended in the 1890s, although small-steamer traffic on

Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson ...

and Seton Lakes continued for decades after, ending on Seton Lake only in the 1950s.

Route

Starting at Port Douglas (now abandoned) a trail led to 25 Mile House (abandoned and lost) From there a trail by boat and road went to Port Pemberton. A trail then went into Pemberton and made a wide turn to Port Anderson. from there another water to road went straight to Lillooet. Where it joined the old Cariboo road.

Description

The route begins at

Port Douglas, British Columbia Port Douglas, sometimes referred to simply as Douglas, is a remote community in British Columbia, Canada at east of the mouth of the Lillooet River, and at the head of Harrison Lake, which is the head of river navigation from the Strait of Georgi ...

, at the head of

Harrison Lake Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada, being about 250 square kilometres (95 mi²) in area. It is about 60 km (37 mi) in length and at its widest almost 9 km (5.6 mi) across. Its so ...

and the head of river navigation from the Strait of Georgia. From there a land portion of the route follows the lower

Lillooet River The Lillooet River is a major river of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. It begins at Silt Lake, on the southern edge of the Lillooet Crown Icecap about 80 kilometres northwest of Pemberton and about 85 kilometres northwest of W ...

to Port Lillooet at the south end of

Lillooet Lake Lillooet Lake is a lake in British Columbia, Canada about 25 km in length and about 33.5 square kilometres (22 mi²) in area. It is about 95 km downstream from the source of the Lillooet River, which resumes its course after leavi ...

, where steamers and canoes carried travellers to Port Pemberton, at the mouth of the

Birkenhead River The Birkenhead River, formerly known as the Portage River, the Pole River and the Mosquito River, is a major tributary of the Lillooet River, which via Harrison Lake and the Harrison River is one of the major tributaries of the lower Fraser River. ...

near present-day Mount Currie. The next land portion of the route, known as the Long Portage or the Pemberton Portage, follows the lower

then diverges from it to Birken Lake (a.k.a. Summit Lake or Gates Lake) and then via the

Gates River The Gates River is a short river in the Lillooet Country of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Approximately 14.5 km in length, it flows generally northeast from the outlet of Birken Lake (aka Gates Lake or Summit Lake) to it ...

to present-day D'Arcy at the head of Anderson Lake, then known as Port Anderson. From there a motley variety of watercraft, including the "Lady of The Lake", a small steamer and the ubiquitous native

canoe A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the term ...

, ferried travellers to the Short Portage (today known as

Seton Portage Seton Portage () is a community located on a narrow strip of land between Anderson Lake and Seton Lake in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia. The community is home to two Seton Lake First Nation communities at either end of t ...

).http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/bchf/bchq_1946_1.pdf There packers and ultimately a short mule-drawn "railway" shuttled men and freight to the head of Seton Lake, where another collection of steamers carried them to the foot of that lake and a final five-mile wagon road to the boomtowns of Cayoosh Flat, Parsonville and Marysville (today's

). In response to the

Cariboo Gold Rush The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later joined the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly Rive ...

, a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically ...

from there to

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

was built by entrepreneur

Gustavus Blin Wright Gustavus Blin Wright (June 22, 1830 – April 8, 1898) was a pioneer roadbuilder and entrepreneur in British Columbia, Canada. His biggest achievement was building the Old Cariboo Road to the Cariboo gold fields, from Lillooet to Fort Alexandria, ...

, followed the

for about twenty miles, then cut up eastwards onto the

Cariboo Plateau The Cariboo Plateau is a volcanic plateau in south-central British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Fraser Plateau that itself is a northward extension of the North American Plateau. The southern limit of the plateau is the Bonaparte River alth ...

via the town of Clinton, where the later

met the older route.

was numbered as "Mile 0" of this road, with its roadhouses taking their name from their distance from a certain point on

's Main Street.

References

* *{{Citation , last = Ormsby , author-link = Margaret Ormsby , first = Margaret A. , title = British Columbia: A History , place = Vancouver , publisher = Macmillans in Canada , year = 1958 , pages = 180–187 , isbn = 0-7748-0039-9