Riske Creek, originally Chilcoten and also Chilcotin, is a

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...

ing and

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

community located on the Fraser River just southwest of the city of

Williams Lake, British Columbia Williams Lake is a city in the Central Interior of British Columbia, in the central part of a region known as the Cariboo. Williams Lake is the second largest city, by population of metropolitan area, in the Cariboo after neighbouring Quesnel. ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is the location of the offices of the Toosey First Nation, a band government of Tsilhqot'in people in the vicinity, and also of two of the bridges crossing the Fraser. The older bridge, which is a suspension bridge similar to the bridges at Alexandra and Lillooet, was built c.1912 to bring cattle from ranches on the west side of the Fraser to the railways for export, the newer is a concrete-and-steel span built to improve access for logging trucks to the Chilcotin, which is the name of the region on the west side of the Fraser and is now the route of the Chilcotin Highway connecting Williams Lake to Bella Coola. In the spring of 1944, the Canadian Army established #4 Special Wireless Station presumably to intercept Japanese radio communications. However, the station closed in July of the same year without ever becoming operational.

Name origin

The name is an adaptation of that of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

immigrant and rancher, L.W. Riskie, who settled here sometime before 1872, and was the first postmaster as of 1886. The post office was then named "Chilcoten" and then renamed "Chilcotin" in 1911, with the current name being adopted in 1912.

References

{{reflist Populated places on the Fraser River Populated places in the Chilcotin Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Fraser Canyon

Name origin

See also

References