South BC-NW USA-relief CaribooplusChilcotin

The Cariboo is an

intermontane Intermontane is a physiographic adjective formed from the prefix " inter-" (''signifying among, between, amid, during, within, mutual, reciprocal'') and the adjective "montane" (inhabiting, or growing in mountainous regions, especially cool, moi ...

region of British Columbia, Canada, centered on a plateau stretching from Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. The name is a reference to the

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

that were once abundant in the region. The Cariboo was the first region of the interior north of the lower

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

and its canyon to be settled by non-indigenous people, and played an important part in the early history of the colony and province. The boundaries of the Cariboo proper in its historical sense are debatable, but its original meaning was the region north of the forks of the

Quesnel River The Quesnel River is a major tributary of the Fraser River in the Cariboo District of central British Columbia. It begins at the outflow of Quesnel Lake, at the town of Likely, British Columbia, Likely and flows for about northwest to its conflu ...

and the low mountainous basins between the mouth of that river on the Fraser at the city of Quesnel and the northward end of the Cariboo Mountains, an area that is mostly in the Quesnel Highland and focused on several now-famous gold-bearing creeks near the head of the Willow River. The richest of them all, Williams Creek, is the location of Barkerville, which was the capital of the Cariboo Gold Rush and also of government officialdom for decades afterwards (it is now a museum town). The Cariboo goldfields are underpopulated today but were once the most settled and most significant of the regions of interior British Columbia. As settlement spread southwards of this area, flanking the route of the

Cariboo 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 fro ...

and spreading out through the rolling plateaus and benchlands of the Cariboo Plateau and lands adjoining it along the Fraser and

Thompson Thompson may refer to: People * Thompson (surname) * Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician Places Australia *Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality Bulgaria * Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province Canada * ...

rivers, the meaning changed to include a wider area than just the goldfields. The grasslands of the Cariboo are home to the regionally endangered American badger (''Taxidea taxus jeffersonii'').

Name

As early as 1861, Governor Douglas used the name Cariboo to describe the area in dispatches to Britain.

Notable towns

North Cariboo: *

Quesnel Quesnel or Quesnell means "little oak" in the Picard dialect of French. It is used as a proper name and may refer to: Places * Le Quesnel, a commune the Somme department in France * Quesnel, British Columbia, a city in British Columbia, Canada ...

Wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

Likely Likely may refer to: *Probability *Likelihood function *Likely (surname) *Likely, British Columbia, Canada, a community * Likely, California, United States, a census-designated place * Likely McBrien (1892-1956), leading Australian rules football ...

* Barkerville *

McLeese Lake McLeese Lake, originally Mud Lake, is a lake in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the Cariboo Highway Highway 97 is a major highway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the longest continuously ...

Central Cariboo: * Williams Lake *

Horsefly Horse-flies or horseflies are true flies in the family Tabanidae in the insect order Diptera. They are often large and agile in flight, and only the female horseflies bite animals, including humans, to obtain blood. They prefer to fly in sun ...

150 Mile House 150 Mile House (also referred to as "the 50") is an unincorporated community of 1,172 people in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. It is located 15 km (9 mi) southeast of Williams Lake on Highway 97. 150 Mile House was an important ...

* Lac La Hache South Cariboo: *

100 Mile House 100 Mile House is a district municipality located in the South Cariboo region of central British Columbia, Canada. History 100 Mile House was originally known as Bridge Creek House, named after the creek running through the area. Its origins ...

Forest Grove A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

Interlakes The Interlakes, also known as the Interlakes District, is a geographic region of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located along and around the Interlakes Highway between 100 Mile House on BC Highway 97 and Little Fort on the North Tho ...

* Lone Butte * 70 Mile House *

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

References

External links

Information on the South Cariboo
{{coord, 52, 00, N, 122, 00, W, source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title History of British Columbia Interior of British Columbia

Name

Notable towns

See also

References

External links