Cache Creek is a historic transportation junction and incorporated
village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
northeast of
Vancouver
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
in
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, Canada. It is on the
Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...
in the province of
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
at a junction with
Highway 97. The same intersection and the town that grew around it was at the point on the
Cariboo Wagon Road where a branch road, and previously only a trail, led east to
Savona's Ferry on
Kamloops Lake
Kamloops Lake in British Columbia, Canada is situated on the Thompson River just west of Kamloops. The lake is 1.6 km wide, 29 km long, and up to 152 m deep. In prehistoric time, the lake was much longer, perhaps 20x, with adjacent sil ...
. This community is also the point at which a small stream, once known as Riviere de la Cache, joins the Bonaparte River.
[Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; 1001 British Columbia Place Names; Discovery Press, Vancouver 1969, 1970, 1973, p. 35]
The name is derived, apparently, from a ''cache'' or buried and hidden supply and trade goods depot used by the fur traders of either the
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
or its rival the
North West Company
The North West Company was a Fur trade in Canada, Canadian fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in the regions that later became Western Canada a ...
. Although it was first incorporated as a Local District municipality with the name Cache Creek in 1959, the name has been associated with this community since long before incorporation. The Cache Creek post office was established in 1868.
Although still very active with traffic, Cache Creek was extremely busy for a few decades before the
Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...
was superseded by the newer and shorter
Coquihalla Highway, which bypasses 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 ...
and
Thompson Canyons between
Hope
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large.
As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...
and
Kamloops
Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the North Thompson River, North and South Thompson Rivers, which join to become the Thompson River in Kamloops, and east of Kamloops Lake. The city is the ad ...
via
Merritt, about southeast.
The nearby fossil locality, the
McAbee fossil beds, is noted for the wide diversity of
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...
plants and animals preserved in the shale, including the extinct plants ''
Dillhoffia''
and ''
Trochodendron drachukii''.
The town lends its name to significant geological features, dating back to the
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...
, whose rocks are exposed in the area,
Cache Creek terrane and
Cache Creek Ocean.
The village of Cache Creek is also served by a
community television station (run by the Ash-Creek Television Society), CH4472 in the neighbouring town of
Ashcroft Ashcroft may refer to:
Places
* Ashcroft, British Columbia, a village in Canada
**Ashcroft House in Bagpath, Gloucestershire, England—eponym of the Canadian village
* Ashcroft, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia
* Ashcroft, Colorado, ...
on
VHF channel 4 (with an effective radiated power of 74 watts at
above ground level
In aviation, atmospheric sciences and broadcasting, a height above ground level (AGL or HAGL) is a height measured with respect to the underlying ground surface. This is as opposed to height above mean sea level (AMSL or HAMSL), height above elli ...
), with a repeater (CH4473 on VHF 8, with an effective radiated power of 49 watts at ) in Cache Creek, British Columbia. The town is also served by
CFMA-FM 105.9, a
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial broadcasting, commercial and public broadcasting.
Community broadcasting, Community stations serve geographic communities and communities o ...
station run by the Ash-Creek Television Society.
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...
, Cache Creek had a population of 969 living in 471 of its 522 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 963. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
See also
*
Cache Creek terrane
References
External links
*
*
{{authority control
Villages in British Columbia
Populated places in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District
Thompson Country