Clinton is a

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 ...

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, located approximately northwest of Cache Creek and 30 km south of 70 Mile House. It is considered by some to straddle the southern edge of the

Cariboo The Cariboo is an intermontane 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 (North America), caribou that were once abundant in the reg ...

country of British Columbia, although others consider Ashcroft-Cache Creek, Lillooet, Savona, Kamloops and even Lytton and Spences Bridge to be in the Cariboo. Clinton, however, does sit immediately below the southern edge of the

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

. Clinton has a number of attractions including horse-back riding, big game viewing, hiking, fishing and other outdoor activities. Every May, Clinton is home to the Annual Ball held on the Victoria Day weekend, where many people dress as the first settlers did. The Annual Ball kicks off the Village's Heritage week with the parade and the May rodeo and dance ending Heritage week. The Clinton Annual Ball is one of British Columbia's oldest continual events having first been held in 1867 and was a highlight of the social calendar in the

British Columbia Interior The British Columbia Interior, popularly referred to as the BC Interior or simply the Interior, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. While the exact boundaries are variously defined, the British Columbia Interior ...

for many decades. The Clinton Museum, built in 1892, has a number of historical artifacts on display that date back to the gold rush and founding of the area.

Name origin

Originally known as Cut-Off Valley, "47 Mile House" or "47 Mile", Clinton was named in 1863 upon completion of the Cariboo Wagon Road in the area for Henry Fiennes Pelham Clinton, the 5th

Duke of Newcastle Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, Willi ...

, who was colonial secretary in 1854 and from 1859 to 1864.

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 ...

, Clinton had a population of 568 living in 291 of its 336 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 641. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Transportation

Highway 97 runs through the village north-south, meeting just south of downtown with the Pavilion Mountain Road, which connects from

Pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

and Kelly Lake and is the route of the Old Cariboo Road and follows what is known as Cut-Off Valley from the foot of the road over

Pavilion Mountain Pavilion Mountain is the highest summit of the southern Marble Range in the South Cariboo region of southwestern British Columbia. "Mount Carson", a subsidiary peak, was misapplied to the whole mountain 1957–1965, before the well-established l ...

, which is also the route used by the British Columbia Railway although that route does not traverse Pavilion Mountain but comes via the Fraser Canyon via Moran and Arden Forest. The ranching communities of

Jesmond Jesmond ( ) is a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, situated north of the city centre and to the east of the Town Moor. Jesmond is considered to be one of the most affluent suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne, with higher aver ...

, Kostering and Big Bar can be accessed via a road which has its junction with the Pavilion Mountain Road at Kelly Lake, which is also the location of Downing Provincial Park, which encompasses that lake. The same road is the access for Edge Hills and Marble Range Provincial Parks and also for the Big Bar Ferry to the west side of the

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

, which connects to the Slok Creek FSR to

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 ...

. Clinton was, until adoption of its present name, known as "47 Mile House", that being the distance from Lillooet on the Old Cariboo Road. Also diverging from Highway 97 at Clinton is the route of the original

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 was built in response to the Cariboo Gold Rus ...

, which climbs a gentler grade up the side of the Bonaparte River valley up to the

, via Chasm and the associated provincial park and the community of Lone Butte. The BCR line also follows roughly the same route and has stops at Chasm, Lone Butte and the Flying U Ranch, one of the province's oldest

dude ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agrotourism. History Guest ranches arose in response to the romanticization of the American West that began to occur ...

es. Other roads lead east from the Cariboo Road routing to Bonaparte Lake and Bonaparte Provincial Park and various provincial parks in that area. Loon Lake is accessed via the Loon Lake Road, which departs Highway 97 eastwards to the south of Clinton.

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Villages in British Columbia Populated places in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District Geography of the Cariboo Bonaparte Country