Port Douglas, sometimes referred to simply as Douglas, is a remote community 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 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 ...

at east of the mouth of the

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 ...

, and 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 sou ...

, which is the head of river navigation from the

Strait of Georgia The Strait of Georgia () or the Georgia Strait is an arm of the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the extreme southwestern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada, and the extreme northwestern mainland coast of Washington, United Stat ...

. Port Douglas was the second major settlement of any size on the British Columbia mainland (after

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

) during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. It came into being in 1858 when Governor Douglas ordered that it be laid out. From Port Douglas 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 ...

a mixed land and water route was built, named the

Douglas Road The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior Plateau, Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cat ...

, the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route. During its rowdy heyday, Port Douglas's population numbered in the thousands, and many of the B.C. mainland's first companies had their start here, including the famous B.X. Express and other freighting companies that relocated to 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 Ca ...

with the completion of the Cariboo Wagon Road in the mid-1860s. Port Douglas dwindled in size rapidly with the abandonment of the

. Today, there is nothing left - other than the place-name and the adopted name of the local First Nation, the Douglas Band of the In-SHUCK-ch Nation. A land alienation pattern on the lakeshore to the southwest of Douglas, across the mouth of the

and down the lake a bit, remains on the map as Tipella City (also known as Tipella, or Tipella Hot Springs). It was a port and land-promotion scheme from 1898 that never went far, although a number of investors and buyers were taken in by it. The port was a wharf for the Moneyspinner silver mine at Fire Lake which operated for a few years. Regular

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

traffic to Port Douglas from

Georgia Strait The Strait of Georgia () or the Georgia Strait is an arm of the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the extreme southwestern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada, and the extreme northwestern mainland coast of Washington (state), Wash ...

and

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the cap ...

via 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 ...

ended in the 1890s, although the town was already in decline, only a handful of non-native residents remained. In the 1970s, a large logging operation bulldozed the last remains of the town, which were only vestiges of a few foundations. Both Port Douglas and the

, as well as the Douglas Ranges to the west of

, were named in honour of the first governor of the

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 ...

, Sir James Douglas. The

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...

community of Xa'xtsa, home to the Douglas First Nation, who are part of the St'at'imc cultural group but have many ties to the Sto:lo of the Lower Mainland, is located on Douglas Indian Reserve No. 8BC Names/GeoBC Names entry "Douglas 8 (Indian reserve)"
/ref> which is across Little Harrison Lake, as the bay which became the site of the steamer port is known, from the location of what had been Port Douglas proper. The name Port Douglas today generally refers to that community and its location, as nothing remains of the frontier-era town.

References

{{reflist Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Lillooet Country