Soda Creek is a rural subdivision 38 km north of Williams Lake 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. Located on the east bank 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 ...

, Soda Creek was originally the home of the

Xat'sull First Nation Xatśūll First Nation formerly known as Soda Creek Indian Band, is a First Nations government of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation, located in the Cariboo region of the Central Interior region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was cr ...

. Soda Creek Indian Reserve No. 1 is located on the left (E) bank of the Fraser River, one mile south of the Soda Creek BCR (CN) station, 431.10 ha. Xat'sull means "on the cliff where the bubbling water comes out". European settlement began in the 1860s with the onset of the

Cariboo Gold Rush The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly Ri ...

and the building of the

Old Cariboo Road The Old Cariboo Road is a reference to the original wagon road to the Cariboo gold fields in what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. It should not be confused with the Cariboo Road, which was built slightly later and used a differen ...

History

The Old Cariboo Road was built from

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 ...

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, beginning in 1859 and completed to Soda Creek in 1863. The roadbuilder for that section was

Gustavus Blin Wright Gustavus Blin Wright (June 22, 1830 – April 8, 1898) was a pioneer roadbuilder and entrepreneur in British Columbia, Canada. His biggest achievement was building the Old Cariboo Road to the Cariboo gold fields, from Lillooet, British Columbia, Li ...

. While Wright was overseeing the construction of the road he was also arranging with his associates for the building of a

sternwheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...

steamer that could take travelers to Quesnellemouthe, (later shortened to

Quesnel Quesnel or Quesnell means "little oak" in the Picard language, Picard dialect of French language, 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 c ...

) where they could then travel east to

Barkerville Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia, Canada, and is preserved as a historic town. It is located on the north slope of the Cariboo Plateau near the Cariboo Mountains east of Quesnel. BC Highway 26, which ...

. The Fraser River was not considered navigable by sternwheeler north of

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 ...

due to many hazardous rapids and canyons. However, from Soda Creek to Quesnel, the Fraser was relatively free of obstructions, therefore Soda Creek was the logical terminus for sternwheelers on the upper Fraser River. The ''

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterpris ...

'' was launched in the spring of 1863 and most of the travelers on their way to the goldfields, by foot, horseback, or wagon, took the ''Enterprise'' as the wagon road would not be not completed to Quesnel until 1865. Colonial Hotel

With the launching of the ''Enterprise'' the government placed a land reserve on Soda Creek. Almost at once land lots were sold.

Robert McLeese Robert McLeese (June 28, 1828 – March 27, 1898) was an Irish-born hotel keeper, store owner, owner of a sternwheel river boat and political figure in British Columbia. He represented Cariboo in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia ...

, Joseph T.Senay, Robert A. Collins,

Peter Dunlevy Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, Henry Yeates, and George Hendricks, were some, who built hotels, stores, blacksmith shops and saloons on the site. In 1869 Wright added a second sternwheeler to the route, the ''

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

''. Both sternwheelers worked on the route until 1871, when the ''Enterprise'' was taken up north to Takla Landing to deliver supplies and miners to the

Omineca Gold Rush The Omineca Gold Rush was a gold rush in British Columbia, Canada, in the Omineca Country, Omineca region of the Northern Interior of the province. Gold was first discovered there in 1861, but the rush did not begin until late in 1869 with the disc ...

The ''Enterprise'' didn't return and the ''Victoria'' worked alone for the next 15 years until she was taken off the river in 1886. By then the gold rushes were over and Soda Creek slumbered until the construction of the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National ...

The second boom

Following the initial stampede to the

in the early 1860s, Soda Creek enjoyed a second boom which started in 1909, when it was announced that the

's route would go through Fort George from eastern Canada. Again the town's prosperity was due to being the natural sternwheeler terminus on the Fraser River as sternwheelers were necessary to take settlers and supplies safely and comfortably upriver to Fort George. The Fort George Lumber and Navigation Company of

South Fort George South Fort George is a suburb of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Before the arrival of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1914, the Prince George area was known as Fort George and was a Lheidli T'enneh village and Hudson's Bay Company st ...

built two sternwheelers at Soda Creek, both in the winter of 1909/10, the '' Chilcotin'' and the '' Fort Fraser'' which were used along with the ''Chilco'', ''Charlotte'' and ''Quesnel'' to deliver passengers and supplies to the new communities in Fort George. BX at Soda Creek

The BC Express Company had been servicing the area since the Cariboo Gold Rush and they held the government mail contract, so the company's owner,

Charles Vance Millar Charles Vance Millar (June 28, 1854 – October 31, 1926) was a Canadian lawyer and financier. He was the president and part-owner of the Toronto brewery of O'Keefe Brewery. He also owned racehorses, including the 1915 King's Plate–winning ...

, decided to expand the company's route to Fort George by adding sternwheelers and automobiles to their fleet of

stagecoaches A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

. The BC Express Company built a company office and construction site at Soda Creek and in the winter of 1909/10 they built the '' BX'' and then the '' BC Express'' in the winter of 1911/12. BX Office at Soda Creek

The automobiles were Winton Sixes, purchased in 1910 from a car manufacturer in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. During the years of rail construction, Soda Creek prospered as a major stopping place on the Cariboo Road as travelers and supplies came up from

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 stagecoaches or in automobiles and were transferred onto the sternwheelers to go further north.

Notes

External links

* *{{cite web, last =Gold Rush Trail, title =Waggon Road Construction, url =http://www.goldrushtrail.net/indexgrt.asp?p=271, access-date =2007-07-03, url-status =dead, archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070927094352/http://www.goldrushtrail.net/indexgrt.asp?p=271, archive-date =2007-09-27, df = Geography of the Cariboo Populated places on the Fraser River

History

The second boom

See also

Further reading

Notes

External links