Hope British Columbia and Area Canada in Colour Photos: Saving Our History One Photo at a Time

Hope is located at the confluence of the Fraser and Coquihalla Rivers. Hope is at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley, and is at the southern end of the Fraser Canyon.The history of European settlement in the town of Hope is linked with the history of the Hudson's Bay Company and the partnership between the company surveyors and First Nations in establishing a brigade trail through the mountains to Fort Kamloops. When gold was discovered in the Fraser Canyon in 1858, miners from across the continent flocked to British Columbia to seek their fortune in the mountains and creeks. Two years later gold was discovered in the Cariboo and miners migrated further north to seek riches in the area around Barkerville. In order to facilitate the movement of miners and supplies north, and gold south, the government built the Cariboo Wagon Road which allowed merchants and prospectors to travel faster and hopefully more safely.The Fraser River has been the greatest source of food for the Sto-lo people who formed permanent settlements along the river. Simon Fraser came down the river in 1808. Hudson's Bay forts such as Hope (built in 1848-49) and Yale gave the Sto-lo access to a wider variety of trade goods, such as steel tools, cooking pots, and guns.The first chainsaw carving appeared on Wallace Street in 1991. It was carved from a Douglas fir by Pete Ryan. Every two years the International Chainsaw Carving Competition comes to Hope.Keremeos is located in the beautiful Similkameen Valley in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. Keremeos' main industries are horticulture, agriculture, ranching, and wine making. Soft fruits such as apples, cherries, and peaches as well as vegetables are grown in the dry warm climate.Princeton lies just east of the Cascade Mountains. The Tulameen and Similkameen Rivers converge here. The area's main industry has been mining of copper, gold, coal, and some platinum. Gold was found on Nickel Plate Mountain in 1898 in Hedley. The ore was rich but it had to be extracted from the host rock by crushing and chemical treatment.