Cheslatta Trail - Fraser Lake, BC
N 54° 03.631 W 124° 41.029
10U E 389791 N 5991566
This marker about the Cheslatta Trail is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway 16 near Fraser Lake, British Columbia.
Waymark Code: WMHQC6
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 08/04/2013
Views: 2
The marker reads:
Cheslatta Trail
The Cheslatta Trail was a main trade, travel and communications route for the Carrier First Nations people for countless centuries. Its winding path crossed Drywilliam Creek at the east end of this lake heading south over the hills you see before you through 60 km. of pine and spruce forest to native villages on Cheslatta Lake, part of a great web of Aboriginal trails that covered the continent.
The trail was in use by the Carrier people and local hunters and trappers until the 1950's when the Cheslatta people were forced from their Cheslatta Lake villages by flooding caused by Alcan's Kenney Dam Project in 1952.
William Bunting who owned the general store in Fort Fraser said, "The store did a brisk business during the colourful visits of the Cheslatta Indians who cam by horseback and packtrain. They sold their furs, bought supplies, visited and celebrated with their friends. They galloped full bore wherever they went. They were a fine group of people who have now scattered to the four winds."
The trail was retored by the Nadleh Whut'en First Nationa, the Cheslatta Carrier Nation and the Vanderhoof Forest District. The trail can be accessed at kn. 7.5 on the Holy Cross Forest Road 5 km. west on Highway 16.
Additional information about the historic Chesllata Trail is available on Wikipedia.