Historical Settlement
This section of the Fraser River — called "Sto:lo" in the Halqemeylem language of the area, and who have adopted it as the collective name for all the peoples of the Fraser Lowland, other than the Skwxwu7kmesh and Musqueam — was a vital lifeline before the first European contact, and has been an important transportation corridor ever since.
In the nineteenth century, steamboats plied the waters between Georgia Strait and Yale, and were especially busy during the gold rush from 1858 into the 1860s. Boats continued to provide a vital link in the valley as the gold rush tapered off and Europeans began farming.
Eventually, roads and railways were built, fueled by and in turn fuelling population growth. Today, the most important transportation l through the region are the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway transcontinental main lines, the Lougheed Highway (Hwy 7), and the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 1).
Read more about this topic: Fraser Valley
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or settlement:
“After so many historical illustrations of the evil effects of abandoning the policy of protection for that of a revenue tariff, we are again confronted by the suggestion that the principle of protection shall be eliminated from our tariff legislation. Have we not had enough of such experiments?”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“[The Settlement House] must be grounded in a philosophy whose foundation is on the solidarity of the human race, a philosophy which will not waver when the race happens to be represented by a drunken woman or an idiot boy.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)