Yukon and Alaska Bound, Part 2. Fort St James

Fort St. James National Historic Site of Canada

Fort St. James, British Columbia

It was wet and windy

The main storage building

It was June 19th, and we left Prince George on Hwy 16
toward the west.


Our main goal for the day was to visit Fort St James National Historic Site of Canada in Fort St.James.


It was a grey and rainy day as we headed out, with OK traffic. In no time we came through the town of Vanderhoof, it looks like most little towns.


The surrounding Nechako Valley with large farms looks very nice and well tended to.


We turned north on Hwy 27 to Fort St James. Fort St James is mostly a First Nations village.


The historic site looks good and the staff greeted us with a big welcome.


In the entrance building is a small museum that is very interesting. In the theater next door the staff will show you a short 15 min. video, just ask to see it, if it is not offered. The information in it is very interesting.


The main building has the only washrooms on the entire site, so do your thing before you head out.


Once out on the grounds there are several original buildings with interpreters in each building.


They were all very knowledgeable and willing to answer our questions. The Carrier people in this area were rather poor, and often malnourished, and were therefore of short stature.

Inside the storage building

Other buildings

Inside the dining room of the Hudson Bay Factor's house

The fort was established by the Hudson Bay Company in 1806 and the currency was Beaver Pelts.


To give you an example, you could buy a medium sized cast iron pot for four beaver pelts.


In the early days this area did not have any Moose. They came as the railroad cleared their path to this area.


There is a restaurant on the grounds and the view is spectacular from there.


The food was not to our liking, maybe an off day for the cook? We had ribs and salmon...... Coffee and pie would have been a better choice.

We enjoyed our visit to this Fort with the reenacted history.

We left the Fort and drove back south to Hwy 16, then west through Fort Fraser to Beaumont Provincial Park.


This is a very nice park right on Fraser Lake. The camp sites are large with fire pits/rings. The fire wood is expensive.


More pictures from this part of the trip and the Beaumont Provincial Park, check out our on-line album.





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