Tête Jaune Cache is an unincorporated rural area and the site of an important abandoned historic town in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Its population is approximately 500. It is located on the Fraser River

Fraser River

The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...

 in the Robson Valley

Robson Valley

The Robson Valley is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, comprising the section of the Rocky Mountain Trench that lies southeast of the city of Prince George following the Fraser River to the Yellowhead Pass. The name is derived from Mount Robson, which stands near...

 at the intersection of Yellowhead Highways 5 and 16. Tête Jaune Cache is located 18 km north of Valemount, B.C.

Valemount, British Columbia

Valemount is a village of 1,018 people in east central British Columbia, Canada. It is situated between the Rocky, Monashee, and Cariboo Mountains. It is the nearest community to the west of Jasper National Park, and is also the nearest community to Mount Robson Provincial Park, which features...

, 101 km west of Jasper, Alberta

Jasper, Alberta

Jasper is a specialized municipality in western Alberta, Canada. It is the commercial centre of Jasper National Park, located in the Canadian Rockies in the Athabasca River valley....

, 241 km east of Prince George, B.C.

Prince George, British Columbia

Prince George, with a population of 71,030 , is the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada, and is known as "BC's Northern Capital"...

, and 332 km north of Kamloops, B.C.

Kamloops, British Columbia

Kamloops is a city in south central British Columbia, at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River and near Kamloops Lake. It is the largest community in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and the location of the regional district's offices. The surrounding region is more commonly...

, by road.

History

Tête Jaune Cache was named after a Métis

Métis people (Canada)

The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...

 fur trader and trapper named Pierre Bostonais who guided for the Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

 in the 1800s. Bostonais was nicknamed Tête Jaune

Tête Jaune

Tête Jaune aka. Pierre Bostonais aka. Pierre Hastination an Iroquois-Métis trapper/furtrader/explorer who worked for the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company during the 18th and 19th centuries...

 by the French voyageurs because of his blonde hair. (Tête Jaune is French for yellow head.) The Secwepemc

Secwepemc

The Secwepemc , known in English as the Shuswap people, are a First Nations people residing in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Their traditional territory ranges from the eastern Chilcotin Plateau and the Cariboo Plateau southeast through the Thompson Country to Kamloops and the Shuswap...

 First Nations people had an established village of tents and pit houses on the banks of the Fraser in this area rich in salmon and wild berries when discovered by Bostonais, but the townsite land of Tête Jaune Cache was officially located in 1901 and crown-granted (patented) in 1902. During the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historical Canadian railway.A wholly owned subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway , the GTPR was constructed by GTR using loans provided by the Government of Canada. The company was formed in 1903 with a mandate to build west from Winnipeg, Manitoba to the...

 Tête Jaune Cache was a prosperous community and was the head of navigation for the paddle steamers of Foley, Welch and Stewart

Foley, Welch and Stewart

Foley, Welch and Stewart was an early 20th century American-Canadian railroad contracting company.They built miles of track for the Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific Railroad, Canadian Pacific Railway, Canadian Northern Railway, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and Pacific Great Eastern Railway...

 and the BC Express Company

Barnard's Express

Barnard's Express, later known as the British Columbia Express Company or BX, was a pioneer transportation company that served the Cariboo and Fraser Fort George regions in British Columbia, Canada from 1861 until 1921....

. The town was a booming collection of lumber shacks, tents, and log houses which brought thousands of pioneers, trappers, prospectors, foresters, and entrepreneurs to the Robson Valley

Robson Valley

The Robson Valley is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, comprising the section of the Rocky Mountain Trench that lies southeast of the city of Prince George following the Fraser River to the Yellowhead Pass. The name is derived from Mount Robson, which stands near...

. Major industries in historic Tête Jaune were timber, railways, steamship trade, and mining, especially for the locally abundant mica

Mica

The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...

. Some of the largest and cleanest sheets of mica extracted in the era of its highest demand (for its usage in lanterns and stoves) came from this region, and the remains of one such mine can still be found on the popular Mica Mountain hiking trail. The pool halls, theatres, restaurants, jewellers, lady barbers, saloons, and trading posts are no more, with only a few stone chimneys remaining as evidence of this bustling town's existence, but the Valley Museum and Archives in McBride, as well as the Valemount Historical Society maintains an excellent collection of photographs from the heyday of this boom town, c. 1910-1918. Currently the area under the aegis of Tête Jaune Cache is home to Hauer Brothers' Sawmill, as well as a few small businesses specializing in custom timber milling, woodworking, guided flyfishing, whitewater rafting, snowcat skiing

Snowcat skiing

Snowcat skiing is off-trail, downhill skiing that is accessed by a snowcat, not a ski lift. Snowcat skiing is essentially about skiing in a natural—albeit highly selected -- environment without the effort or gear compromise required for hiking into these areas as in ski touring or ski mountaineering...

, and bed and breakfast accommodation.

Ecology

Tête Jaune Cache is an ecologically rich forest habitat for trees including Lodgepole pine

Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta, also known as Shore Pine, is a common tree in western North America. Like all pines, it is evergreen.-Subspecies:...

, Trembling Aspen

Trembling aspen

Trembling aspen is the popular name for either*Populus tremuloides *Populus tremula...

, Western red cedar, Paper birch

Paper Birch

Betula papyrifera is a species of birch native to northern North America.-Description:...

 and Douglas fir; wildlife such as Moose

Moose

The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

, Cougar, Wolverine

Wolverine

The wolverine, pronounced , Gulo gulo , also referred to as glutton, carcajou, skunk bear, or quickhatch, is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae . It is a stocky and muscular carnivore, more closely resembling a small bear than other mustelids...

, Black bears

American black bear

The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

, Grizzly bears, Lynx

Lynx

A lynx is any of the four Lynx genus species of medium-sized wildcats. The name "lynx" originated in Middle English via Latin from Greek word "λύγξ", derived from the Indo-European root "*leuk-", meaning "light, brightness", in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes...

, Beaver

Beaver

The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...

, and Marten

Marten

The martens constitute the genus Martes within the subfamily Mustelinae, in family Mustelidae.-Description:Martens are slender, agile animals, adapted to living in taigas, and are found in coniferous and northern deciduous forests across the northern hemisphere. They have bushy tails, and large...

. The shoals found where the McLennan River and Tête Creek join the Fraser River are some of the most important spawning grounds for Chinook Salmon

Chinook salmon

The Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, is the largest species in the pacific salmon family. Other commonly used names for the species include King salmon, Quinnat salmon, Spring salmon and Tyee salmon...

 at the end of their annual 1,200 km run from the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. These creeks, as well as Kiwa Creek to the north, are fed directly by meltwater from the glaciers and icefields of the Premier Range

Premier Range

The Premier Range is a group of mountains within the Cariboo Mountains of east-central British Columbia, Canada. The range is bounded by the Rausch River and Kiwa Creek to the north, the North Thompson River on the south and west and the Fraser River and its tributaries to the east.In 1927, the...

 of the Cariboo Mountains

Cariboo Mountains

The Cariboo Mountains are the northernmost subrange of the Columbia Mountains, which run down into the Spokane, Washington area of the United States and include the Selkirks, Monashees and Purcells. The Cariboo Mountains are entirely within the province of British Columbia, Canada. The range is...

.

Transportation

Tête Jaune Cache lies on the Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

 transcontinental

Transcontinental railroad

A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...

 main line

Main line (railway)

The Mainline or Main line of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings and spurs are connected....

 at the point where the line from and to the east junctions in a wye with the main line branches heading to and coming from Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert, British Columbia

Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is the land, air, and water transportation hub of British Columbia's North Coast, and home to some 12,815 people .-History:...

 at the west and Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 at the southwest. Via Rail

VIA Rail

Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....

's Skeena

Skeena

Skeena may refer to:*Skeena River, a river in British Columbia*The Skeenas or Skeena Mountains, a mountain range in British Columbia*Skeena , a former federal electoral district in British Columbia...

service calls at the nearby Harvey railway station

Harvey railway station

The Harvey railway station is on the Canadian National Railway mainline in Tête Jaune Cache, British Columbia. The station is served by Via Rail's Jasper – Prince Rupert train as a flag stop.- External links :*...

 on the Prince Rupert main line, and the community is passed but not served by Via transcontinental Canadian trains on the Vancouver main line.

External links

• New Rivers of the North by Hulbert Footner
  Hulbert Footner
  Hulbert Footner was a Canadian writer of non-fiction and detective fiction.- Early career :He was born William Hulbert Footner in Hamilton, Ontario, and traveled to New York in 1898. In the United States, he attempted an acting career, which he eventually gave up on...