60 British Columbia Women’s Institutes

— Central Interton Distruct

The Central Interior is a large district that spreads from Fraser Lake
on the west to Dunster on the east, and it is one of the most historical
and interesting sections of the province.

Fraser Lake is believed to have the oldest piece of cultivated land in
the province, for here at the’ Hudson’s Bay post established in 1812 the
Indians planted gardens supplied with seeds from the HB. long before
the white man came. The white settlement began around 1903 and in 1906
John Braithwaite settled along the shores of Fraser Lake, raised a garden
near the old fort and dug potatoes weighing 314 to 4 pounds, also growing
heavy crops of hardy vegetables on that virgin land. He grew flowers, too,
and a rose bush planted by him is now in its fiftieth year, still bearing fine
blooms.

The Peters family settled at North Fraser Lake in 1906, and that same
year Mr. Angus Martin dug up land by hand and planted potatoes. ‘The
next year Mr. Howard Foote used an old Indian plough to plough up a
garden patch and he grew hardy vegetables, wheat, oats and timothy,
buying a cow from the Indians to supply milk for the family. Later forty
head of beef were brought in from Alberta.

In the Fort St. James District the soil was cultivated and potatoes and
hardy vegetables grown there as early as 1845. ‘This is the site of the
old historic Fort St. James and here it was that James Douglas married
his bride, the daughter of a Hudson’s Bay factor at Fort Stuart.

Fort Fraser is an old established trading centre, and it was here that the
last spike was driven to link the Grand ‘Trunk Railroad and provide
transportation from coast to coast terminating at Prince Rupert.

The first settlers came to Northside at Vanderhoof in 1913, and Sinkut
and the surrounding areas were developed after the coming of the railway.
In 1953 with the building of the Kenney Dam, a road was built south for
construction work for the huge power development of Kemano which
supplies power to the Aluminum Company of Kitimat. With the con-
struction of this dam the level of lovely Ootsa Lake was raised, and the
historical little settlement of Wistaria in which the Shelford family had
pioneered after travelling over the trail from Bella Coola, was cut in half.
The section of Wistaria along the lake was bought up, the houses burned
and then gradually the shores were covered with water to bring the level
of the dam to its required height.

Prince George is the hub of this district, and the old town of Fort George
on the banks of the Fraser where the Hudson’s Bay established a_ post
in 1869 was a historical trading centre in the early days. ‘The new town
of Prince George is the centre of a vast lumber industry. It is the cross-
roads, for here the Hart Highway leads north to the Peace River, the
western road goes to Prince Rupert, the Cariboo south to Vancouver via