page_title: Soda Creek
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Soda Creek / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Soda Creek (gold rush town) and steamboats — on upper Fraser River in British Columbia (1863). Credits ( http://www.collectionscanada.ca/index-e.html Terms of use Credit: Library and Archives Canada Copyright: Expired
context_page_description: Soda Creek is a rural subdivision 38 km north of Williams Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Located on the east bank of the Fraser River, Soda Creek was originally the home of the Xat'sull First Nation. Soda Creek Indian Reserve No. 1 is located on the left bank of the Fraser River, one mile south of the Soda Creek BCR station, 431.10 ha. 52°19′00″N 122°16′00″W
  Xat'sull means "on the cliff where the bubbling water comes out".
  European settlement began in the 1860s with the onset of the Cariboo Gold Rush and the building of the Old Cariboo Road.
context_section_description: The Old Cariboo Road was built from Lillooet to Alexandria, beginning in 1859 and completed to Soda Creek in 1863. The roadbuilder for that section was Gustavus Blin Wright.
  While Wright was overseeing the construction of the road he was also arranging with his associates for the building of a sternwheeler steamer that could take travelers to Quesnellemouthe, (later shortened to Quesnel) where they could then travel east to Barkerville.
  The Fraser River was not considered navigable by sternwheeler north of Yale due to many hazardous rapids and canyons. However, from Soda Creek to Quesnel, the Fraser was relatively free of obstructions, therefore Soda Creek was the logical terminus for sternwheelers on the upper Fraser River.  
  The Enterprise was launched in the spring of 1863 and most of the travelers on their way to the goldfields, by foot, horseback, or wagon, took the Enterprise as the wagon road would not be not completed to Quesnel until 1865.
   With the launching of the Enterprise the government placed a land reserve on Soda Creek. Almost at once land lots were sold. Robert McLeese, Joseph T.Senay, Robert A. Collins, Peter Dunlevy, Henry Yeates, and George Hendricks, were some, who built hotels, stores, blacksmith shops and saloons on the site.
  In 1869 Wright added a second sternwheeler to the route, the Victoria. Both sternwheelers worked on the route until 1871, when the Enterprise was taken up north to Takla Landing to deliver supplies and miners to the Omineca Gold Rush. 
  The Enterprise didn't return and the Victoria worked alone for the next 15 years until she was taken off the river in 1886. By then the gold rushes were over and Soda Creek slumbered until the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.
caption: Enterprise at Soda Creek (1868)
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