South Fort George

OUTH FORT GEORGE, on the Fraser, is a busy
little river town, at its nearest point one and a quarter
miles from the Grand Trunk Pacific, and almost two and a
half miles from the probable station site. Its growth has
been due to its proximity to Fort George proper, and to the
fact that, up to the coming of the railways to Fort George,
all ‘communication with the outer world has been from the
south, by the Fraser River and the Cariboo Road, the original
steamer landing being at the Hudson Bay post.

Something more than a century ago Simon Fraser founded
a “fort,” or trading place with the Indians, just south of the
junction of the Fraser and Nechaco. Later, an Indian
Reserve was established between the “fort” and the Nechaco
River. The “fort” did a profitable trade with the Indians.
As is usual, the Hudson Bay was in competition for this
Indian business with “free traders,” who established them-
selves in the vicinity. ‘This was the beginning of the settle-
ment at South Fort George.

As the “fort” was the only trading place for hundreds of
miles it was a regular point of call for the river steamers.
When public attention was first directed to the strategic
location of Fort George, and before the exact route of the
Grand Trunk Pacific had been announced, many of the
newcomers, getting off the boat at the first steamer landing,
settled there, apparently assuming that the future town
would grow around the old “fort.” Thus South Fort
George grew.

South Fort George is separated from the Indian Reserve,

recently acquired by the Grand Trunk Pacific for divisional
point purposes, by the Hudson Bay Reserve. Some future
day this Hudson Bay property will be very valuable. It
has always been the policy of this great English trading con-
cern, however, to allow others to increase the value of the
company’s property by improving and developing it, and to
wait for many years until that is done before disposing of it.
This has been the policy pursued in Winnipeg, in Edmonton
and at many other cities where the Hudson Bay owns large
city areas. If, as is expected, this policy is adhered to at
Fort George, it means that South Fort George will be
separated for many years by a belt of undeveloped land from
the business section of the city.

Eventually, of course, South Fort George will be part of
the Fort George of the future, but at the present time, and
for years to come, it is and will be some miles from the
immediate business development that will result from the
coming of the railways, for while all of these are building
into Fort George proper, or the Indian Reserve, not a single
line has been surveyed into South Fort George.

The reason for this is apparent when the picture is
studied. ‘The high banks of the Fraser, opposite South Fort
George, make railway building across the river at this point
practically an engineering impossibility. It is for this reason
that the Grand Trunk Pacific crosses the Fraser more than
a mile above South Fort George, and runs across the northern
part of the Reserve along the Nechaco into Fort George
proper.

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