Long before man settled this region known as British Columbia, some time between the dinosaurs and their disappearance, it's believed that the Fraser River started to take shape. Aeons passed, and very slowly the Rocky Mountains grew, altering the flow of rivers and streams. It appears that part of the Fraser River, north of the Chilcotin drained east, into the Inland Sea, while south of the Chilcotin, it drained south and west to the Pacific. During the Tertiary period, these two rivers formed what is now the Fraser River.

The Fraser River located in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, rises on the western slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, near the border with Alberta. It is the largest river in B.C., at over 850 miles or 1378 km in length, and the fifth largest river in Canada. It flows north-westerly before turning south near Prince George, and then down the center of the province to the Pacific Ocean (Strait of Georgia), near the city of Vancouver.

Its headwaters are at Mt. Robson in Jasper. The drainage of the Fraser River watershed is larger than the area of Great Britain! More info on the Watershed. The Fraser River usually flows at a rate of 5,195 cubic yards or 3,972 cubic meters per second. At that rate it can fill three swimming pools every second! Every year the Fraser River picks up 37.4 billion pounds or 17 billion kilograms of sediment (clay, silt, sand, gravel). This weighs about the same as 1.5 million killer whales.

The Fraser River is considered one of the world’s greatest salmon resources. Tens of millions of Pacific salmon return annually to spawn in the main stem Fraser River and tributaries, that includes all five species of salmon, Sockeye, Pink, Chum, Chinook, Coho and Steelhead. Some salmon, which migrate upriver to spawn in northern tributaries, swim as far as 1000 miles from the ocean to the gravel beds where they were born to complete their life cycle. Approximately 800 million juvenile salmon migrate along the river every year. There can be up to 20 million salmon on any given day in the estuary. More than 60 other kinds of fish use the Fraser River also, such as the mighty Sturgeon.

The Fraser River Watershed Explained

The Fraser River begins high in the Rocky Mountains. It is fed by heavy rain, snowfall and melting glaciers. The river flows slowly northwest until it gets to Prince George. Here it turns south into the middle of British Columbia. It is joined by the Stuart, Nechako, and Chilcotin Rivers. The water from each of these large rivers causes the Fraser River to grow and pick up speed.
As the Fraser flows south it winds through dense evergreen forests, wetlands, grasslands and dry canyons. The clear blue Thompson River joins the muddy Fraser south of Lillooet. The Fraser rushes on, boiling and powerful through the narrow Fraser Canyon.
Near Hope, the Fraser escapes the narrow mountain canyon. It turns west into a broad flat valley and this is where Chilliwack is. The river widens and slows down. It winds through the Fraser Valley. The Chilliwack, Sumas, Stave, Pitt and Coquitlam Rivers are some of the last tributaries to flow in. Finally, near Vancouver, fed by this huge river system, the mighty Fraser drains into the Pacific Ocean.

This part of British Columbia is steeped in history .Hundreds of years before any European saw or explored this land, the aboriginals lived here. They traveled up and down the rivers and trails trading with other tribes. Where the river was impassable, they had paths that connected, thus making travel from the interior to the coast possible. The first Europeans to see this region, were Simon Fraser and his party. In the year 1805, Fraser and his men made their way west, but it wasn't until 1808 that they started their expedition down the river. With the help of the aboriginals who lived along the Fraser, they were able to make their way down to the Pacific Ocean and back.
From 1856 to the late eighteen hundreds miners and adventures have searched and found gold all up and down the Fraser River and its' tributaries. In order to make Canada a country from sea to sea, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald promised to build a railroad from the east coast to the west coast. In 1871, British Columbia became a province of Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) route in B.C. was built through the Rocky Mountains, over the interior plateau, along the Thompson and Fraser Rivers and finally to Vancouver and the coast.