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47-754: The Chilcotin district is often viewed as an extension of the Cariboo region, east of that river, although it has a distinct identity from the Cariboo District. It is, nonetheless, part of the Cariboo Regional District which is a municipal-level body governing some aspects of infrastructure and land-used planning. The vast majority of the population are First Nations people, members of the Tsilhqot'in and Dakelh peoples, while others are settlers and ranchers. The Chilcotin district

94-713: A First Nations eccentric-cum-spirit person, Lilly Skinner, and Nemaia: the Unconquered Country by Terry Glavin , which recounts the story of the Chilcotin War of 1864 and the flavour of the Nemaia Valley today (the Nemaia is the main residence of the Xeni Gwetin, who were the main instigators of the war). Edwards's cabin, and the trumpeter habitat, are world heritage sites although his cabin

141-477: A deep canyon that makes measurement difficult. The largest towns in the Chilcotin are Alexis Creek , Anahim Lake and Hanceville , which are all First Nations communities. Other communities in the Chilcotin are Towdystan , Nimpo Lake , Nemaiah Valley , Tatla Lake , and Tatlayoko Lake, though settlers (usually small ranchers and owners and staff of small resorts) are scattered across the backcountry. There

188-704: A large mass of igneous rock , creating a new continental margin. This large mass of igneous rock is the largest granite outcropping in North America. The final event began when the Farallon Plate continued to subduct under the new continental margin after the Insular Plate and Insular Islands collided with the old continental margin, supporting a new continental volcanic arc called the Coast Range Arc about 100 million years ago during

235-720: A major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America , extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia south to the Fraser River . The mountain range's name derives from its proximity to the sea coast, and it is often referred to as the Coast Range . The range includes volcanic and non-volcanic mountains and

282-459: A noted Vancouver journalist. St. Pierre's writing encapsulated Chilcotin folklore and daily life and are written in a crisp, ironic and often humorous style; the best-known is Smith and Other Events and Cariboo Cowboy , while Stowe's writings focus on the wildlife of the area on the western rim of the district, adjacent to Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park . His Crusoe of Lonesome Lake is about early settler Ralph Edwards and his work protecting

329-590: A plateau stretching from Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains . The name is a reference to the caribou that were once abundant in the region. The Cariboo was the first region of the interior north of the lower Fraser River and its canyon to be settled by non-indigenous people, and played an important part in the early history of the colony and province. The boundaries of the Cariboo proper in its historical sense are debatable, but its original meaning

376-539: A pre-existing continental margin and coastline of North America. These volcanic islands, known as the Insular Islands by geoscientists, were formed on a pre-existing tectonic plate called the Insular Plate by subduction of the former Farallon Plate to the west during the early Paleozoic era. This subduction zone records another subduction zone to the east under an ancient ocean basin between

423-626: Is a Canadian Forces artillery and tactics range on the eastern edge of the plateau, in the vicinity of old Fort Chilcotin (this land was originally set aside for military purposes following the Chilcotin War). Also of major importance in the Chilcotin is the Gang Ranch , once the world's largest and still among the major beef suppliers in British Columbia . "The Gang" dates from the 1860s and covers nearly all terrain south of

470-492: Is accessed by Highway 20 , which runs from the port town of Bella Coola , at the head of South Bentinck Arm , a coastal fjord piercing into the heart of the Coast Mountains , across the mountains and plateau to the city of Williams Lake , the principal town of the south Cariboo . Near Highway 20 in the southern end of Tweedsmuir Park is Hunlen Falls , at 1226 feet (373.7 m) one of Canada's highest, plunging into

517-919: Is known as the Brittany Triangle and is currently under hot dispute between preservationists and logging interests. East of the Tsʼilʔos Provincial Park is Big Creek Provincial Park and the Churn Creek Protected Area , while to the southeast is the Spruce Lake Protected Area aka "the South Chilcotin", which despite its nickname is mostly in the Bridge River Country , part of the Lillooet Country and not part of

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564-608: Is mostly a wide, high plateau, stretching from the mountains to the Fraser River , but also includes several fjord-like lakes which verge from the plateau into the base of the mountains. The largest of the lakes in the region is Chilko Lake , which feeds the Chilko River , the main tributary of the Chilcotin River . Other major lakes are Tatlayoko Lake ( / ˈ t æ t l ə k oʊ / TAT -lə-koh ) and Taseko Lake ( / t ə ˈ s iː k oʊ / tə- SEE -koh );

611-756: The British Columbia Interior from the Pacific weather systems, resulting in dry warm summers and dry cold winters. Beyond the eastern slopes is a 154,635 km (59,705 sq mi) plateau occupying the southern and central portions of British Columbia called the Interior Plateau . Included within the Interior Plateau is a coalescing series of layered flood basalt lava flows. These sequences of fluid volcanic rock cover about 25,000 km (9,700 sq mi) of

658-744: The Cariboo Plateau and lands adjoining it along the Fraser and Thompson rivers, the meaning changed to include a wider area than just the goldfields. The grasslands of the Cariboo are home to the regionally endangered American badger ( Taxidea taxus jeffersonii ). As early as 1861, Governor Douglas used the name Cariboo to describe the area in dispatches to Britain. North Cariboo: Central Cariboo: South Cariboo: 52°00′N 122°00′W  /  52.000°N 122.000°W  / 52.000; -122.000 Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains ( French : La chaîne Côtière ) are

705-475: The Chilcotin River and east of Taseko Lake and the Fraser River , and skirting the Bridge River Country to its south. The vast terrain of the Gang Ranch is more wilderness than pasture, with natural plateau and alpine meadowland and vast forests and swamps. The Gang verges up into the foothill area of the northeastern flank of the Coast Mountains as they approach the Fraser River from the west, meeting

752-453: The Coast Mountains and plateau between the Fraser and the spine of the Coast Mountains . The Chilcotin is also known for its large population of mustang horses , which have contributed to the bloodlines of domesticated horses in the regions, including a variety known as the cayuse pony or, in some local spellings, cayoosh (the old name for the town of Lillooet ), which lies just outside

799-617: The Fraser between the Gang Ranch's main house and the town of Lillooet . Similar ranching conditions are found from the Burns Lake and Smithers area in northwestern Interior BC all the way south to the US border, including the famous Douglas Lake Ranch south of Kamloops , but the Gang is by far the largest, and the most wild in character. Cariboo The Cariboo is an intermontane region of British Columbia , Canada, centered on

846-696: The Fraser River and the Interior Plateau while its far northwestern edge is delimited by the Kelsall and Tatshenshini Rivers at the north end of the Alaska Panhandle, beyond which are the Saint Elias Mountains, and by Champagne Pass in the Yukon Territory . Covered in dense temperate rainforest on its western exposures, the range rises to heavily glaciated peaks, including the largest temperate-latitude ice fields in

893-682: The Late Cretaceous period. Magma rising from the Farallon Plate under the new continental margin ascended through the newly accreted Insular Belt, injecting huge quantities of granite into older igneous rocks of the Insular Belt. At the surface, new volcanoes were built along the continental margin. Named after the Coast Mountains, the basement of this arc was likely Early Cretaceous and Late Jurassic intrusions from

940-752: The Saint Elias Mountains and the Chugach Mountains . The Coast Mountains are also part of the American Cordillera —a Spanish term for an extensive chain of mountain ranges—that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western backbone of North America , Central America , South America and Antarctica . The Coast Mountains are approximately 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) long and average 300 kilometres (190 mi) in width. The range's southern and southeastern boundaries are surrounded by

987-727: The Stikine Icecap , which lies between the lower Stikine River and the Whiting River . Because the Coast Mountains are just east of the Pacific Ocean , they have a profound effect on British Columbia's climate by forcing moisture-laden air off the Pacific Ocean to rise, dropping heavy rainfalls on the western slopes where lush forests exist. This precipitation is among the heaviest in North America. The eastern slopes are relatively dry and less steep and protect

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1034-421: The trumpeter swans which migrate through the region; Edwards' own volume Ralph Edwards of Lonesome Lake parallels Stowe's account, and the book Ruffles On My Longjohns by his sister-in-law Isabel Edwards documents her tribulations as the wilderness wife of a wildlife advocate. Another notable book from more recent times are Chiwid by Sage Birchwater of Tatlayoko Lake, documenting eyewitness reminiscences of

1081-711: The Bridge River Ocean, the Insular Islands drew closer to the former continental margin and coastline of western North America, supporting a pre-existing volcanic arc on the former continental margin of North America called the Omineca Arc . As the North American Plate drifted west and the Insular Plate drifted east to the old continental margin of western North America, the Bridge River Ocean eventually closed by ongoing subduction under

1128-544: The Bridge River Ocean. This subduction zone eventually jammed and shut down completely 115 million years ago, ending the Omineca Arc and the Insular Islands collided, forming the Insular Belt . Compression resulting from this collision crushed, fractured and folded rocks along the old continental margin. The Insular Belt then welded onto the pre-existing continental margin by magma that eventually cooled to create

1175-486: The Chilcotin Country, which begins at the protected area's northern and northwestern borders. Despite its small population and isolation, the region has produced a small but very readable literature mixing naturalism with native and settler cultures and memoirs. The most well-known Chilcotin authors are Leland Stowe and Paul St. Pierre ; the latter was formerly Member of Parliament for Coast Chilcotin and

1222-466: The Chilcotin to the southeast, near where the plateau meets the Fraser River . Still "controlled" today due to their competition for forage with cattle herds, they were once so overpopulated — even before put into competition with the feed demands of large-scale ranching — that a high bounty was set on them and they were hunted out, and nearly exterminated. They are believed to be stock brought in during gold rush times, as according to contemporary records

1269-666: The Chilcotins did not have horses until then. Author and guide-outfitter Chilco Choate, however, points out that forage patterns and the adaptation of the breed to the area, it is more likely that they entered the area, already wild prior to domestication by local natives and being perhaps offshoots of the large horseherds acquired by the Okanagan and Nez Perce and other plateau peoples several decades before. Despite their controlled status, their population survives today, though imperilled by expansion of ranching and logging. The area

1316-661: The Coast Mountains and the highest that lies entirely within British Columbia, located northeast of the head of Knight Inlet with an elevation of 4,019 metres (13,186 ft). The Coast Mountains consists of three subdivisions known as the Pacific Ranges , the Kitimat Ranges , and the Boundary Ranges . The Pacific Ranges are the southernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains, extending from

1363-513: The Coast Range Arc were then deformed under the heat and pressure of later intrusions, turning them into layered metamorphic rock known as gneiss . In some places, mixtures of older intrusive rocks and the original oceanic rocks have been distorted and warped under intense heat, weight and stress to create unusual swirled patterns known as migmatite , appearing to have been nearly melted in the procedure. Volcanism began to decline along

1410-577: The Insular Islands and the former continental margin of North America called the Bridge River Ocean . This arrangement of two parallel subduction zones is unusual in that very few twin subduction zones exist on Earth; the Philippine Mobile Belt off the southeastern coast of Asia is an example of a modern twin subduction zone. As the Insular Plate drew closer to the pre-existing continental margin by ongoing subduction under

1457-646: The Insular Islands. One of the major aspects that changed early during the Coast Range Arc was the status of the northern end of the Farallon Plate, a portion now known as the Kula Plate . About 85 million years ago, the Kula Plate broke off from the Farallon Plate to form a mid-ocean ridge known to geoscientists as the Kula-Farallon Ridge . This change apparently had some important ramifications for regional geologic evolution. When this change

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1504-612: The Interior Plateau and have a volume of about 1,800 km (430 cu mi), forming a large volcanic plateau constructed atop of the Interior Plateau. North of the Interior Plateau on the range's northeastern slopes lies a huge mountainous area known by geographers as the Interior Mountains , which includes the neighbouring Skeena , Cassiar and Hazelton Mountains . The Coast Mountains consist of deformed igneous and metamorphosed structurally complex pre- Tertiary rocks. These originated in diverse locations around

1551-900: The Nass River in the south to the Kelsall River in the north. It is also the largest subdivision of the Coast Mountains, spanning the British Columbia-Alaska border and northwards into Yukon flanking the west side of the Yukon River drainage as far as Champagne Pass , north of which being the Yukon Ranges . The Boundary Ranges include several large icefields, including the Juneau Icefield between Juneau, Alaska and Atlin Lake in British Columbia, and

1598-800: The area of the lakes, in the southern part of the district, is now the Tsʼilʔos Provincial Park , also known as the Xeni Gwetʼin Wilderness after the Xeni Gwetʼin , the local subdivision of the Tsilhqotʼin people) and are also known as the Stony Chilcotin, who were also instrumental in the campaign for that area's preservation. The forested plateau area just northeast of the park, between the Chilko River and Taseko Rivers ,

1645-420: The early Eocene period. Volcanism along the entire length of the Coast Range Arc shut down about 50 million years ago and many of the volcanoes have disappeared from erosion. What remains of the Coast Range Arc to this day are outcrops of granite when magma intruded and cooled at depth beneath the volcanoes, forming the present Coast Mountains. During construction of intrusions 70 and 57 million years ago,

1692-948: The extensive ice fields of the Pacific and Boundary Ranges , and the northern end of the volcanic system known as the Cascade Volcanoes . The Coast Mountains are part of a larger mountain system called the Pacific Coast Ranges or the Pacific Mountain System, which includes the Cascade Range , the Insular Mountains , the Olympic Mountains , the Oregon Coast Range , the California Coast Ranges ,

1739-407: The globe: the area is built of several different terranes of different ages with a broad range of tectonic origins. In addition, oceanic crust under the Pacific Ocean is being subducted at the southern portion of the range to form a north–south line of volcanoes called the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt , a northern extension of the Cascade Volcanoes in the northwestern United States , and contains

1786-417: The highest mountain of the Coast Mountains, lies in the Waddington Range of the Pacific Ranges. Just north of the Pacific Ranges lies the central subdivision known as the Kitimat Ranges. This subdivision extends from the Bella Coola River and Burke Channel in the south to the Nass River in the north. The third and northernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains is the Boundary Ranges , extending from

1833-409: The length of the arc about 60 million years ago during the Albian and Aptian faunal stages of the Cretaceous period. This resulted from the changing geometry of the Kula Plate, which progressively developed a more northerly movement along the Pacific Northwest . Instead of subducting beneath the Pacific Northwest, the Kula Plate began subducting underneath southwestern Yukon and Alaska and during

1880-417: The lower stretches of the Fraser River to Bella Coola . Included in this subdivision is four of the five major coastal icecaps in the southern Coast Mountains. These are the largest temperate-latitude icecaps in the world and fuel a number of major rivers . Other than logging and a large ski resort at the resort town of Whistler , most of the land in the range is completely undeveloped. Mount Waddington ,

1927-427: The most explosive young volcanoes in Canada. Further north the northwesterly structural trend of the Coast Mountains lies partly in a large continental rift responsible for the creation of several volcanoes. These volcanoes form part of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province , the most volcanically active area in Canada. The first event began 130 million years ago when a group of active volcanic islands approached

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1974-401: The world. On its eastern flanks, the range tapers to the dry Interior Plateau and the subarctic boreal forests of the Skeena Mountains and Stikine Plateau . The Coast Mountains are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire —the ring of volcanoes and associated mountains around the Pacific Ocean —and contain some of British Columbia's highest mountains. Mount Waddington is the highest mountain of

2021-431: The zone of Cretaceous dextral thrust faulting appears to have been widespread. It was also during this period when massive amounts of molten granite intruded highly deformed ocean rocks and assorted fragments from pre-existing island arcs, largely remnants of the Bridge River Ocean. This molten granite burned the old oceanic sediments into a glittering medium-grade metamorphic rock called schist . The older intrusions of

2068-426: Was both the capital of the Cariboo Gold Rush and of government officialdom for decades afterwards (it is now a museum town). The Cariboo goldfields are underpopulated today but were once the most settled and most significant of the regions of interior British Columbia. As settlement spread southwards of this area, flanking the route of the Cariboo Road and spreading out through the rolling plateaus and benchlands of

2115-433: Was burned out in large forest fires in the summer of 2004. Another Chilcotin author is Ted "Chilco" Choate, a hunting guide at Gaspard Lake in the southeastern part of the district who writes about animals, hunters and the wilderness lifestyle. Choate is one of the main advocates for combining the Tweedsmuir, Tsʼilʔos, Spruce Lake/South Chilcotin, Big Creek and Churn Creek wilderness areas into one large national park spanning

2162-475: Was completed, Coast Range Arc volcanism returned and sections of the arc were uplifted considerably in latest Cretaceous time. This started a period of mountain building that affected much of western North America called the Laramide orogeny . In particular a large area of dextral transpression and southwest-directed thrust faulting was active from 75 to 66 million years ago. Much of the record of this deformation has been overridden by Tertiary age structures and

2209-427: Was the region north of the forks of the Quesnel River and the low mountainous basins between the mouth of that river on the Fraser at the city of Quesnel and the northward end of the Cariboo Mountains, an area that is mostly in the Quesnel Highland and focused on several now-famous gold-bearing creeks near the head of the Willow River . The richest of them all, Williams Creek , is the location of Barkerville , which

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