Siska, British Columbia

Last updated

The Cisco Bridges, the main landmark at Siska; CPR in foreground, CNR in background Canadian Pacific Railway train crossing Fraser River on Cisco bridge at Siska, British Columbia (2010-Jun-13).jpg
The Cisco Bridges, the main landmark at Siska; CPR in foreground, CNR in background

Siska, also known historically as Cisco, [1] is a locality in the Fraser Canyon, 9.4 kilometres south of the town of Lytton, British Columbia, Canada. It is at Siska that the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways switch from one side of the river to the other, because it is impossible for both rail lines to occupy the same bank of the Fraser, due to the narrow and steep terrain. The resulting pair of bridges, with the CNR bridge just upstream of the CPR's, and the CPR's bridge's west foot entering the Cantilever Bar Tunnel into the side of Cisco Bluff, remains one of the most famous images of the CPR's route through British Columbia today and is easily viewable from the adjacent Trans-Canada Highway.

Siska is also home to the Siska First Nation, a local government of the Nlaka'pamux peoples who have lived in the Fraser Canyon for thousands of years. The Siska First Nation rancherie - main residential area - is just off the highway on a broad benchland just below the CPR bridge, and has a general store, the museum and band office, plus other band services. One of the band's economic ventures, a project in applied ethnobotany intended to use traditional knowledge to help preserve the land against logging extraction through economic competition for forest leases, is the nurturing and harvesting of traditional food and other plant materials in the surrounding wilderness, made into health and bath products and teas and other products.[ citation needed ]

Siska is the northernmost point in the Fraser Canyon where bigleaf maple is found. [2] Other vegetation is noticeably denser than at Lytton, part of the transition from dry Interior to coast rainforest ecotypes that begins near Siska and is largely complete at Spuzzum.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kettle Valley Railway</span> Former subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway on British Columbia

The Kettle Valley Railway was a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) that operated across southern British Columbia, west of Midway running to Rock Creek, then north to Myra Canyon, down to Penticton over to Princeton, Coalmont, Brookmere, Coquihalla and finally Hope where it connected to the main CPR line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hope, British Columbia</span> District municipality in British Columbia, Canada

Hope is a district municipality at the confluence of the Fraser and Coquihalla rivers in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Hope is at the eastern end of both the Fraser Valley and the Lower Mainland region, and is at the southern end of the Fraser Canyon. To the east, over the Cascade Mountains, is the Interior region, beginning with the Similkameen Country on the farther side of the Allison Pass in Manning Park. Located 154 kilometres (96 mi) east of Vancouver, Hope is at the southern terminus of the Coquihalla Highway and the western terminus of the Crowsnest Highway, locally known as the Hope-Princeton, where they merge with the Trans-Canada Highway. Hope is at the eastern terminus of Highway 7. As it lies at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley in the windward Cascade foothills, the town gets very high amounts of rain and cloud cover – particularly throughout the autumn and winter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thompson River</span> River in British Columbia, Canada

The Thompson River is the largest tributary of the Fraser River, flowing through the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. The Thompson River has two main branches, the South Thompson River and the North Thompson River. The river is home to several varieties of Pacific salmon and trout. The area's geological history was heavily influenced by glaciation, and the several large glacial lakes have filled the river valley over the last 12,000 years. Archaeological evidence shows human habitation in the watershed dating back at least 8,300 years. The Thompson was named by Fraser River explorer, Simon Fraser, in honour of his friend, Columbia Basin explorer David Thompson. Recreational use of the river includes whitewater rafting and angling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lytton, British Columbia</span> Village in British Columbia, Canada

Lytton is a village of about 250 residents in southern British Columbia, Canada, on the east side of the Fraser River and primarily the south side of the Thompson River, where it flows southwesterly into the Fraser. The community includes the Village of Lytton and the surrounding community of the Lytton First Nation, whose name for the place is Camchin, also spelled Kumsheen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon</span> Former federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada

Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon was a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fraser Canyon</span> Canyon in British Columbia, Canada

The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Canyon" is often used to include the Thompson Canyon from Lytton to Ashcroft, since they form the same highway route which most people are familiar with, although it is actually reckoned to begin above Williams Lake at Soda Creek Canyon near the town of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clear Range</span> Mountain range in Canada

The Clear Range is a small mountain range located in the angle of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers in south-central British Columbia, Canada. It has a small subdivision just northeast of that confluence named the Scarped Range. The Clear Range totals 16,270 km2 (6,280 sq mi) and is 75 km (47 mi) north to south and 35 km (22 mi) east to west. The Clear Range and its northward neighbour the Marble Range are both subranges of the Pavilion Range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bute Inlet</span> Fjord in British Columbia, Canada

Bute Inlet is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is 80 km (50 mi) long from the estuaries of the Homathko and Southgate Rivers at the head of the inlet, to the mouth, where it is nearly blocked by Stuart Island, and it averages about 4 km (2.5 mi) in width. Bute Inlet is in a spectacular wilderness setting and is one of the most scenic waterways in the world. In the upper reaches of the inlet mountains rise 2,700 m (9,000 ft) feet above sea level. Bute Inlet is a spectacular wilderness that is visited by very few people. In more recent years tourists are travelling from around the world to view grizzly bears in a natural setting and explore the wilderness of Bute Inlet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Bar, British Columbia</span> Unincorporated place in British Columbia, Canada

Boston Bar is an unincorporated community in the Fraser Canyon of the Canadian province of British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spences Bridge</span> Community in British Columbia, Canada

Spences Bridge is a community in the Canadian province of British Columbia, situated 35 km (22 mi) north east of Lytton and 44 km (27 mi) south of Ashcroft. At Spences Bridge the Trans-Canada Highway crosses the Thompson River. In 1892, Spences Bridge's population included 32 people of European ancestry and 130 First Nations people. There were five general stores, three hotels, one Church of England and one school. The principal industries are fruit growing and farming. The population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 76, a decrease of 23.2 per cent from the 2016 count of 99.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Columbia Interior</span> Interior region of British Columbia, Canada

The British Columbia Interior, popularly referred to as the BC Interior or simply the Interior, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. While the exact boundaries are variously defined, the British Columbia Interior is generally defined to include the 14 regional districts that do not have coastline along the Pacific Ocean or Salish Sea, and are not part of the Lower Mainland. Other boundaries may exclude parts of or even entire regional districts, or expand the definition to include the regional districts of Fraser Valley, Squamish–Lillooet, and Kitimat–Stikine.

The Scwʼexmx Tribal Council, officially referred to until May 27, 2019 as Nicola Tribal Association, also known as the Nicola Tribal Council and the Nicola Valley Tribal Council, is an official First Nations Tribal Council composed of bands in the Nicola Valley, Thompson Canyon and Fraser Canyon areas of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of three tribal councils of the Nlakaʼpamux (Thompson) people, the other two being the Nlakaʼpamux Nation Tribal Council and the Fraser Canyon Indian Administration. The Lytton First Nation and Lower Nicola Indian Band community, does not belong to any of the three Tribal Councils.

The Siska Indian Band is located in the Fraser Canyon region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was previously a member of the Scw’exmx Tribal Council, which is a tribal council of the Nlaka'pamux people. Other Nlaka'pamux governments belong either to the Fraser Canyon Indian Administration or the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council, although the large Lytton First Nation, north of Siska, does not belong to any of the three.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fountain, British Columbia</span>

Fountain is an unincorporated rural area and Indian reserve community in the Fraser Canyon region of British Columbia, Canada, located at the ten-mile (16 km) mark from the town of Lillooet on BC Highway 99, which in that area is also on the route of the Old Cariboo Road and is located at the junction of that route with the old gold rush-era trail via Fountain Valley and the Fountain Lakes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridge of the Twenty-Three Camels</span> Bridge in Lillooet, British Columbia

Bridge of the Twenty-Three Camels is the official name of the highway bridge over the Fraser River at Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada, on BC Highway 99. It replaced the older 1913-vintage Lillooet Suspension Bridge, just upstream, which had no highway designation but connected the town to BC Highway 12, a designation which today only refers to the Lillooet-Lytton highway but, until the extension of the 99 designation from Pemberton, also included the Lillooet-Cache Creek highway.

Kanaka Bar is an unincorporated community and locality in the Fraser Canyon region of British Columbia, Canada, located near the town of Lytton. Named for a gold-bearing bar on the Fraser River below, which was mined by Hawaiians, Kanaka Bar is the home of the office and main rancherie of the Kanaka Bar Indian Band of the Nlaka'pamux peoples, and is also the source of the name of Kanaka Bar Indian Reserve No. 1A and Kanaka Bar Indian Reserve No. 2 which are governed by the band.

The Bridge River Rapids, also known as the Six Mile Rapids, the Lower Fountain, the Bridge River Fishing Grounds, and in the St'at'imcets language as Sat' or Setl, is a set of rapids on the Fraser River, located in the central Fraser Canyon at the mouth of the Bridge River six miles north of the confluence of Cayoosh Creek with the Fraser and on the northern outskirts of the District of Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada.

Port Hammond, commonly known as Hammond, is a community on the Fraser River within the city of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, near its border with the City of Pitt Meadows and just east of the Golden Ears Bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cisco Bridges</span> Bridge in Siska, BC

The Cisco Bridges are a pair of railroad bridges at Siska near Lytton, British Columbia, Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway both follow the route of the Fraser River, one on each side, and the routes exchange sides at this point. The easier CPR route was laid first; when the CNR arrived later they needed to follow the more difficult route. The area is popular with railfans due to the proximity of the two bridges, and the easy access to the area is parallel to both bridges down the east bank of the river. Directional running in the Fraser Canyon means that both CPR and CNR trains may be seen on both bridges. Although this area is generally known as Cisco, the actual CN timetable station point of Cisco is approximately 4.0 km (2.5 mi) to the east of the bridges.

CNR Bridge is a swing railway bridge over the Fraser River in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.

References

  1. BC Names/GeoBC entry "Cisco (railway point)"
  2. "The Ecology and Silviculture of Bigleaf Maple" (PDF). B.C. Ministry of Forests. March 1999. Retrieved March 28, 2022.

50°09′00″N121°34′45″W / 50.14996°N 121.5792°W / 50.14996; -121.5792