Thompson Country, also referred to as The Thompson and sometimes as the Thompson Valley and historically known as the Couteau Country or Couteau District, is a historic geographic region of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, more or less defined by the basin of the Thompson River. This is a tributary of the Fraser; the major city in the area is Kamloops.
The term originated among Scots and English in the days of the fur trade, who described Thompson Country as lying between New Caledonia to the north and the Columbia District or Oregon Country to the south. [1] Prior to their dominance, French traders referred to this as Couteau [knife] Country or Couteau District. The Thompson nomenclature is still used today, although not as an official designation. It is often used combination forms, such as the Thompson-Okanagan or Thompson-Nicola Regional District. Weather forecasts and tourism information refer to the area as Thompson-Shuswap.
Although strictly referring to the entire Thompson basin, and potentially used in that context, more commonly it refers to the immediate vicinity of the Thompson River, with subareas such as the Bonaparte Country or Nicola Country usually referred to separately. The term "North Thompson" used to refer to the valley of the North Thompson River. The term "South Thompson" refers not only to the short valley of the South Thompson River but also to Kamloops and towns westward along the Thompson and the Trans-Canada Highway, as far as Spences Bridge. The Thompson Canyon downstream from there to Lytton at the Thompson's confluence with the Fraser is usually referred to as being part of the Fraser Canyon. That is also applied to the highway from Hope to Spences Bridge or sometimes Cache Creek.
The Thompson Country is semi-arid and desert-like, except in the upper reaches of the North Thompson and in the higher areas of the plateaus to the north and south of the river (the Bonaparte Plateau and Thompson Plateau, respectively). Because of the low elevation of the valley's floor, winter temperatures are not too severe. As the region is in the immediate rainshadow of the Coast Mountains and Cascade Range, summer temperatures are among the hottest in Canada. The region is characterized by sagebrush and rangeland, with benchlands flanking the Thompson's deepening canyon from Savona downstream. Desert and, higher up, pine-covered mountains and hillsides flank the river and Kamloops Lake, which lies at the heart of the region. Lytton vies with nearby Lillooet for the title of "Canada's Hot Spot", with summer temperatures regularly above 40 °C (100 °F)[ citation needed ].
Since the nineteenth century, ranching has been the historic core of the economy in the South Thompson and the adjoining Nicola and Bonaparte countries. It is also important northeast of Kamloops in the Shuswap Highland country, towards Adams Lake and the rest of the Shuswap Country. Logging and tourism are other traditionally important industries, especially in the North Thompson.
Most of the Thompson Country is the territory of the Secwepemc people, who traditionally spoke a Salishan language. From Spences Bridge downstream, the Thompson and the Nicola basins are the territory of the various Nlaka'pamux nations.
The Thompson Country, the South Thompson in particular, was one of the first areas of the Colony of British Columbia to be opened by the government to land alienation and active settlement by non-indigenous peoples. Fur traders originally used what was known as the Brigade Trail, which ran from the Okanagan via Kamloops northwestward to Green Lake, by the last leg of the Okanagan Trail from Washington Territory to the Fraser Canyon. Its western portion was the key section of the Cariboo Road connecting the Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Plateau and its distant goldfields. This area has been important to the history of British Columbia.
Many of the earliest ranches in the Interior are still operating today. The Douglas Lake Ranch, based in the Nicola Country but spanning the Thompson and including some of the Shuswap, is one of the world's largest. Near Cache Creek, the historic Ashcroft Manor and Semlin Ranch and others were British military land-grants. The Ashcroft and Semlin ranches were owned and occupied by a Lieutenant-Governor and a Premier, respectively. The Thompson's settlement, history, and economy have been dominated by the two transcontinental rail lines flanking the river: the Canadian National Railway parallels the North Thompson, and the Canadian Pacific Railway the South Thompson.
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.
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Yale-Lillooet was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of 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, British Columbia at Soda Creek Canyon near the town of the same name.
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| name = Clear Range | photo = | photo_caption = | country = Canada | region_type = Province | region = British Columbia | parent = Fraser Plateau | area_km2 = 2123 | border = | geology = | period = | orogeny = | range_coordinates = | length_mi = | length_orientation = | width_mi = | width_orientation = | highest = Blustry Mountain | elevation_m = 2334 | coordinates = 50°36′41.0″N121°41′56.0″W | map_image = South BC-NW USA-relief ClearRange.png | map_caption = Location map of the Clear Range
The Camelsfoot Range is a sub-range of the Chilcotin Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia. The Fraser River forms its eastern boundary. The range is approximately 90 km at its maximum length and less than 30 km wide at its widest.
The Cariboo Plateau is a volcanic plateau in south-central British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Fraser Plateau that itself is a northward extension of the North American Plateau. The southern limit of the plateau is the Bonaparte River although some definitions include the Bonaparte Plateau between that river and the Thompson, but it properly is a subdivision of the Thompson Plateau. The portion of the Fraser Plateau west of the Fraser River is properly known as the Chilcotin Plateau but is often mistakenly considered to be part of the Cariboo Plateau, which is east of the Fraser.
The Bonaparte Plateau, in British Columbia, Canada, is a sub-plateau of the Thompson Plateau which extends to the Quesnel River and lies between the Cariboo Mountains on the east and the Fraser River on the west. The Thompson Plateau is itself a sub-plateau of the larger Fraser Plateau.
Cariboo was one of the twelve original electoral districts created when British Columbia became a Canadian province in 1871. Roughly corresponding to the old colonial electoral administrative district of the same name, it was a three-member riding until the 1894 election, when it was reduced through reapportionment and became a two-member riding until the 1916 election, after which it has been a single-member riding. It produced many notable Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), including George Anthony Boomer Walkem, third and fifth holder of the office of Premier of British Columbia and who was one of the first representatives elected from the riding; John Robson, ninth Premier of British Columbia; and Robert Bonner, a powerful minister in the W.A.C. Bennett cabinet, and later CEO of MacMillan Bloedel and BC Hydro.
The Secwépemc, known in English as the Shuswap people, are a First Nations people residing in the interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia. They speak one of the Salishan languages, known as Secwepemc or Shuswap.
Clinton is a village in British Columbia, Canada, located approximately 40 km (25 mi) northwest of Cache Creek and 30 km south of 70 Mile House.
The Okanagan Trail was an inland route to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush from the Lower Columbia region of the Washington and Oregon Territories in 1858–1859. The route was essentially the same as that used by the Hudson's Bay Company fur brigades, following the Columbia River to the confluence of the Okanogan River, and then up that river's watercourse via Osoyoos, Skaha (Dog) and Okanagan lakes, then using a pass via Monte Creek to Fort Kamloops, at the confluence of the North and South Thompson rivers. From there, the route went west down the Thompson River either to the lower gold-bearing bars of the Fraser River between what is now Lytton, British Columbia and Yale, British Columbia, or via Hat Creek and Marble Canyon to the upper Fraser goldfields around present-day Lillooet, British Columbia. A shorter branch-route to the lower Thompson and lower Fraser Canyon diverged from the main route at the confluence of the Similkameen River and the Okanogan. Cayoosh and The Fountains are today's Lillooet, British Columbia and environs.
The Thompson Plateau forms the southern portion of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia, Canada, lying to the west of Okanagan Lake, south of the Thompson River and east of the Fraser River. At its most southern point the plateau is squeezed by the mountainous terrain of the Cascade Range abutting closer to the Okanagan Valley. Its southwestern edge abuts the Canadian Cascades portion of that extensive range, more or less following the line of the Similkameen River, its tributary the Tulameen River, and a series of passes from the area of Tulameen, British Columbia to the confluence of the Thompson River with the Nicoamen River, a few kilometres (miles) east of Lytton, British Columbia, which is in the Fraser Canyon. Its northeastern edge runs approximately from the city of Vernon, British Columbia through the valley of Monte Creek to the junction of the same name just east of the city of Kamloops. Northeast of that line is the Shuswap Highland.
Nicola, also Nkwala or N'kwala, was an important First Nations political figure in the fur trade era of the British Columbia Interior as well as into the colonial period (1858–1871). He was grand chief of the Okanagan people and chief of the Nicola Valley peoples, an alliance of Nlaka'pamux and Okanagans and the surviving Nicola Athapaskans, and also of the Kamloops Band of the Shuswap people.
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 Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail, sometimes referred to simply as the Brigade Trail, refers to one of two routes used by Hudson's Bay Company fur traders to transport furs, goods and supplies between coastal and Columbia District headquarters at Fort Vancouver and those in New Caledonia and also in Rupert's Land. Importantly the route was that used by the annual "Hudson's Bay Express", a shipment of the company books and profits to company headquarters.
The Deadman River, also known as the Deadman's River, Deadman Creek or Deadman's Creek, is a tributary of the Thompson River in the British Columbia Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is about 70 kilometres (43 mi) in length.
The Nicola Country, also known as the Nicola Valley and often referred to simply as The Nicola, and originally Nicolas' Country or Nicholas' Country, adapted to Nicola's Country and simplified since, is a region in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is the main subregion of the larger Thompson Country and is often referred to separately, or in combination forms, notably the Thompson-Nicola Regional District. The combination Nicola-Similkameen is also common.
