Prince George

Sister cities

• Maardu

History

The origins of Prince George can be traced to the North West Company fur trading post of Fort George, which was established in 1807 by Simon Fraser and named in honour of King George III. The post was centred in the centuries-old homeland of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, whose name means "people of the confluence of the two rivers." The Lheidli T'enneh name began to see official use around the 1990s and the band is otherwise historically referred to as Fort George Indian Band. Throughout the 19th century, HBC Fort George trading post remained unchanged, and Fort St. James reigned as the main trading post and capital of the New Caledonia area. Even during the Cariboo Gold Rush, Fort George was isolated from the newfound trade. Then, when the Collins Overland Telegraph Trail was built in 1865–67, it bypassed Fort George trading post, following the Blackwater Trail from Quesnel and continuing northwest towards Hazelton. In the late 1800s many Lheidli T'enneh lived in a village built next to the HBC trading post due to the ease of preparing furs and trading directly, without great distances to travel. In 1903, the area's fortune began to change when reports said that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (later part of Canadian National Railway) would pass near the fur trading post. In 1906, agricultural settlement began around the HBC post and then in 1909, development of two townsites began as two rival land speculation companies built the communities of South Fort George and Fort George (sometimes referred to as Central Fort George Lots sold in 1912 for $400, rising to $500-$1,000 by 1913. docking at both South Fort George and Fort George Townsite. South Fort George developed close to the near defunct HBC post, along the Fraser River after being purchased in 1909 by…

Geography

Prince George is located in the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George near the transition between the northern and southern portions of the Rocky Mountain Trench. Prince George proper contains several areas: South Fort George, the Hart, the residential and light industrial neighbourhoods north of the Nechako River; College Heights, the southern part of the city which contains a mix of residential and commercial areas, and the Bowl, the valley that includes most of the city and the downtown. There are also a number of outlying localities that are also part of Prince George, such as Carlson. The cutbanks of the Nechako River are one of Prince George's many interesting geological features. Local wild edible fruit include bunchberries, rose hips, blueberries, cranberries, chokecherries, strawberries, raspberries, saskatoons, currants, gooseberries, and soapberries (from which "Indian ice cream" is made). Morel mushrooms are also native to this area. The area has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb, Trewartha Dclo), but is close to (and once had) a subarctic climate (Dfc) as May and September averages are both close to the threshold. Winters are milder than the latitude and elevation might suggest: the January average is , and there are an average of 38 days from December to February where the high reaches or surpasses freezing. Winter months in which Pacific air masses dominate may thaw on a majority of days, as in January 2006 when the mean daily maximum temperature was . On the other hand, Arctic air masses can settle over the city for weeks at a time; in rare cases, such as January 1950, the temperature stays well below freezing over a whole calendar month. Summer days are warm, with a July high of , but lows are often cool, with monthly…