The original importance of this place, named after one of the Hudson Bay Company officials, arose in 1858 from the large amount of gold taken from the bars in this immediate vicinity. Located on the Fraser river, 110 miles from its mouth, and at the head of steamboat navigation, it has, since then, always been a stirring place where the eight or twelve mule prairie schooner of the interior, and the steamboat meet and exchange cargoes. A plucky little newspaper, the Inland Sentinel, is published here weekly. We use the word plucky because the Sentinel was first started at Emory, five miles below Yale, and for several months the printing office was the only house in town. Emory City finally expanded, another house or two were erected; so one fine morning the entire newspaper plant was carted up to Yale, where the enterprising publisher does good service in making the advantages of the district known to the outside world.
Yale's present importance, and for its size, it is, without a doubt, the liveliest place on the Pacific, is due to it being the temporary headquarters of the Canadian Pacific Railroad constructors. It has numerous stores, and more saloons to the acre than any place in the world. This, however, is hardly to be wondered at when the reader understands that 3,000 railroad laborers, and half of them whites, are at work in this immediate vicinity, and it requires considerable lubrication to keep them in working trim.
To see Yale at its best or worst (we hardly know which), visitors should try to reach there on the Sunday following the 10th of the month (pay-day,).
The location, in a narrow gorge, backed by mountains from 2,000 to 2,500 feet in height, is picturesquely grand, but in itself, a barrier to Yale ever becoming a much larger place than it now is. For the tourist and sportsman, however, this offers a rich field of enjoyment. The little creeks and streams in the immediate vicinity swarm with trout during the months of August and September, and in the hills quite an abundance of game may be found. From Victoria the fine steamer Western Slope, in command of Capt. Moore, makes semi-weekly through trips, usually accomplished in one and a half days going up, and one day coming down, for which each passenger is taxed $6.00 for the round trip. The Hudson Bay Company also dispatch a steamer twice a week to New Westminster, and there, connect with Capt. Irving's line for Yale. The scenery en route is all that the most exacting lover of nature could ask for, a kaleidoscopic panorama of sea, river, islands, mountains and snow peaks.
[reprinted from] The West Shore.
