Photograph of a cluster of buildings on the left that constitute the town of Yale in British Columbia. The Fraser River flows on the right and the mountains of the Fraser Canyon dominate in the background.
Yale was founded in 1848 as Fort Yale by the Hudson Bay Company. The town was named after the Chief Trader of the Columbia Post of the company, James Murray Yale (1798-1891). The population and economy of Yale boomed during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of the late 1850's and the settlement also marked the start of the Cariboo Waggon road which ran to Barkerville on the Cariboo Plateau. The town boomed once again during the 1950's when the Cariboo Waggon road was upgraded to highway status during which tunnels were built which afforded better access to the town.
