Prince George: The Spruce Capital

Half way between the Pacific Ocean, to the West, and the province of Alberta, to the East, and mid way between the Yukon Territories, to the North, and the State of Washington, in the U.S. of A., to the South, is a cairn that marks the geographical center of B.C. (British Columbia).

Approximately fifty kilometers to the East of said cairn is the city of Prince George.

In the early 1800’s, Simon Fraser, a partner in the North West Company, thinking he was on the Columbia River, followed the river, which now bears his name. In 1807, on the West bank of said river, just South of where it is joined by the Nechako River, he erected a trading post. Mr. Fraser, in honour of King George III, named the post, Fort George.

Now known as Prince George, this city is, literally, the heart of B.C. Located amongst millions of hectares of spruce trees it is known as the Spruce Capital of the World because of its economic base in the logging, and pulping, of spruce.

Small, in comparison to most cities, its population ranges from eighty thousand to one hundred twenty thousand, depending on the economy. It is the commercial hub for the Northern half of the province and people move out, when times are lean, as fast as they moved in, when work was plentiful.

Currently, the economy is on the rise as the new container port in Prince Rupert begins development. As level land is scarce between the steep mountains of the West Coast, containers, once they are unloaded from the ships, will move, from Prince Rupert, by train, to be sorted in Prince George.

The, current, ten hour, drive from Vancouver to Prince George will probably become a, twelve hour, commute with the increase in truck traffic.

Prince George is noted as a summer and winter playground: twenty minutes from downtown will see you; swimming in the summer, hunting in the fall, skiing in the winter, or fishing, any time of the year.

This summer while visiting friends in PG, we were discussing work. My friend had just started driving taxi and one of her first fares had time to kill before catching a flight, the next day. “What is there to do, what is there to see?”, they asked her. She was stumped. She has lived in PG for over thirty years. I had lived there for ten years and I was just as stumped, even though I had, also, driven taxi for a while.