■ History
Just downstream from the outlet of Quesnel Lake, at the confluence of the Cariboo River, is the historically important ghost town of Quesnel Forks, a.k.a. ”the Forks”, which was a junction point of the Quesnel and Cariboo Rivers. Various trails and wagon roads leading to the Cariboo goldfields lay across the low-hill range north of Quesnel Forks in the basin of the Cottonwood River. Both the Lillooet to Fort Alexandria wagon road and the later Cariboo Wagon Road came by Quesnel Forks but preferred to follow the valley of the Quesnel River to Quesnel and then east from there to the gold towns of Barkerville and Wells. The river took its name from Jules-Maurice Quesnel, who explored this region with Simon Fraser in 1808.
■ Natural history
The Quesnel River supports a number of fish species, the most significant of which are Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), Largescale sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus), Longnose sucker (Catostomus catostomus), Redside shiner (Richardsonius balteatus), Northern pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus oregonensis), Peamouth chub (Mylocheilus caurinus), and Lake chub (Couesius plumbeus).The salmon run of sockeye salmon experienced a major recovery in the late 20th century, sometimes surpassing the Adams River as the greatest sockeye producer in the Fraser basin. However, the river, wildlife, and nearby water sources is threatened by 10 million cubic meters of contaminated mine waste that escaped in August 2014.

NW 106.3Km	Nechako River
SE 110.2Km	Quesnel Lake
SW 113.2Km	Fraser Plateau
SW 117.1Km	Chilko River
SE 137.1Km	Chilcotin River
NE 210.9Km	Rearguard Falls Provincial Park
SE 219.0Km	Valemount
NE 219.3Km	Mount Robson Provincial Park

vTourMap 🝙 Quesnel River 🝙 🝙

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