Heritage & Culture

▼ 790 Main Street, Lillooet, B.C. V0K 1V0
» Website | ✉ info@visitlillooet.ca
☎ 250-256-4308

New for 2024 - The Lillooet Visitor Centre has relocated and is now housed within our local museum at 790 Main Street, Lillooet, centrally located in Downton Park. Here you can access a wide range of services including personalized trip planning, way-finding, and general information about Lillooet and the surrounding area.

You are welcome to contact us for information to help you plan your perfect visit.

Since the construction of the Bridge of the 23 Camels, this old span has been known as "The Old Bridge.” Built in 1913, the bridge replaced a winch ferry powered by the river current, which was used since 1860. In 2003, the bridge was restored with bat houses to support the local bat population.

The old 'salt box' frame house, once ringed with porches, is the former home of the Bridge River - Lillooet News. Established in 1934 by MLA George Murray, the paper was a campaign promise to the Lillooet residents of the day. It was made famous by his wife, Margaret, who gained fame as the inimitable "Ma" Murray. The masthead of her paper proclaimed: "Printed in the sagebrush country of Lillooet every Thursday, God Willing. Guarantees a chuckle every week and a belly laugh once a month or your money back. Subscriptions in Canada. Furriners. Circulation 1573 this week and every bloody one paid for." The house is now a private residence.

The Mile '0' Cairn was erected in 1939, marking Mile '0' of the old Cariboo Road. From this point in the early stage coach days, all road houses and stopping places from here to Barkerville were known by their mileage from Lillooet - 70 Mile, 100 Mile, and so on. In 1858, Governor James Douglas ordered the construction of a wagon road from Fort Douglas on Harrison Lake to Lillooet. The Royal Engineers supervised the construction while miners with picks and shovels contracted to build the road for the sum of five English pounds each, which they received upon arrival, by land and portage, at Lillooet. 16,000 gold seekers outfitted here in the next four years, until 1863, when the Fraser Canyon route from Yale finally reached Lytton providing an alternate route.

On both sides of the Fraser River at Lillooet one can find "Chinese Rocks" - a reminder of the search for gold by Chinese people before the turn of the century. Washing the sand and gravel for the elusive yellow metal, the Chinese neatly piled the washed rocks, in some places more than 12 feet high, in long rows. For examples, look close to the Hangmen's Tree, downstream from the Old Suspension Bridge, and on the east side of the Fraser.

Before the turn of the century, Lillooet's famous camels were occasionally kept in this barn until it was converted into a livery barn and the News office's horse barn. Then, George Murray made it a theatre during World War II and reinforced the hand-hewn logs with bridge timbers from the old Nine Mile railroad bridge. The building was later stuccoed and dubbed the Log Cabin Theatre. The New York Times and the show business trade journal, Variety, described it as the smallest theatre on the continent.

British Columbia is the number one source of jade in the world, and Lillooet has the ideal geography for jade to surface. Jade has shaped Lillooet’s past and can still be found on the shores of the local rivers and in the surrounding mountains.

The local First Nation community used jade for trade and to make axes, deer scrapers, tools for daily use, and ceremonial figures.

The Chinese gold miners were amazed to find jade here when they came to construct the railways and to search for gold. Jade was thought to bring health, wealth, and happiness.

This old Ponderosa Pine tree was used as a gallows for the administration of justice more than 100 years ago, when the law in these parts was Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie. The bough that held the noose has since rotted off and the gnarled old pine was cut down but remains on site. There is a record that two thieves were hanged there and buried underneath, but legend has it that in all, eight lawbreakers swung from it. If you don't think the walk is worthy of the story, it is certainly worthy of the beautiful view.

The current District of Lillooet Municipal Hall was originally the Provincial Government building, built in 1926. Later additions and renovations have altered the original French provincial design of the structure.

The old Pacific Great Eastern Railway reached Lillooet in 1914 and continued on into the Interior of BC. Its name was changed to the British Columbia Railway in 1972. The station seen today was built in 1986, replacing the old station that had been constructed in the 1920's. The original route of the railway was also changed at one point: Originally, the track crossed the Fraser River at Cayoosh Creek, then rerouted through Lillooet to a crossing north of town by the Old Bridge. The old railway bridge was torn down in 1932.

Following the discovery of gold in the Cariboo in 1858 and the completion of the first wagon road to Lillooet, horses, mules and oxen were used to haul heavy loads to the gold fields. An entrepreneur determined that camels would be ideal pack animals, so 23 two humped Bactrian camels were imported from Asia to BC. But this solution became an issue when the high-strung beasts ate miners clothing, kicked at anyone who came close, frightened other animals with their pungent odor, and cut their soft feet on the rocky mountainous roads. The camels were abandoned and left to roam in the wild. Some were killed for food, some died in winter storms, while others were kept as curiosities. The lone surviving Bactrian camel, “The Lady” as she was called, died around 1896 on a farm in Grande Prairie, BC (now known as Westwold).

When the bridge opened in 1981, the name was selected through a contest. Local resident, Renee Chipman submitted the winning name: "Bridge of the 23 Camels" in honour of the camels.