BC ARCHIVES A-00354 Chapmans Bar Bluff Blasted by the Royal Engineers

The Cariboo Wagon Road would begin at Yale because that was as far as steamers could travel up the Fraser River. Farther past Yale were the rapids of the Fraser Canyon.

Governor Douglas ordered the Royal Engineers to build the most difficult section of the road.

In May 1862, Captain John Marshall Grant of the Royal Engineers, with the help of 53 sappers, miners, and civilian labour, began to construct the first six miles out of Yale to Spuzzum. They had to use dynamite to blast a way for the road along the canyon walls.

There was not enough Royal Engineers to build the whole road from Yale to Barkerville. Therefore, Colonel Richard Moody, the commander of the Royal Engineers, advertised the project in the Victoria and New Westminster newspapers.