Quesnel

Quesnel is a town of 13,000 that makes its living on forest products.  There are several large saw, planing, pulp, MDF and plywood mills in town.  The town first saw life as a Hudson Bay Company store location after Alexander MacKenzie came through in 1793 looking for a route to the pacific.  Gold discovery at Barkerville gave new life to the town as a supply base for the gold region.  The Fraser River which flows through town became a major artery for prospectors to reach northern areas.  An attempt to build a telegraph line from the USA and Canada to Russia and Europe across the Bering Sea around 1865 ended in Quesnel when further effort was abandoned after an undersea cable was laid across the Atlantic Ocean.  Just after the turn of the century (early 1900s) Canada decide to build a telegraph line from the railroad in Ashcroft to Dawson City in the Yukon.  This line followed the path of the older telegraph line as far as it went.

Lumber Mill in Quesnell

Fraser River in Quesnel

This morning we attended church services at Trinity Lutheran Church here in Quesnel.  The church is a part of the Canadian Lutheran Synod and uses the hymnal of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.  

The rest of our day has been spent cleaning the Jeep and the Winnebago in preparation for our move south to the Okanagan Wine Country of British Columbia.