There is only one highway will get you to our Village of McBride, BC. That is Highway 16, which is also referred to as the “Yellowhead Highway” The term, “Yellowhead” refers to a French trapper whose name was Pierre Bosgnais, an Iroquois Indian trapper, who worked for the Hudson Bay Company. Pierre had yellow streaks in his hair, and so was nicknamed “Tete Jaune”, which I guess is French for “Yellow Head”. “Tete Jaune” has been anglicized and is pronounced “T-John”.
The Canadian Rockies were a substantial barrier to explorers and anyone who wanted to travel from the east to the Pacific. There were very few ways to get through the mountains. In 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway became the first to forge a way through the mountains, joining Eastern Canada with the Pacific Coast in BC. It made its route through the Kicking Horse Pass in southern part of BC to do it.
Twenty years later, the Grand Trunk Railroad sought to create a more northern Trans-Canada link to the Pacific. After a lot of exploring and surveying, they decided to establish their rail line through what was called the Yellowhead Pass.
That was a route that had been used by Tete Jaune during his trapping days. He had made his way through the mountains and created Tete Jaune Cache (a “cache” is a storage area for supplies) which is on the Fraser River in BC.
When Highway 16 was built, it also came through the Yellowhead Pass from Jasper, Alberta over the mountains to BC. The Yellowhead Highway was completed in 1970, running all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Tete Jaune Cache is a hamlet in the valley formed the Fraser River which flows west, and the headwaters of the McLennan River that flows south. Below is a photo of the bridge in Tete Jaune Cache that crosses the Fraser River.
View my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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