March 2017 | Business View Magazine

178 179 British Columbia Quesnel, British Columbia Old town, new brand uesnel, British Columbia, a town of some 10,000, is located on the confluence of the Fraser and Quesnel Rivers, some 250 miles north-northeast of Van- couver. Originally settled by the Carrier First Nations, it was first named Quesnelle- mouthe, after Jules Maurice Quesnel, who accompanied Simon Fraser on his journey to the Pacific Ocean, and shortened to Quesnel in 1900. The town is also known as the “Gold Pan City,” a reference to its roots as the commercial center of the Cariboo Gold Rush in the 1860s. Quesnel even boasts that it is home to the world’s largest gold pan (a claim which some other gold mining towns and cities in the Pacific Northwest have challenged.) While the glory days of gold extraction are long gone, for most of its existence, Quesnel has actually survived on another one of nature’s bountiful resources: timber. In fact, according to Mayor Bob Simpson, the lumber industry has historically been responsible for 70 percent or more of the town’s tax base. “In the province of British Columbia, I’d argue that our community is Quesnel, AT A GLANCE | Quesnel, British Columbia WHAT: A city of 10,000 WHERE: The Cariboo district between Prince George and Williams WEBSITE: www.quesnel.ca