Go Yellowhead 2017 | Page 20

Experience the history of the west while exploring the Yellowhead Highway T hough it’s only officially been open since 1970, when you drive along the Yellowhead Highway, you’re driving along a road paved with hundreds of years of history and adventure. Your road trip follows the footsteps of fearless fur traders, Cariboo Gold Rush hopefuls, and daredevil Model T Ford drivers! The Yellowhead’s most famous traveller — and the highway’s namesake — is Pierre Bostonais who was an Iroquois Métis guide in the early 1800s. He led countless fur traders through the seemingly impassable Rocky Mountains, the first being James McMillan in 1825, a chief trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company. He also led the rival North West Company through his route as well. French voyageurs referred to him as Tête Jaune (which translates to Yellowhead) because of the blonde streaks in his hair — and so his route became known as the Yellowhead Pass. 20 GO Yellowhead 2017 In 1859, gold was discovered in the Horsefly River causing a flood of travellers t