Cache Creek

Cache Creek, BC, incorporated as a village in 1967, population 1040 (2011c), 1056 (2001c). The Village of Cache Creek is located in the dry belt of the southern interior of British Columbia at the junction of highways 1 and 97, 84 km west of KAMLOOPS. The name refers to the fur trade era of the early 1800s, when supplies were "cached" nearby by the fur traders. The Bonaparte Indian Reserve just north of Cache Creek took its name after the French emperor who died in the same year the Hudson's Bay Company took over the fur trade in the region. The village originated as a stopping house on the CARIBOO ROAD during the CARIBOO GOLD RUSH of the 1860s. Cattle ranching, still important in the region, began in the same period.

Cache Creek was little more than a crossroads until the upgrading of Highway 97 in the 1950s, and the Trans-Canada Highway in the 1960s brought a huge increase in through traffic. That traffic was much reduced after the COQUIHALLA HIGHWAY opened in May 1986 and rerouted traffic between VANCOUVER and the interior of the province. In 1989 Cache Creek became a major landfill site for garbage shipped by truck from BC's Lower Mainland, but it is destined to close in 2008. A new site is being planned at nearby ASHCROFT.