from the bend in Main Street commemorated by a cairn erected in 1939. However, when the present bridge was constructed south of the town, these old travel measurements became understated by about two miles. In 1994, fire destroyed the station bridge over the Seton River. In 2020, a two-lane structure replaced the temporary single lane bridge installed in 1994. Mining The section of Main Street north from the cairn was called "the Golden Mile" allegedly to reflect gold dust scattered on the ground but indisputably as a supply hub fueled by the goldrush traffic. West of Lillooet, the Golden Cache Mine on Cayoosh Creek, was staked in 1895. However, promising expectations proved illusive, which ended further investment. The associated prospecting boom ceased by 1900, when mining activity relocated to the Klondike. Other gold prospecting in the area included underground hard-rock mining in the Bridge River Country, which began in the 1880s and 1890s, but peaked from the 1930s to the 1950s. Gold Bridge and Bralorne were mining centres. Prospecting for gold continues and to a lesser extent for copper, silver and nephrite jade. Until the discovery of larger jade deposits near Cassiar, the Lillooet area was the world's largest source of the nephrite form. Unknown tonnes were exported to China before government assayers discovered the nature of the "black rocks" that the Chinese miners found so interesting. In the 1950s, local farmer and teacher Ron Purvis adapted the skil-saw concept to create a diamond rotary blade. The blade could safely cut the immovable jade boulders which line the banks and beds of the Fraser and Bridge rivers, whereas blasting would have shattered the rock. Although local stores sell polished jade souvenirs, major commercial jade operations no longer exist in the Lillooet area. Railway The northward advance of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) rail head reached the head of Seton Lake in January 1915 and the Lillooet locality the following month. PGE built a depot between the Seton River and Cayoosh Creek. That month, the first passenger train arrived, triggering a revival for the isolated town, since a railway could ship agricultural produce. By year end, the track reached Clinton, an additional . To benefit the railway rather than land speculators, PGE had bypassed the downtown by crossing the Fraser south of the Seton River on the Lillooet railway bridge. PGE erected a station and four-stall roundhouse at East Lillooet,