in the early 1860s, Soda Creek enjoyed a second boom which started in 1909, when it was announced that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway's route would go through Fort George from eastern Canada. Again the town's prosperity was due to being the natural sternwheeler terminus on the Fraser River as sternwheelers were necessary to take settlers and supplies safely and comfortably upriver to Fort George. The Fort George Lumber and Navigation Company of South Fort George built two sternwheelers at Soda Creek, both in the winter of 1909/10, the Chilcotin and the Fort Fraser which were used along with the Chilco, Charlotte and Quesnel to deliver passengers and supplies to the new communities in Fort George. The BC Express Company had been servicing the area since the Cariboo Gold Rush and they held the government mail contract, so the company's owner, Charles Vance Millar, decided to expand the company's route to Fort George by adding sternwheelers and automobiles to their fleet of stagecoaches. The BC Express Company built a company office and construction site at Soda Creek and in the winter of 1909/10 they built the BX and then the BC Express in the winter of 1911/12. The automobiles were Winton Sixes, purchased in 1910 from a car manufacturer in Seattle. During the years of rail construction, Soda Creek prospered as a major stopping place on the Cariboo Road as travelers and supplies came up from Ashcroft on stagecoaches or in automobiles and were transferred onto the sternwheelers to go further north. See also Soda Creek/Deep Creek Band Further reading Notes External links Geography of the Cariboo Populated places on the Fraser River