the title of "Canada's Hot Spot". Located at a higher elevation than Lillooet and exposed to the north and under the shadows of Fountain Ridge and the Clear Range, Fountain is considerably colder in winter. Natural vegetation in the area includes sagebrush and cactus verging into mixed coniferous forest (mostly pine at lower elevations). History The Fountain area has been inhabited since the retreat of the glaciers (in this area the Fraser Glacier); archeological digs in the area, focussing on quiggly hole (kekuli) "towns", date back thousands of years. The most important of the sites and one of the oldest in BC is at Keatley Creek Archaeological Site, near Fountain between Glen Fraser and Pavilion. During the site's heyday the Fraser had been dammed by a landslide near Texas Creek, several miles below Lillooet and a lake stretched up what is now the Fraser Canyon past Pavilion, with the kekuli village situated near its shores, but today high on a semi-desert mountainside. The main bench at the intersection of the Fountain Valley Road with Highway 99 was homesteaded in the mid-19th Century by Joseph L'Italienne, also known as Joseph Italian, who started a successful vineyard, which was British Columbia's first. He sold the land, a holding, to Chief Tsil.húsalst and several other members of the Fountain Band in 1883; it is now Indian reserve. First Nation The band government whose reserves are focussed around Fountain is the Xaxli'p First Nation, officially styled simply "Xaxli'p". The Fountain Band's traditional name for the place is Cacli'p (in the now-standard Van Eijk orthography – - Xaxli'p is an older spelling system). See also Pavilion, British Columbia Fountain First Nation River Trail (British Columbia) Cacli'p Gibbs Creek Trestle References External links Aerial view of the Great Bend of the Fraser, looking north. Fountain below in foreground from Randall & Kat's Flying Photos Fountain/Xaxli'p page, Bridge River-Lillooet Country Archive Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Lillooet Country Fraser Canyon St'at'imc Populated places in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Populated places on the Fraser River Italian Canadian settlements