Lytton, British Columbia

Lytton Camchin (Kumsheen)
Village
The Corporation of the Village of Lytton
Lytton Location of Lytton in British Columbia
Coordinates: 50°13′28″N 121°34′39″W / 50.22444°N 121.57750°W / 50.22444; -121.57750
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia
Region	Fraser Canyon
Regional district	Thompson-Nicola Regional District
Incorporated	1945
Government
• Governing body	Lytton Village Council
• Mayor	Jessoa Lightfoot
Area
• Total	6.54 km2 (2.53 sq mi)
Elevation	195 m (640 ft)
Population (2011)
• Total	228
• Density	34.8/km2 (90/sq mi)
Time zone	PST (UTC-8)
Highways	1 12
Waterways	Thompson River Fraser River
Website	Village of Lytton

Lytton in British Columbia, Canada, sits at the confluence of the Thompson River and Fraser River on the east side of the Fraser. The location has been inhabited by the Nlaka'pamux people for over 10,000 years, and is one of the earliest locations settled by non-natives in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, having been founded during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858–59, when it was originally known as "The Forks". The community includes the Village of Lytton and the surrounding Indian Reserves of the Lytton Indian Band, whose name for the community is Camchin, also spelled Kumsheen ("river meeting").

Lytton was on the route of the Gold Rush in 1858. That same year, Lytton was named for Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the British Colonial Secretary and a novelist. For many years Lytton was a stop on major transportation routes, namely, the River Trail from 1858, Cariboo Wagon Road in 1862, the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s, the Cariboo Highway in the 1920s, and the Trans Canada Highway in the 1950s. However, it has become much less important since the construction of the Coquihalla Highway in 1987 which uses a more direct route to the BC Interior.

Novelist Bulwer-Lytton was a friend and contemporary of Charles Dickens and was one of the pioneers of the historical novel, exemplified by his most popular work, The Last Days of Pompeii. He is best remembered today for the opening line to the novel Paul Clifford, which begins "It was a dark and stormy night..." and is considered by some to be the worst opening sentence in the English language. However, Bulwer-Lytton is also responsible for well-known sayings such as "The pen is mightier than the sword" from his play Richelieu. Despite being a very popular author for 19th century readers, few people today are even aware of his prodigious body of literature spanning many genres. In the 21st century he is known best as the namesake for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC), sponsored annually by the English Department at San Jose State University, which challenges entrants "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels".

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Wikipedia