South Fort George

South Fort George is a suburb of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.

Before the arrival of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1914, the Prince George area was known as Fort George and was a Lheidli T'enneh village and Hudson's Bay Company store.

In 1909, two rival townsites were built and promoted. One was on the Fraser River and was called South Fort George, while the other was on the Nechako River and was called Central Fort George. Both of these townsites believed that the railway would build a station in their community, but in May 1912, the railway chose to purchase the First Nation's village instead.

In 1909, Nick Clark of the Northern Development Company purchased the South Fort George property from Alexander Hamilton and Joseph Thapage. Then the company subdivided the land into town lots which would be put up for sale in 1910. Meanwhile, Nick Clark built a sawmill and, with Russell Peden and William Cooke, started the Fort George Lumber and Navigation Company and arranged for the building of a sternwheeler for the community, the Nechacco. The new steamer was intended to bring prospective property buyers to South Fort George and to furnish them with supplies. The Nechacco would be the first sternwheeler to reach South Fort George from Quesnel, arriving on May 30, 1909, barely nudging the Charlotte out of the honor.

Once the community had sternwheeler service, other businesses began to arrive, such as the Bank of British North America, established in 1910, and three general stores.

Pioneer newspaperman John Houston arrived in South Fort George in the fall of 1909 and began the Fort George Tribune. The first edition was published on November 6th, 1909. Unfortunately, other than land claims notices there was little local news for his paper to report. John's articles were often humorous and included notices as to whose cow recently had a calf and what he'd had to pay for eggs that week. He commented in one article about how his socks often froze to the floor while he sat at his printing press and worked on the newspaper.

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