CENTRAL BRITISH COLUMBIA - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 531

15 million Adams River sockeye enter the Pacific, with about 10 million running back to-
ward their birthplace, of which just one in five make it past fishing nets to their goal. After
an arduous 500-kilometer (310-mile) swim from the Pacific Ocean, the salmon spawn on
shallow gravel bars here during the first three weeks of October (numbers generally peak in
the second week). For more information, visit www.salmonsociety.com .
Forested with Douglas fir, cottonwood, birch, hemlock, and cedar, the park flanks the
Adams River between Adams Lake and Shuswap Lake, protecting the spawning grounds
in their entirety. When the salmon aren't filling the river, the park is still interesting, and
interpretive boards describe the salmon run you've missed.
Kamloops
Kamloops (pop. 88,000), 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Salmon Arm and 355 kilomet-
ers (220 miles) northeast of Vancouver, is the province's sixth-largest city and a main ser-
vice center along the Trans-Canada Highway. The city holds a few interesting sights, but
is certainly no scenic gem—the surrounding landscape is dominated by barren, parched
rolling hills. The downtown area, however, lies along the south bank of the Thompson River
and is set off by well-irrigated parkland.
Entering the city from the west, the Trans-Canada Highway descends the Aberdeen
Hills, passing shopping malls, motels, and Kamloops Visitor Centre. The highway bypasses
downtown; take Columbia Street West to get to the city center. From the east, the Trans-
Canada Highway parallels the Thompson River through almost 20 kilometers (12.4 miles)
of industrial and commercial sprawl.
The Secwepemc, whose descendants are now known as Shuswap, were the first people
to live in this region, basing their lifestyle on hunting and salmon fishing. They knew the
area as T'kumlups, meaning “meeting of the rivers.” The first European settlement occurred
in 1812, when the North West Company established a fur-trading post at the confluence of
the north and south branches of the Thompson River. Prospectors began arriving in 1858,
followed by entrepreneurs who began setting up permanent businesses. Kamloops grew as a
transportation center, and today the economy revolves around the forest-products industry,
copper mining, cattle and sheep ranching, and tourism.