Christmas tree cultivation major Christmas tree growing region, Douglas-fir has always been the primary species grown. A full one-half of all trees produced in the Pacific Northwest are Douglas-fir. Douglas-firs typically take five to seven years before they are mature enough to sell as Christmas trees. Also common in the region are noble fir, a tree which commands a higher price than Douglas-fir, and grand fir, which accounts for about 10 percent of the annual harvest in the Northwest. Other species collectively account for only 3–5 percent of the total Northwest harvest. In North America, Fraser fir, grown in the Appalachian Mountains of
Steamboats of the Lower Fraser River and Harrison Lake draft steamer. A Hudson's Bay fort at Fort Langley, sat some inland from tidewater. Regular steamer service ran on the Fraser River as far as Yale and also shortly afterwards via the Harrison River up to the head of Harrison Lake, where a townsite named Port Douglas became the port of disembarkation for the Douglas Road, also known as the Lakes Route or Lillooet Trail, which ran via a series of lakes and wagon-road portages to Cayoosh Flat, the other major boomtown of the early gold rush alongside Yale and Port Douglas. One Cariboo Gold Rush diarist noted In 1881