Fraser fir tree species. Growing and harvesting this species for Christmas trees and boughs is a multimillion-dollar business in the southern Appalachians. North Carolina produces the majority of Fraser fir Christmas trees. It requires from 7 to 10 years in the field to produce a high tree. In 2005, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation making the Fraser fir the official Christmas tree of North Carolina. Fraser fir The Fraser fir ("Abies fraseri") is a species of fir native to the Appalachian Mountains of the Southeastern United States. "Abies fraseri" is closely related to balsam fir ("Abies balsamea"), of which it
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