1960, "The Fraser Canyon" British Columbia

1960, "The Fraser Canyon" British Columbia

23 min 28 secs, 16mm 2k digital scan
B&W sound

“The Fraser Canyon” is a BC government film produced in 1960 now in the public domain. This nearly forgotten and hard to find film was produced to showcase the achievements of the construction of the paved highway through the Fraser Canyon that still serves us to this day. This 24-minute 16mm film tells the century-long story of road building of what would eventually become the highway along the Fraser Canyon, forming part of #1 Trans-Canada highway. With six minutes of commercial breaks, it was the required length for a half hour showing on TV stations across the province and later in schools.

By 1960, television had become a vital, established technology. CBUT-TV in Vancouver was the first station in BC signing on the air on Dec 13, 1953, just a year after the first television stations in Canada went on the air in Toronto and Montreal. Victoria got its first station with CHEK TV in 1956, CHBC Kelowna as well as CFCR-TV Kamloops followed both in 1957 and CHAN-TV became the second television station in Vancouver in 1960. By the end of the 1950s, nine out of ten households in Canada had a television set. Local programming grew quickly with news shows and local interest shows catering to housewives and children during the day and a bigger audience in evenings. The large cumbersome black and white video cameras of the day could only function on the smooth floor of the TV studios. As a result, productions shot outside the studio still needed to be shot and edited on film, as video production was impractical except for major sports events.

From the well produced re-enactments of early colonial explorers and Royal Engineers to the massive off road rock trucks and bulldozers of the 1950s, the footage shapes the story effectively. The narration and pacing of the film are perhaps quaint by today’s standards, however it was shot through the social lens of its time, focussing on the growth of the province in commerce and trade as well as connecting the communities. Post war, the demand for better highways and improved access to far reaching communities had grown dramatically as the family car was far more common than during the great depression and the war years. People wanted to travel. This was the days of ‘Flying’ Phil Galardi, the brash and outspoken Minister of Highways. As the film clearly depicts, Gaglardi's ministry was marked by the rapid expansion of the province's paved road system and the completion of most of the major road bridges in British Columbia.

Look for shots of Alexandria bridge and narrow wood deck bridges and numerous familiar sights driving along the narrow road clinging to the canyon walls. Overall, an interesting look at an important part of BC’s transportation history.

The film was directed by none other than Bernard Atkins, an award-winning, long-time photographer, cinematographer and film director for the BC Government dept of travel. In 1959 after two issues of Beautiful BC Magazine, he was formally appointed editor, a position he held until the magazine was sold to private industry in the early 1980s. “The Fraser Canyon” was just one of his many achievements.


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