Designated the official provincial stone of BC in 1967, nephrite jade is the same material prized by Chinese and Maori cultures for millennia. First identified in Canada in 1851 by Sir John Richardson, in 1887 Dr George Dawson (later Director of the Geological Survey of Canada) noted the use of jade tools by the Salish people. During the Gold Rush years, Chinese prospectors recognized jade boulders in the Fraser River and sent them home to China. Rather than pay an export tax, the story goes, they filled the coffins of their dead compatriots, who were then sent back to the motherland for burial!

Jade is not a unique mineral, but a blend or aggregate. The fibrous nature of the blend is what makes it so tough, and useful as a tool. In thin section, it is translucent, making carvings and sculptures appear to glow when back-lit. There are two types -- nephrite belongs to the amphibole family and has been known since ancient times. Jadeite is a pyroxene and was identified in 1784, in Burma. Today, BC produces about 100 tons of nephrite annually, supplying most of the world's requirements.

Historically, the source of the material proved elusive. For almost a century, jade was found only as pebbles or boulders in rivers. In 1960, however, a small deposit was located in the Yalakom River basin NW of Lillooet. Larger discoveries in the Omineca, Dease Lake and Cassiar areas followed. Today, jade can still be found on the gravel bars of the Yalakom, Bridge, Coquihalla and lower Fraser Rivers.

In 1960, a 1.5 ton boulder found near Gold Bridge was sold at the New York Exhibition for $30,000. In 1967 a 6 ton boulder from the Bridge River area was donated by the O'Keefe Brewing Co. to the new Simon Fraser University, and now resides in the Academic Quadrangle - the centrepoint of the campus. A 23 ton boulder was shown at the BC Pavilion of Expo 1970 in Osaka, and in 1990 a 13 tonner was carved into the world's largest jade Buddha, now in a Bangkok monastery.

In January 1968, Premier W.A.C.Bennett signed into law the Fraser River Jade Reserve, which extends from the Fraser River bridge at Hope to the suspension bridge in Lillooet, allowing anyone to collect jade for his/her sole use and pleasure, below the mean high water mark, without the need for a Free Miner's Certificate.

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