[1] The location, about 6 kilometres (4 mi) south-southwest of Hutton, became part of the Sugarbowl-Grizzly Den Provincial Park and Protected Area in 2000.

The name is commonly confused even by journalists with the Fraser Canyon, which runs south from the city of Williams Lake to the town of Hope.

In 1912, Foley, Welch and Stewart (FW&S), the principal contractor for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP), engaged Frank Freeman to dynamite the boulders.

[12] Between 1906 and 1910, First Nations crews earned good money piloting GTP surveyors through the whitewater[13] and were highly regarded for their river skills.

Account details differ widely, but the essence of the story was that their craft was swamped and the men were marooned either on the sandbar in the middle of the river or on an inaccessible part of the shore.

[21] In winter 1874–75, a survey team, comprising eight men with six dog sleds, passed upstream along the frozen river.

[6] Over the following years, sternwheelers were winched up the rapids by ropes that connected onboard capstans with rings placed in the canyon walls.

In 1910, the small steamer Fort Fraser passed through en route to Tête Jaune,[26] and George Williams paddled a 13-metre (42 ft) dugout canoe both ways for the HBC.

[28] In July 1912, when the rail head reached westward to that point,[29] the freight direction switched from upriver[28] to downriver, carried largely on scows.

[34] Roy Spurr (later at Willow River, Penny, and Upper Fraser) operated a café and rooming house during 1912 and 1913 above the canyon.

[36] That summer, using 30 tons of dynamite, experienced rock men removed some of the larger obstructions from the steamboat channel here and at other Fraser rapids.

Olsen & Co. scow struck a rock, the impact sent Mike Johnson overboard and knocked the steersman unconscious.

[41] From June, an onsite police constable ensured each scow doubled its crew to eight men and offloaded for portaging any cargo in excess of 15 tons.

[45] From August, the low-level rail bridge erected at Dome Creek blocked steamer traffic, ending an era.

[46] Charles S. Sager operated a barber shop/bathhouse on a good-sized scow from September 1913,[47] prior to establishing a bathhouse in Prince George in early 1915.

Jack Boudreau from Penny and Glen Hooker from Bend were riverboat operators who ferried personnel and equipment to site.