Yale is an unincorporated town in the Canadian province of British Columbia, which grew in importance during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush.

However, steamers could make it to Yale, good pilots and water conditions permitting, and the town had a busy dockside life as well as a variety of bars, restaurants, hotels, saloons and various services.

Non-native businesses have included a couple of stores, restaurants and a few motels and other services, as well as a gas station, and automotive repair and rescue outfits.

The Yale area is the lowest main destination for the Fraser River rafting expedition companies; several have waterfront campgrounds and facilities near town.

Every summer, a historical reenactment group visits Yale to celebrate the Royal Engineers, who had served under Richard Clement Moody during McGowan's War.

[3][4] In its heyday at the peak of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, it was reputed to be the largest city west of Chicago and north of San Francisco.

The Governor came to Yale during the first crisis, and government officials Matthew Baillie Begbie, Chartres Brew and Richard Clement Moody during the second, to address American miners and take control of matters.

As Yale was handy for travel to and from New Westminster and Gastown (soon after named Vancouver) on Burrard Inlet, it became the headquarters and residence of the American railway contractor Andrew Onderdonk, who supervised its construction.

Yale and nearby Emory City, in the vicinity of Hill's Bar, where the gold rush had begun, as well as all the major Fraser Canyon towns to Ashcroft, thronged with temporary residents and business of various kinds and legitimacy.

Three-times daily rail service to Vancouver – begun in the early 1880s before construction in the Canyon was finished in 1885 – made Yale a popular excursion run.

Construction of the railway destroyed parts of the Cariboo Wagon Road, which was severed between Yale and Boston Bar and between Lytton and Spences Bridge.