Prince George is a city in central British Columbia, at the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers.

Prince George is a manufacturing and distribution center for an agriculture and lumber region. Major manufactures include refined petroleum, processed food, alcoholic beverages, chemicals, pulp, paper, lumber, and other forest products.

The city is served by Prince George Airport.

British claims to the region that is now known as British Columbia were strengthened by the arrival of Sir Alexander Mackenzie on the province’s north Pacific coast in 1793.

In the service of the fur-trading North West Company, Mackenzie navigated the Peace and Parsnip rivers from Lake Athabasca in search of an overland route to the Pacific. He crossed the low divide to the Fraser River, and found a low pass through the Coast Mountains to the sea near Bella Coola, at the Nechako River valley.

Other fur traders from the interior followed until in 1807, Canadian explorer Simon Fraser, who directed North West Company operations in central British Columbia, established a fur-trading post at the junction of the Nechako and Fraser rivers, and named it Fort George, after King George III of England.

Still, settlement of the site was slow until the early 1900s, when the construction of a transcontinental railroad to Prince Rupert brought an influx of settlers between 1908 and 1913.

The community at Fort George incorporated as a city in 1915, and the town voted to rename itself for Prince George, the son of King George V of England.

In the 1940s, the site of present-day Prince George grew as the forest industry developed. From the 1960s to the early 1980s, Prince George evolved into the major manufacturing, supply, government, and education center for north central British Columbia.

In 1994, the University of Northern British Columbia opened in the city.

Attractions include

• the Fraser-Fort George Regional Museum in Fort George Park;
• the Prince George Art Gallery; and
• Vanier Hall, where concerts by the Prince George Symphony Orchestra are held.

Theatre North West is the city’s professional theater company.

Situated in an area that affords ample opportunity for outdoor recreation, Prince George includes

• the Heritage River Trail;
• Cottonwood Island Nature Park, which is the site of the Prince George Railway Museum; and
• Forests for the World, nearly 140 hectares (350 acres) of second-growth forest.