Bordered on the west by the Fraser River and the south by the Quesnel River, ths park was named in honour of Ceal Tingley, a pioneer of Quesnel and area who went on to become commissioner, alderman and mayor of Quesnel. At the confluence of the Fraser and Quesnel rivers, the site of the park is significant to the Lhtako Dené indigenous people as the site of a major settlement. As such the City of Quesnel, which for many years owned the property, is returning ownership of the park to the Lhtako Dené. The site is also historically significant as the site of first contact with European explorers when Alexander Mackenzie first travelled through the area, and later, with Simon Fraser as he journeyed down the Fraser River. The Lhtako Dené plan to build an Indigenous Cultural Centre in the park once they achieve ownership and receive an
Invest in Canada Infrastructure grant.
At present the 1.5445 hectare park is the site of over 40 trees planted in memory of pioneers of the Quesnel area, including the Tingley family. Also in the park are large historic artefacts and a cairn with a Collins Overland International Telegraph CNHS plaque. The artefacts include a replica of a Cornish water wheel that was originally located at Williams Creek in Barkerville, the boiler of ‘The Enterprise’, the first steamship to arrive in Quesnel in 1863 from Alexandria, a centrifugal pump and boiler used around 1900 in a hydraulic mine, and a steam shovel used by the Cariboo Hydraulic Mining Company for their Bullion Mine in the early 1900s. The steam shovel was used to dig a trench from Spanish Lake to the Bullion Mine which closed in 1912.
Displayed in the park since the 1990s, by 2014 the steam shovel and the water pump were in need of a little TCL. The city hired an expert in the restoration of such things and restoration efforts were underway shortly. Some detail is provided by the following short news article.
Steam pump and shovel get facelift
Oct. 22, 2014 | Quesnel Cariboo Observer
Thanks to a grant from the Quesnel Community Foundation, the Friends of the Quesnel Museum were able to hire a conservator who specializes in industrial artifacts to assess the equipment on the Riverfront Trail and prepare a maintenance plan. Carl Schlichting visited Quesnel and Barkerville in June this year.
His report is already having an impact, helping to guide the work contracted by Public Works. When you next walk the trail, admire the shiny new paint on the centrifugal pump and the steam shovel in Ceal Tingley Park.
Even more important for the long term preservation of these relics of our region’s mining history, wooden caps on the pump were replaced with steel plates to prevent water from getting inside and a proper foundation is under construction to support the steam shovel.
From the Quesnel Cariboo Observer