 The line was begun in 1865 at New Westminster, and continued as far as the Skeena River in 1866, but then the project was abandoned as the transatlantic line was built first, making the Collins line redundant.Despite the fact that the Collins line would not be completed, surveyors had created a primitive route from Quesnel to the newly established settlement of Telegraph Creek, thus opening up the northern districts of British Columbia for determined and hardy travelers.In the 1870s a gold rush occurred in the region, based at McDame Creek and at Thibert Creek, a tributary of Dease Creek.