Union Bar, one of the many bars situated along the Fraser River, was located about 4 km north of Hope.
According to this despatch, Union Bar was rich with silver lead, a number of tons of which were sent to New Westminster for a quality assessment. Considerable gold was also discovered at Union Bar;1
Bancroft notes that 20 men earned $4 to $5 a day.2
The Fort Yale, a sternwheeler, forced its way through a rough stretch of the Fraser at Union Bar in April, 1861; its boiler exploded, leaving four dead and two missing.3
1. Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. 32, History of British Columbia 1792-1887 (San Francisco: The History Company, 1887), 441.