Late in May, 1808, a quarter century before Hardy Ivy built his settler's cabin hereabouts, Simon Fraser and his North West Company voyageurs discovered the Quesnel River, a Fraser River tributary of central B.C., named after the explorer-clerk Jules Maurice Quesnel. But unlike Atlanta whose founding dates (Terminus, 1837, Marthasville, 1843, Atlanta, 1845) roughly parallel Quesnel's discovery, gold strike, and early settlement phases, the latter town is taking its time to grow—population, say, 6,000 as compared with Greater Atlanta's one and one half-million. Just the same, it enjoys a good school system, administered at the time of writing by an aggressive board and a persuasive superintendent.