The free flow of the Fraser River bears the consequences of history but reveals none of its causes. Over the twentieth century, this river has played host to dreams of liberation and transformation, to physical changes and social consequences, to protective actions and inactions. Yet, against the predictions of most observers in the early and middle parts of the century, the river runs freely in its main course. The river plays host to dreams, but not to large dams.

From a comparative perspective, this outcome is surprising. In the regional context of western North America, the Columbia River, the Fraser's closest parallel case, bears the weight of sixteen main-stem dams. Among Canada's largest rivers, only the Mackenzie River remains, like the Fraser, undammed. Within BC, smaller rivers such as the Stikine, Nass, and Skeena have not been dammed on their main stems, but they contain much smaller power potential, lie at a distance from major centers of population, and provide habitat, like the Fraser, for major salmon runs. Over the twentieth century, Canadians have dammed rivers across northern North America from the Saguenay to the St. Lawrence to the Saskatchewan, and executed over fifty interbasin transfers, some on a massive scale. In the northern third of the world, according to Dynesius and Nilsson, there are only five other rivers of comparable size with the Fraser that experience little or no fragmentation in their main channels.