The Nicoamen River is a tributary of the Thompson River in the southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located 15 kilometres (9 mi) upstream from its confluence with the Thompson at Lytton.
The Nicoamen forms the extreme northeast boundary of the Cascade Mountains and part of the western boundary of the Thompson Plateau. Located nearby is the Nicoamen Plateau, a small subplateau of the Thompson Plateau.
The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush (also Fraser Gold Rush and Fraser River Gold Rush) began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River a few miles upstream from the Thompson's confluence with the Fraser River at present-day Lytton. The rush overtook the region around the discovery and was centred on the Fraser Canyon from around Hope and Yale to Pavilion and Fountain, just north of Lillooet.
Though the rush was largely over by 1927, miners from the rush spread out and found a sequence of other gold fields throughout the British Columbia Interior and North, most famously that in the Cariboo. The rush is credited with instigating European-Canadian settlement on the mainland of British Columbia. It was the catalyst for the founding of the Colony of British Columbia, the building of early road infrastructure, and the founding of many towns.
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