HUDSON’S HOPE

HUDSON’S HOPE

Is a small district municipality located beside the Peace River in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, 90 kilometers west of Fort St. John. In 1805, A jumping-off spot for the Northwest Company’s expansion across the mountains into the Interior of British Columbia was established and created by Simon Fraser and was located at the head of a portage trail running west around the sometimes unstable and tumultuous Peace River and in the process attracted several series of fur traders and gold prospectors to the area. Before the First World War (WWI), homesteaders as well as settlers began pre-empting land for a townsite and during the 1960s, Hudson’s Hope began booming as a center of construction for a new nearby dam. The dam, known by locals as the William Andrew Cecil (W.A.C. for short) Bennett Dam began producing power in 1968 and is capable of producing and generating about 2,800 megawatts of electricity at peak capacity. In addition the dam also created the Williston Lake Reservoir, British Columbia’s largest body of fresh water. The location for this dam is located 19 kilometers west from here. The details on how Hudson’s Hope got its present-day name are sketchy but one theory is that it comes from Hudson’s derived from the Hudson’s Bay Company and hope which is actually Scottish for a small enclosed valley. Hudson’s Hope was incorporated as an actual district municipality in 1965 and is known to be the third-oldest community. Not only does the dam contribute to the local economy but so does timber logging and agriculture. Hudson’s Hope official slogan is Land of Dinosaurs and Dams. 

HUDSON’S HOPE’S POPULATION: 1,012