Sunday, October 26, 2008

JADE CITY

JADE CITY

Is a small tourist attraction spot on the road and a tiny first nations reserve located on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway (Highway #37), near the turnoff to the abandoned and ghost town of Cassiar, 115 kilometers north of Dease Lake. Jade City is made up of two seasonal jade stores that straddled along the Stewart-Cassiar Highway that are only open during the peak summer months, when tourism season kicks in. The stores offer jade mined through the Cassiar Mountains, as well as asbestos, and gold. Jade City is a haven for campers and wilderness lovers alike, with several mountains, lakes and park to explore. Jade City has some highway services and is named after the large outcrops of jade that are mined throughout the Cassiar Mountains.

JADE CITY’S POPULATION: 12

ANYOX

ANYOX

Is a ghost town and pretty much largely abandoned and in ruins located just southeast of Stewart on the shores of Observatory Inlet in the remote confines of Northwest British Columbia. Kind of like other British Columbia ghost towns like Phoenix and Cassiar, Anyox was a small company-owned mining town that was completely reiled on mining of copper and other minerals. In the early 1900s, Anyox grew to a population of about 3,000 residents as rich deposits of copper and other valuable metals were found and mined at the nearby mountains. The mine was owned by the Granby Company which operated the copper mines in Granisle as well as both the mines in Grand Forks and Phoenix. However, Anyox’s heyday was short-lived as forest fires in 1923 almost completely wiped out the entire community, but the town was soon rebuilt and work at the mine until the early-1930s, when the mines were played out and the workers left and in 1935 the min was completely shut down and Anyox became a ghost town in the process. Some old buildings from the community’s early days still exist, but are in very poor and reduced condition. In the 1940s operations were taken place to remove some of the steel and machinery from the town’s mine and a forest fire a second time, shortly thereafter, destroyed most of the remaining buildings. Anyox is from a Tsimshian word for “hidden water” where Anyox Creek flows into nearby Granby Bay where the mine was located nearby.

PORT MOODY


PORT MOODY

Is a city located on the northwest end of Burrard Inlet 15 kilometers east of downtown Vancouver. It is named after Richard Moody, a commander of the Royal Engineers, who coincidentally cut a trail from New Westminster in 1859 to the head of the inlet as a safeguard against a violent assault from the south. In 1879, Port Moody was announced as the Canadian Pacific Railway’s (CPR) western terminus of the new Trans-Continental Rail line, which in 1886 the first passenger train in British Columbia’s history arrived in 1886. Since the railways decision to put the end of track down the inlet to Vancouver, Port Moody has grown less than anticipated, but since World War 2 (WWII), it has grown into a residential suburb of Vancouver. Port Moody was incorporated as a city in March of 1913 and its main industries include that of the Oil and Gas Industry (at the neighbourhood of IOCO), sawmilling, chemical plants, wine-making, and an active waterfront that handles deep-sea bulk carriers. The West Coast Express train uses the existing Canadian Pacific Railway line to connect it to Vancouver, and bringing the residents of Port Moody that work in Vancouver, a 30 minute trip to work every day. Port Moody is bordered on the west by Burnaby, the east by Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, the south by the Fraser River, and on the north by North Vancouver as well as the unincorporated towns of Anmore and Belcarra. Port Moody is the smallest of the 3 cities that make up the Tri-Cities area known as the Tri-Cities (cities of Port Moody, Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam).

PORT MOODY’S POPULATION: 27,512

MICA CREEK

MICA CREEK

Is a small community located on the northern side of Highway #23 and at the confluence of Mica Creek and the mighty Columbia River, 148 kilometers north of Revelstoke. Mica Creek’s (earlier known as Mica) originality came from the days of the Big Bend Gold Rush of the 1860s when it was an important boomtown for gold miners to either Fort Kamloops or east towards Alberta. Present-day Mica Creek was founded and used as a base of operations for BC Hydro’s construction for a hydroelectric power project at nearby Mica Dam in the 1960s and 1970s. After it was constructed in 1973, Mica Creek peaked to a population of about 4,000 people and had a swimming pool, ski lodge, church, banks, grocery store, high school, fire hall, police station, and post office. During the early 1980s, the population suddenly reduced most of the buildings that housed these important amenities were either bulldozed or shut down but most are still maintained in order provide accommodation for tourists who want to heli-ski or camp in the area. Mica Creek was moved to its existing location 500 meters from Columbia River to accommodate flooding which created Mica Dam’s reservoir; Revelstoke Dam. In 2005, the townsite became unincorporated after briefly being a village since it was born and is named after flakes of mica minerals that are found floating in the creek’s waters.

MICA CREEK’S POPULATION: 34

USK

USK

Is a tiny, unincorporated community nestled on the Skeena River, 20 kilometers northeast of Terrace. The community started out as a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station in 1912. The Yellowhead Highway (Highway #16) passes by the community side of the Skeena River. The train does not stop in Usk anymore, however the community has survived thanks to maintaining its link with the outside world via a cable reaction ferry that goes across the river towards the main highway. Usk is named after either the birthplace of David Lloyd George or is the Tsimshian word for “stink”.

USK'S POPULATION: 34

OYAMA

OYAMA
Is a small community that sprawls on a narrow body of water separating the lakes of Wood and Kalamalka, 16 kilometers north of Kelowna and east of Okanagan Lake and just off Highway #97. Oyama is one of 4 main communities that make up the district municipality of Lake Country (Winfield, Carr’s Landing, and Okanagan Center are the other three). Oyama takes its name from Japanese Prince Iwao Oyama (1842-1916), also a Japanese field Marshall, captor of Port Arthur in the first Sino-Japanese War and commander in Manchuria in the Russo-Japanese War. The first post office in Oyama opened in 1906.

OYAMA’S POPULATION: 1,644

FARMINGTON

FARMINGTON

Is a unincorporated settlement, located about a 22 kilometer drive northwest of Dawson Creek in the flatlands of the region that makes up the region that is the Peace River. Just towards the north of here is the locality of a old and preserved unique wooden bridge housed on the old Alaska Highway and the Kiskatinaw River near Kiskatinaw Provincial Park. The bridge was constructed 1942-43 and is known as the highway’s last original wooden tressel bridges. The main economic activities in Farmington are tourism and agriculture. There are some services in Farmington including a gas station, small grocery store, and Farmington Fairways golf course.

FARMINGTON’S POPULATION: 79

DUNCAN

DUNCAN
Is a small-sized city, situated in the Cowichan Valley on the east side of Vancouver Island located approximately halfway between Nanaimo and Victoria. William Chalmers Duncan, settled o n 40 hectares of land near Cowichan Bay in 1964, most of it now occupies the downtown core of Duncan. Duncan is nicknamed “the city of Totems” due to the fact that totem poles have erected all over the city and have been since 1985. Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway built a station in Duncan in 1887 and a post office first opened in 1908 and was first known as Alderlea. Duncan bloomed between 1898 and 1908, because of a flurry of mining activity at Mount Sicker, a mountain located nearby. Duncan became a city on March 4, 1912 when it separated from the nearby district of North Cowichan. Agriculture and logging are the local mainstays of Duncan’s economy. Duncan is also home to the world’s largest hockey stick, which is perched on a front entrance of a hockey rink located in downtown.

DUNCAN’S POPULATION: 4,583

BRACKENDALE



BRACKENDALE

Is a small and unincorporated community on the Squamish River, 10 kilometers north of Squamish off of Highway #99. Brackendale’s history dates back to the early 1900s, and before World War One (WWI), when hop farming and logging was made important. Brackendale’s name refers to Thomas Hirst Bracken, who was Brackendale’s first postmaster from 1906-1912, as well as Brackendale’s first hotel owner and operator. Brackendale is infamous every February for its annual congregation of bald eagles who feed on salmon in the Squamish River and because of this, a 6 square kilometer-long provincial reserve was created to protect the environment of the eagles’ habitat. Tourism and logging are important to the economy and since Brackendale is located off of Highway #99, it can be approachable via Depot Road, a side road that goes from Squamish’s industrial area to the community.


BRACKENDALE’S POPULATION: 1,178

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

HOSMER

HOSMER

Is a small settlement located in the Elk River Valley, 11 kilometers north of Fernie in southeastern British Columbia. Together, with its subsidiary partner; the Canadian Coal Company, the Canadian Pacific Railway began mining coal in Hosmer in 1908, but due to poor-quality coal, the mine was shutdown in 1914, dealing the community a major blow. Hosmer today is unincorporated and relies heavily on tourism as its main economic mainstay. It is named after Charles Hosmer, a former executive of the Canadian Pacific Railway as well as one of the founders who founded the West Kootenay Power and Light Company. Mount Hosmer (1,970 meters above sea level), is a mountain located just adjacent to the community, is a favorite hotspot for hikers and unique in a way, as it is a upside-down mountain, where the youngest of the rock formation is at the bottom and the oldest part of the formation is at the top.

HOSMER’S POPULATION: 129

TROUT LAKE CITY

TROUT LAKE CITY

Is a very small and tiny settlement, located 60 kilometers southeast of Revelstoke at the north end of a lake of the same name. During the 1890s, gold and silver was discovered in the Lardeau Valley and thus putting Trout Lake City on the map. It boomed during this time and soon had a bank, a small hospital, skating rink, several hotels, had its newspaper and had a population of about 2,000 residents. In 1902, the Arrowhead and Kootenay Railway arrived at the south end of the lake and the town also had its own steamboat service that operated for almost 2 decades from 1902 to 1921. However, the town’s fame and heyday was short-lived has metal prices fell and the gold and silver mines dropped during the mid-1900s and in the process causing the mines to shut down for good. Today, Trout Lake is only home to a handful of residents remaining, mainly summer cabin owners, who decide to get away for a nice relaxing time. Trout Lake is also a minor tourism and recreation community with a gas station café and small coffee shop. Trout Lake is named after nearby Trout Mountain which is turn is reportedly named after a military officer with the last name Trout, who worked in the mines.

TROUT LAKE’S POPULATION: 56

KINCOLITH

KINCOLITH

Is a small community in the Nass Valley and near the Alaskan Panhandle, 80 kilometers north of Prince Rupert. It is one of 4 communities that make up the Nisga’a Nation, the others being New Aiyansh, Canyon City, and Greenville. It was founded prominently in 1867 by Christian missionaries, who came from the river by raft to settle in the area and wished to live apart from the other villages upriver. A little over a decade later, a school, church and houses were soon built as a result. In order to ease and prevent power outages and feel isolated from the outside world, a 28-kilometer stretch of road (now Highway #113 AKA the Nisga’a Highway) was built from here to nearby Greenville (Laxqalts’ap) in 2003. Before this road was put in place, Kincolith was only accessible by either boat or plane, which meant helicopters would be flown in to fix the outages and that residents of Kincolith would not have electricity as long as 3 weeks. Kincolith is known in Nisga’a language as Gincolx and means “place of skulls” and legend as it that once natives were attacked by other nearby nations, they fought back and won, they placed and hung their attackers’ skulls on sticks and in the process, lining them up along the riverbank as a warning. Even though, Kincolith is extremely remote and is unincorporated, the forest industry, fishing and tourism are the community’s major mainstays of the economy.

KINCOLITH’S (GINCOLX) POPULATION: 341

LISTER

LISTER

Is a small and rural community located just 6 kilometers south of Creston in the rolling hills of the Creston Valley and just north of Canada/United States border. It was founded as Camp Lister and named after colonel Fred Lister, who later became a local Member of Legislature Assembly (MLA). During the First World War (WWI), Lister was the site of soldier training and passage settlement. Lister today is a agriculture and farming community and is basically a bedroom community as well as suburb for residents who are mostly employed and work in Creston.

LISTER’S POPULATION: 1,126

NORTH BEND

NORTH BEND

In the Fraser Canyon, 68 kilometers northwest of Hope across the Fraser River from Boston Bar, North Bend is a small community and a former Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) divisional point between Kamloops and Vancouver. The community was originally known as Yankee Flats, but takes its present name because of the railway’s stretch north of Hope is referred to as the railway’s “north bend”. A hotel, Fraser Canyon House opened in 1886 and operated until 1935 when it was replaced by a new hotel which operated until the late 1970s. North Bend had its own unique aerial ferry, which operated from 1940-1986 and transported more than 2,000,000 vehicles and 6,000,000 people over the Fraser River on a crossing that only took 3 minutes. In 1986, it was replaced by the 0.8 kilometer-long Cog Harrington Bridge linking the community with Boston Bar. The hamlet is the gateway to several lakes including Nahatlatch and Francis Lakes, they are located less than an hour from North Bend.

NORTH BEND’S POPULATION: 133

TERRACE

TERRACE

Is a city, located in the Skeena Valley, 140 kilometers east of Prince Rupert. Terrace was created in 1910 when the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway arrived and because of this, a townsite was laid out at the confluence of the Kitsumkalum and Skeena Rivers. The community was named by George Little, a settler who named it after the terraced (benched) land along the Skeena River which was formed by a series of glaciations in the last Ice Age about 1,000 years ago. Terrace was incorporated as a city on December 31st, 1927 and was actually developed and constructed as a sawmill town. In the 1950s, Terrace boomed as a service center for the construction of the new community of Kitimat, located 60 kilometers south on Highway #37. The city’s location has made Terrace, one of the fast-growing cities in northern British Columbia, as well as a important transportation hub with the junction of the Yellowhead Highway (Highway #16), the Stewart-Cassiar Highway (Highway #37), in addition to the Nisga’a Highway (Highway #113). Tourism and forestry are the main industries, and its main attraction is the Riverboat Days, a family fun event that celebrates the city’s heritage as well as its ties with the Skeena River. Terrace has adopted the Kermode Bear as its main municipal symbol.

TERRACE’S POPULATION: 12,779

ALERT BAY

ALERT BAY

Is a small community ,located on Cormorant Island an island off northeast coast of Vancouver Island about 300 kilometers north of Vancouver. It history dates back to when it was a seasonal gathering place for the Namgis (Nimpkish) First Nations people. A.W. Huson and his associated partners established a store and saltery for preserving salmon in 1870. They also encouraged and recommended Reverend A.J. Hall to move his mission from Fort Rupert (near where Port Hardy presently sits), in order to push and promote First Nations’ Labour force to inhabit near the saltery. in 1880, he arrived and the Namgis moved their village from the mouth of the Nimpkish River and shortly afterward Alert Bay began booming with a hospital, sawmill, residential school, as well as a small salmon cannery. Alert Bay’s population declined during the decade of the 1960s and 1970s because of rapid growth of other Vancouver Island communities such as Campbell River, Nanaimo and Port Hardy. Tourism plays a huge part in Alert Bay’s economy as well as commercial fishing and serves as the only community on Cormorant Island. It gets its name from HMS Alert which a British Royal Navy warship vessel that took on a naval survey of the coast in the 1860s. There is museum that tells the story of Alert Bay’s history and the world’s tallest totem pole (53 meters tall) is located here. Alert Bay is incorporated and does have services for travelers despite being somewhat of a remote community, and that fact that it has a population of less than 600 residents.

ALERT BAY’S POPULATION: 584

93 MILE HOUSE

93 MILE HOUSE

Is a unincorporated settlement located just 11 kilometers south of 100 Mile House at the junction of where Highway #97 meets Highway #24, a highway that goes 97-kilometers through communities such as Lone Butte and Bridge Lake to its eastern terminus at the community at Little Fort. 93 Mile House’s history dates back to the Cariboo Gold Rush of the 1860s, when a roadhouse was built to serve travelers that were heading up to the Cariboo Goldfields at Barkerville. Its name is a reference to its distance from Lillooet along the Cariboo Wagon Road. Light industry and log-home building are the community’s only benefactors of the economy. 93 Mile House is unincorporated with no services for travelers.

93 MILE HOUSE’S POPULATION: 86

Friday, October 17, 2008

ALKALI LAKE

ALKALI LAKE

Is a small unincorporated First Nations community, located south of Williams Lake on the Fraser River Plateau, just north of both Dog Creek and the historic Gang Ranch. Alkali Lake became important as a way station for various trails that were used for a route to the Cariboo goldfields at Barkerville. Alkali Lake is the First Nations government of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) people and is known in Shuswap language as Esketemc, a subgroup of the Secwepemc people. Alkali Lake is home the one of the Canada’s longest-serving and one its first cattle ranches, and is located right on the lake and itself is home to a bird sanctuary which in turn, residents can see one of British Columbia’s rarest-seen birds, the White Pelican. Alkali Lake today, relies on ranching, and some form of tourism as its main economic activities and is named after large outcrops of Alkali on a large hillside that overlooks the community as well as the lake. The lake itself does not have any traces of Alkali in it.

ALKALI LAKE’S POPULATION: 363

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

KITCHENER

KITCHENER

is a tiny and unincorporated settlement near the Goat River in the Eastern confines of the Kootenay region of British Columbia about 15 kilometers east of Creston. The townsite started out in 1899 and was surveyed by Earl Kitchener, a British Imperial war hero and who the town is named after. Although logging, the forest industry and mining are important to the town’s local economy, it is mainly a residential community for residents, who drive the 15 kilometers to Creston for work.

KITCHENER’S POPULATION: 218

HEFFLEY CREEK

HEFFLEY CREEK

Is a small community located just 26 kilometers north of Kamloops along the Yellowhead Highway (Highway #5). It is bordered on the west by the North Thompson River, the east by Sun Peaks Ski Resort, the north by Vinsulla and to the south by the Kamloops neighborhood of Rayleigh. It is named after Adam Heffley a pioneer settler whom unsuccessfully brought 2 dozen camels to British Columbia and used them as pack animals during the Cariboo Gold Rush. A sawmill was established at Heffley Creek in 1951 and in the 1970s it added a small plywood plant and once employed as much as 300 people by the time the 20th century ended when it was eventually sold to Tolko Industries. Heffley Creek today as a school, a privately-owned gas station, community hall, and small general store and its main economic benefactors and industries include that of agriculture and logging. Even though it is its own community, most residents of Heffley Creek work in Kamloops.

HEFFLEY CREEK’S POPULATION: 848

Monday, October 6, 2008

GOLD RIVER

GOLD RIVER

Is a small town, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island, just 12 kilometers from the head of Muchalat Inlet. It began in 1955, when a company by the name of Tahsis Company, established a logging camp. In 1968, it moved to its present-day location when the company built and constructed a pulp mill on the original location which was built as as a joint enterprise of the Tahsis Company and the Canadian International Paper Company (CIP). It was built and planned carefully with all amenities to house the entire mill’s employees and was incorporated in August of 1965. For 30 years during the mill flourished, Gold River had a peak population of about 2,500 residents, and even had its own newsprint mill built in 1989. By the end of the 20th century, the mill produced pulp for markets throughout the world until in 1998 when it was bought by Bowater, a Greenville, South Carolina-based pulp and paper company, who in 1998 closed the mill and some residents who worked in the mill were forced to relocate to other communities who rely on the pulp and paper industry. Gold River has since survived with tourism and sports-fishing as its main economic strongholds especially with its scenic lakes, rivers, mountains, and forests to explore. A road was constructed from here to Campbell River in 1958.

GOLD RIVER’S POPULATION: 1,362

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