KIMBERLEY

KIMBERLEY

Kimberley is a large-sized town located in the East Kootenay Region of British Columbia, and located 31 kilometres northwest of Cranbrook along 55-kilometre long Highway #95A.

Kimberley was first known as Mark Creek Crossing and was founded in the mid-1890s when two prospectors discovered galena on North Star Mountain. It wasn't long after that when 4 prospectors; Walter Burchette, John Cleaver, E.C. Smith and Pat Sullivan founded the town and the North Star mine was staked at the same time. A founders mural on the east side of Mark Creek Market, honours these 4 men.

After another discovery of another mineral find just west of the North Star Mine, this persuaded Sullivan to construct another mine at the site and named it simply “the Sullivan Mine”. Soon after, Mark Creek Crossing started to grow. In 1896, Mark Creek Crossing, was renamed “Kimberley” after the famous diamond mining town of the same name in South Africa. It was thought that this name change would bring the same economic wealth and prosperity to Kimberley, British Columbia as its overseas counterpart.

Kimberley was incorporated in 1944, but was again a second time in 1968 after merging with 2 adjoining villages, Marysville, and Chapman Camp.

This mine was then bought by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (COMINCO) in 1909, and operated it for 92 years, until exhaustion of its reserves led to its ultimate closure in 2001. It was at the time, the largest lead-zinc mine in the world.

Since then, tourism, has flourished the main source of income for Kimberley's economy.

In 1972, as part of its European-like feel, town officials adopted a plan to make Kimberley “the Bavarian City of the Rockies”. Successful, the town made 2 blocks of Spokane Street pedestrian-only and with it came an outdoor shopping area and platzl complete with cafes, gift shops, and restaurants that specialize in German cuisine.

A major attraction for tourists, the platzl is also home to North America's largest free-standing cuckoo clock, where for a dollar or at the top of every hour, Kimberley's mascot “Happy Hans” will perform a one-minute yodelling session.

Kimberley is also home to the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League's (KIJHL) Kimberley Dynamiters, who play their home games at the Kimberley Civic Centre.

Formerly the site of the North Star Mine, the Kimberley Alpine Ski Resort offers 80 runs of downhill skiing with a skiing season that lasts from November to April, dependant of course, on weather conditions. 

KIMBERLEY’S POPULATION: 7,289

WILLIAMS LAKE

^{Is a city located on the junction of Highways #20 and Highway #97 in the central Cariboo region of British Columbia and considered to be the only recognized city from Hope to Quesnel.}

^{The original inhabitants were the Secwepemc or the Shuswap First Nations people who used the area for their hunting and fishing lifestyles in fact Williams Lake and the 9-kilometer long lake itself are named after Chief William, a Secwepemc First Nation chief, who was instrumental in preventing the Shuswap First Nations from joining the Chilcotin First Nations in their rebellion and revolt against the settlers in the area during the Chilcotin War in 1864.}

^{White settlement sprang to life in 1860 when a constable and a gold commissioner arrived from Victoria to organize a local government and maintain law and order. During this time two pack trails led to the goldfields, one from the Douglas Road and another trail through the Fraser Canyon where they eventually met at Williams Lake. Because of this, Williams Lake became a great choice for settlers and merchants to conduct their day-to-day business. It was also also a popular stopping point for miners heading to the Barkerville Gold Fields.}

^{Soon after, in a span of only a couple of years when the town began to grow, a post office, courthouse and a jail opened for business.}

^{The town was bypassed in the early 1860s, when the Cariboo Trail was re-routed to 150 Mile House instead of passing through the newly-established town. In the late-1910s, Williams Lake, with a very small population, quickly recovered when the Pacific Great Eastern Railway was constructed right the center of town, giving the town a small spike in population. During this time, William Pinchbeck, a constable opened a road house in which Williams Lake started to prosper again.}

^{Ever since 1926, the city has been home to the Williams Lake Stampede, a 4-day professional rodeo event that takes place on Canada Day long weekend (July 1st weekend) and in which features every stampede/rodeo event could have imaginable including tie-down roping, bare-back riding, barrel racing and bull riding and family events such as a concert from a big act in the music business as well as a carnival and a parade.}

^{The British Columbia Cowboy Hall of Fame and Museum recalls the history of the stampede and many of the province’s cowboys who have made this event a world-renowned and year-round tradition.}

^{Incorporated as a village on March 15, 1929, a town in 1965 and a city in 1981, Williams Lake became the fastest-growing community in the Cariboo during the 1990s.}

^{Mining (mainly molybdenum, and copper), tourism, and logging are the mainstays of the economy.}

^{Carey Price, a hockey player and Rick Hansen, a Canadian paraplegic athlete and activist for people with spinal cord injuries, are just some of the notable people who were either born or have called home here.} 

Williams Lake’s population: 10,774 

NEW WESTMINSTER

Is a city located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, just north of the Fraser River and southwest off of the Tran-Canada Highway (Highway #1), 20 kilometers east of Vancouver. New Westminster is considered one of the oldest cities in British Columbia and was British Columbia’s first capital city back in 1859 by Governor James Douglas who had originally chose a site further up the Fraser River, but decided to with a choice from Richard Moody, a military engineer. It was originally built on a site of a abandoned First Nations village known as “Skaiametl”. New Westminster quickly became an important point for prospectors heading for the Cariboo Gold Rush; in addition to gold rush towns of Yale and the almost-abandoned community of Port Douglas. Following the merger of the colonies of Victoria and New Westminster in 1868, Victoria then became British Columbia’s new capital city. In September of 1898, a devastating fire destroyed many of New Westminster’s businesses, residences and public building. The city quickly prospered and recovered by the World War 2 (WWII) arrived and built an inter-urban electric railway connected New Westminster to Chilliwack, about 70 kilometers east. Today, New Westminster serves as a tourism, sawmilling and agriculture town and during the 1980s, the city developed several key projects including Westminster Quay as well as the opening of the Expo Skytrain line which connects New Westminster, to parts of Surrey, south Burnaby, and downtown Vancouver. Skybridge, the only cable-stayed of its kind in the world is used carry the Skytrain across the Fraser River to Surrey. New Westminster also has 3 bridges that carry automobile traffic; Queensborough, Patullo, and the Alex Fraser. New Westminster was incorporated as city in 1860 and is referred to locals as “New West” and for being British Columbia’s first capital city; it is known as the “Royal City”.

COQUITLAM

COQUITLAM

Is a city and suburb of Vancouver, situated on the northern side of the Fraser River 20 kilometers east of Vancouver and just north of Surrey on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway #1) via the Port Mann Bridge.

Coquitlam came to be during the 1860s after a road was built from Port Moody to New Westminster as a better access point for the Royal Engineers to transport supplies to the port facilities in Port Moody.  Before its existence, Coquitlam was the center of large sawmill based in Fraser Mills, whom French-Canadian mill workers developed a townsite north of the sawmill, in the community of Milliardville, which became a neighborhood of Coquitlam in 1971 after the two amalgamated. In 1948, much of Coquitlam was damaged in that year’s biggest British Columbia Story; the Great Fraser River Flood, but its population boomed again when the Lougheed Highway (Highway #7) was built in 1953. Warehousing Industries has become the main economic mainstay industry in the city.

Opened in 1979, Coquitlam Center, one of Metro Vancouver’s largest shopping malls features stores such as Zellers, Sears, Sport Chek, HMV, and a GNC just to name a few. The city center of Coquitlam features a city hall, a recreation center, cultural center, stadium, a junior hockey league hockey team (British Columbia Hockey League’s Coquitlam Express) and a post-secondary education institution.

Like the majority of the area that makes up the region of Greater Vancouver, Coquitlam enjoys a maritime temperate climate, enjoying mild temperatures and sufficient precipitation; warm drier summers and wet mild winters are commonplace. However, unlike other cities in the area, precipitation is especially heavy in Coquitlam due to its proximity to the mountain slopes. This all happens when a effect known as orographic causes westward air which originates off the Pacific Ocean to be forced to flow up the Coast Mountains causing it to cool and condense and fall as precipitation. This effect is mainly responsible for the massive 1955 mm (77 in.) annual average precipitation that Coquitlam receives each year, with most falling as rainfall in the fall and winter months, with 287 mm (11.7 in.) in November; the summer is usually sunny with minimal precipitation with 66 mm (2.6 in.) in August. Despite the mild temperatures, Coquitlam can receive trace amounts of snow during the winter months (about an an average of 58 cm of snow each year), however, in most cases the snow does not stay on the ground for more than 24 hours.

In 2002, Coquitlam became linked to Vancouver via the Skytrain Transit System’s (run and owned by the agency of Translink) Millennium Line and there many buses that connect to other communities in Greater Vancouver including that of Burnaby, Vancouver, Maple Ridge, Surrey, New Westminster as well as Port Coquitlam.

Coquitlam is referred by the Salishan First Nations term for “small red salmon” and was incorporated in 1992 as a city.

Coquitlam is the largest of the 3 main communities that make up the Tri-Cities area of Metro Vancouver (Port Moody, Coquitlam, and Port Coquitlam).

Coquitlam's population: 120,512

CRANBROOK

CRANBROOK
Cranbrook's population: 19,364

Cranbrook is a city straddled between the Rocky Mountain Trench (to the east) and the Purcell Mountains (to the west) about 108 kilometres east of Creston.

The history of Cranbrook dates back to when it was used as a camping and ranchland area for the Ktunaxa First Nations people. About 1,000 years ago the ancestors of this tribe, came here to fish and to hunt bison in the eastern sections of the Rockies. The site of where Cranbrook is located today, was originally called Joseph's Prairie, referring to an old Ktunaxa Chief.

The modern era of Cranbrook's history begins when a rancher and early settler by the name of James Baker, who came from Cranbrook, Kent County, England, surveyed the area and acquired land from the Ktunaxa, to help build Cranbrook to what it is today. In 1898, Baker, already a polician at this time, was helpful in delivering a railway by convincing the Canadian Pacific Railway to establish their Crowsnest Line to go right through Cranbrook, in order to make it the railway's administation centre. Because of this, Fort Steele, 10 miles to the northeast, a busy gold rush boom town at this time, had to be bypassed.

Cranbrook became incorporated in November of 1905.

Cranbrook celebrates its history with the railway through the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel, which presents a numerous amount of exhibits dedicated to railcars of the 1920s especially built for the Canadian Pacific Railway and for the Spokane International Railway. There are also several cars and cabooses that date back from anywhere as early as the early 1900s to the late 1930s. The museum can be found near downtown, right along the main highway near Baker and King Streets.

Speaking of highways, Cranbrook serves as the adminstative center of southeastern British Columbia and the entire Kootenay Region of the province as it is the area's biggest town, population-wise. Because of this, Cranbrook is a major transportation and stopover corridor for tourists and travellers, moreover, it boasts several motels, fast food restaurants, gas stations, 2 large shopping malls and bix box stores. This area of Cranbrook, about 2 miles long, mostly around Cranbrook Street, is known as “the Strip”. The city limits of Cranbrook are pretty much situated and located among 3 major highways (#3, #95 and #95A). It is also not far from both of the Alberta and United States border lines.

Cranbrook is also the largest city (and the only city classified as such) straddled along the Mountain Time Zone west of the British Columbia/Alberta border and the third largest along the Crowsnest Highway Corridor from Hope to Medicine Hat, (only the latter and Lethbridge are larger with an approximate population of 87,000 and 62,000 respectively).

The Kooternay Ice of the Western Hockey League (WHL) play their home games at Western Financial Place. This 4,500-seat arena is also home to a recreation centre complete with a wave pool, swimming pool, sauna, and waterslide. Established in 1996 in Edmonton, where they originated from before they relocated to Cranbrook, this hockey team won the 2002 Memorial Cup and won the Western Hockey League Championship on 3 different occasions; 2000, 2002 and 2011.

Several of National Hockey League's finest have called Cranbrook home including hockey players Rob and Scott Neidermayer, Tom Renney, and Jon Klemm.

Cranbrook's climate is claffied as “humid-continental” where it is mostly warm and dry in the summer and mild and warm in the winter. With over 2,200 hours of sunshine year-round, Cranbrook, has the distinction of being Canada's Sunniest City. Also, Cranbrook enjoys about over 100 days of being frost free and very seldom does it experience fog that lingers over it from hours on end.

During the winter months, most of the precipitation that falls is mostly that of snow.

The mountains block substantial amounts of precipitation, therefore Cranbrook experiences no less than 50 millimetres of rainfall annually making it an ideal location for many outdoor activities including mountain biking, skiing, hiking, and gardening.

Temperatures here average 20 degrees Celcius in the summer and about -10 degree during the winter months. On occasion, depending on the season, the thermometer will reach 30 degrees both plus and minus, but very rare does it happen.

Cranbrook is twin city to Coeur d’Alene, a city of about 40,000, located in north Idaho.

CLEARWATER

Is a small town located on the Yellowhead Highway (Highway #5), about 140 kilometers north of Kamloops.

Even though Clearwater dates back to around the mid-1800s when the valley was first inhabited by the Okehl First Nation band who hunted, fished in the area’s nearby waterways until they were defeated by the Chilcotin First Nations in 1870. Battle Mountain, Fight Lake and Fight Creek, located nearby are all named from this point of time.

White settlement began in 1860 when settlers, prospectors, and pioneers traveled to this valley via saddle train in search for gold in the Cariboo. Prior to the beginning of the 20th century, Clearwater was first known as Raft River and in 1916, tracks for the Canadian Pacific Railway were laid out in order to provide easier access to transport supplies to communities near and far and to replace the steamboats that once plied the waters of the Thompson River and to which traveled as far north as Vavenby.

The community is the home base and main gateway to Wells Gray Provincial Park and this is the main reason why tourism plays a major roll in Clearwater’s economy. The park has about 5,000 square kilometers of lakes, rivers, and waterfalls including the world-famous and Canada’s fourth largest waterfall; the Helmcken Falls. A huge tourist appeal, the falls are famous when during the winter months, they form a beautiful and spectacular 50 meter tall-long (sometimes higher when the winters are cold and bitter) ice cone. One of the reasons why Wells Park Provincial Park was created in 1939 was because of the protection of Helmcken Falls.

The falls were created from deposits of volcanic rock in the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field that were placed down in the wide valley of the Murtle River. Shortly afterward, layers of fresh lava created flats areas, then which were shaped into its current upright cliff configurations from massive glacial flooding during the last ice age that happened around 10,000 years ago.

Clearwater is unique in a way in the fact that it doesn’t really have much of a downtown or town centre, however there are three main parts of the community the tourist or traveler will see including the old village beside Thompson River, the new townsite on the far side of the Clearwater Bridge, and the highway part of town which is where most of Clearwater’s gas stations, restaurants, tourist information centre, and hotels are all located on.

Clearwater is named for the nearby river of the same name.

CLEARWATER’S POPULATION: 3,897

HOUSTON

HOUSTON

Is a small town located near the geographic center of British Columbia, on the Yellowhead Highway (Highway #16) at the junction and confluence of the Morice and Bulkley Rivers, about 64 kilometers east of Smithers.

Previously known as Pleasant Valley, Houston established in the early 1900s, as a tie-cutting hub for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and is named, not after the major port city in Texas, but named after John Houston; a famous newspaper journalist in the area.

The town is also a huge recreation hotspot with several activities including golfing, biking, hiking, canoeing as well as downhill and cross-country skiing. Houston is located roughly 460 kilometers east of Prince Rupert and 320 kilometers west of Prince George and because of this Houston with a population of roughly 3,000 people has become a key supply and service center for the entire Bulkley Valley.

Houston is home to the world’s largest fly-fishing rod due to the fact the town is a center for Steelhead fishing activity.

Houston’s economy includes the forest industry, mining, and tourism.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Houston’s population: 3,163

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 on 40 hectares of land near Cowichan Bay in 1864, with a gathering of several settlers. After participating in several gold rushes he settled near where most of where downtown Duncan presently sits. Ironically his son, Kenneth became Duncan’s first-ever mayor. It soon became a whistle-stop along the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway when it built a station here in 1887 and a post office opened in 1908. Formerly known as Alderlea, it was incorporated on March 4, 1912, when it separated from the nearby district of North Cowichan, its first population boom began between 1898 and 1908 when a flurry of mining activity near Mount Sicker drove several prospectors to the area.

Mining still continues in Mount Sicker to this day, but only intermittently. Today Duncan has rallied on tourism as its main economic mainstay because of 41 totem poles that have been erected all over the city. Due to this, Duncan is known as “the City of Totems”.

Not only home to the British Columbia Hockey League’s Cowichan Valley Capitals, Duncan is also home to the world’s largest hockey stick. Measured at 62 meters (205 feet long) and perched on a front entrance of the Island Savings Centre, 2040 seat multi-purpose facility which includes a movie theater, this stick was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2008 to be the world’s largest and was one of the main attractions of Expo ’86 in Vancouver.

In 2012, Duncan will celebrate 100 years of being an incorporated community. 

Duncan’s population: 4,583

MONTE LAKE

MONTE LAKE

Is a small unincorporated lakeside community, located 40 kilometers southeast of Kamloops, at the south end of the lake of the same name and along Highway #97, a highway that sets out towards the Okanagan Valley.

It was established in the 1920s, when Wilf Hanbury established a sawmill run by the Ponderosa Pine Lumber Company. The mill was then later sold off to Crown Zellerbach Canada Limited, a small forest products company based in San Francisco. For almost 30 years, a settler by the name of Henry Buff operated another mill at the south end of the lake from 1952-1980. In 2005, this mill was bought by Monte Lake Forest Products Limited who operate a 250-employee post/rail yard treatment facility producing high quality products such as orchard props, rail posts and poles.

Monte Lake and its neighbor to the northeast, Monte Creek, are both the French word “montee” which in turn means a “height of land” where it was in this area that the early fur traders crossed over from Thompson River to the Okanagan Valley.

Monte Lake is unincorporated and farming and logging are the main supporters to the community’s economy.

Monte Lake’s population: 68

WARFIELD

WARFIELD

Is a small village, located between Rossland and Trail in the Kootenay Region, and also not far from the Canada/United States border.

An early sawmill was built here in the early 1900s, and was established and built by George Merry, an early settler. When a fertilizer plant owned by Cominco (Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company; now Teck Resources) was established here in 1919, it absorbed a neighboring and nearby sawmill settlement of Annable. A majority of Warfield’s residents work at either the fertilizer plant or at Trail’s zinc-lead smelter, which also is owned by Teck Resources.

Warfield was incorporated on December 8^th of 1952 and is named after Carlos Warfield, a business associate of Frederick Augustus Heinze, who built Trail’s for-mentioned smelter in 1896. Warfield is also known as a suburb of Trail and is basically known as “The Jewel in the Kootenays”.

Warfield’s population: 1,729

CASTLEGAR

CASTLEGAR

Is a small city located near the south end of Arrow Lake at the confluence of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers.

Castlegar is supposedly named from the Galway County, Ireland town of the same name of where Edward Mahon, who founded the town, came from, despite the fact that some locals theorize that Castlegar gets its name from a large and nearby castle-shaped rock formation that overlooks the city and Columbia River, furthermore the word “gar” in Castlegar is a Gaelic word for rock.

\

Its beginnings as a town started on September 5, 1811 when David Thompson arrived in a location of where the city presently sits and camped near the end of the Kootenay River. A plaque dedicated to this event and to David Thompson can be found on the east bank of the Columbia River overlooking the city.

The city of Castlegar was planned in 1897 and five years later, in 1902, a bridge was constructed by the Canadian Pacific Railway in order to place railway tracks to Trail. Afterward the railway put in a boxcar station at the settlement of Waterloo (which was first settlement in the area and where the southern limits of Castlegar are located). In 1904, because Ontario has a town of the same name, it was renamed and changed to Kinniard Station, in honor of Lord Kinniard, a former shareholder of the Canadian Pacific Railway, in order to avoid any confusion. In 1908, the Doukhobors, a group of Russian Pacifist immigrants, came here to the town’s flatlands near the Columbia River from Saskatchewan, to farm and to help construct the first of 7 bridges Castlegar currently has. During the late-1930s, Castlegar experienced its first population boom when a road from here to Trail was completed and paved. The boom continued in the 1950s and the 1960s, when an airport, 2 schools, a pulp mill and numerous nearby dams (including Hugh Keenleyside) were opened for operation. A village from 1946-1966, a town from 1966-1974, Castlegar officially became a city in 1974, after it merged and amalgamated with Kinniard and has since stayed that way.

Castlegar is home to the Castlegar Rebels of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League where they play their games at the Castlegar and District Community Complex. Founded in 1975, this hockey team has won a championship 3 different times; the 1976-77, 1977-78 and 1995-96 hockey seasons.

The Greater Castlegar area which as a approximate population of about 16,000 people, includes areas and communities such as Robson, Genelle, Pass Creek, Thrums, Shorearces, Blueberry Creek, Ootischenia, and Brilliant.

Castlegar’s weather is relatively mild and pleasant, it expreiences mild and dry summers with cold and dry winters. Summer average temperatures can range anywhere from 25 to 28 degrees celcius with a low average at around the 14-18 degree Celcius range, while winter temperatures can range to a maximum of -1 degrees with a low of -5 degrees. It is a mostly dry and barren town and this is the reason why Castlegar recieves less than 80 millimeters of precipitation annually with more than 1,900 hours of sunshine a year. However having said that, it is not unusual to see fog to often linger over the town during most of the morning during the spring months around the mountains as well as the 2 rivers and it is also common to see thunderstorms here during the same period of time.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Castlegar’s population: 7,259

CACHE CREEK

CACHE CREEK

Is a small junction community located in the semi-arid southern interior of British Columbia, 352 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, and 85 kilometers west of Kamloops on the junction of Highways #1 (Trans-Canada) and #97.

Its name apparently comes from a hidden or cache used by the fur traders from either the Hudson’s Bay Company or its main rival, the Northwest Company when during the early and middle stages of the 19^th century the fur traders used a nearby creek by the name of Rivière de la Cache. Cache is a French word meaning “a hiding place”. Also during this period of time, Cache Creek was once a busy place as it played a pivotal role as an ending point for stagecoach lines and it was a busy community prior to 1986 when the $250,000,000 Coquihalla Highway was constructed. Nevertheless due to it being located along 2 busy highways, several fast food restaurants, hotels, gas stations, and a 9-hole golf course among other amenities, the town still is heavily reliant on travelers passing through town.

Cache Creek has a notorious and dubious reputation for being one of British Columbia’s hottest and driest places with the climate and landscape being semi-arid, bone dry-like conditions and having low-precipitation with an annual rainfall of only 10 centimeters with temperatures that at times exceed +35 degrees Celsius during the summertime months. Along with nearby towns such as Spences Bridge and Ashcroft, Cache Creek is located in an area that is known to have and experience a hot and dry summer, and a cold and dry winter. This is due to the surrounding area’s low elevation (about 900 meters above sea level) and the fact that it is protected from large amounts of precipitation (especially heavy rainfall and snowfall) by the nearby mountains. 

                                                                     

Cache Creek’s population: 1,037

KAMLOOPS

KAMLOOPS
Is a large city, located in the semi-arid interior of British Columbia about 431 kilometers northeast of Vancouver and on the north and south sides of the Thompson River. The city’s climate in known to be the hottest of all of British Columbia’s interior with a winter that is usually very mild and very short with the occasional cold snap and a temperature that seldom measures around -30 degree Celcius, as well as a average summer temperature of 28 degrees Celcius, and well over 2,000 hours of sunshine annually. Many native plants and animals that thrive in this type of climate live in Kamloops including cacti, rattlesnake, black widow spiders, ponderosa pine and the Lewis’ woodpecker. The city is also located at the confluence of the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway #1) and the Coquihalla/Yellowhead Highway (Highway #5). The History of Kamloops dates back to when first Europeans settled in the area around the early 1800s. In 1812, a trading post on the south side of the river junction built by David Stewart, a member of the Pacific Fur Company. Pacific Fur Company left Kamloops when the Northwest Company established Fort Thompson northeast of the river junction. 9 years later, Northwest Company merged with the Hudson’s Bay Company and took control of Fort Thompson and soon Kamloops was born with construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway during the 1860s Gold Rush which resulted in further growth and made Kamloops incorporated in 1893 with a population of 500. There are many industries in Kamloops include Cement plants, pulp and plywood mills, in addition to a small international airport. The Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League (WHL), play their games at the Interior Savings Center, 6-400-seat, multi-purpose facility that is located in downtown on a street named after a famous Kamloops-born hockey player. Other key attractions in Kamloops include, Sun Peaks Ski Resort, shopping at Aberdeen Mall, and Kamloops Wildlife Park that is home to several animals including bald eagles, small mammals, elk, deer, bears, and moose. Thompson Rivers University (formally known University College of the Cariboo), offers students with flexible access to distance learning as well as several diploma programs.
KAMLOOPS’ POPULATION: 80,376

70 MILE HOUSE

70 MILE HOUSE

Is a small community situated along Highway #97 in the South Cariboo region of British Columbia and at the southern edge of the Cariboo Plateau, about 38 kilometers south of 100 Mile House.

Like most other communities in the Cariboo region (i.e. 100 Mile House and 150 Mile House) it is named after its distance from the Old Cariboo Wagon Road from Lillooet, which was Mile 0. 70 Mile House was much busier than it is today, when a roadhouse was built in 1862 during the Cariboo Gold Rush, but burned down to the ground in the 1950s.

Today’s version of 70 Mile House is very quiet, but travelers will see a store, a pub, a couple of restaurants, and several provincial parks nearby including Green Lake and Chasm. 70 Mile House is an unincorporated community but the general store in town also sells gasoline for travelers.

The Old Cariboo Road was built in 1859 from the head of Harrison Lake at the once-bustling town of Port Douglas to Alexandria, a former steamship landing, just south of Quesnellemouth (now known today as Quesnel) via Lillooet and Pavilion Mountain towards Clinton. The road should not be confused with the Cariboo Wagon Road which was built in 1862 from Yale to Barkerville via the Fraser Canyon and Cache Creek.

70 Mile House’s population: 477