SPARWOOD

SPARWOOD
Sparwood’s population: 3,778

Sparwood is a district municipality, situated in the Elk Valley, just west of British Columbia’s border with Alberta.

This small town is named from the area’s valued and respected wood that was once shipped and manufactured to the Coast and made into spars used for ocean vessels. In order to ship and load the harvested wood, a railway stop/siding was created in the late-1800s.

However, it wasn’t until the mid-1960s when the Provincial Government, as part of a urban renewal scheme, decided to build a new town to replace the old and historic coal-mining settlements and towns of Natal, Middletown and Michel which were settled in the 1890s, and relocate the residents of those towns to Sparwood. This scheme happened because these 3 towns had been blackened by coal dust and made living in them unsafe.

Sparwood officially became incorporated in 1966.

Although Natal, Middletown and Michel have since been long abandoned (Sparwood was only about 4 kilometers within the surrounding area of the 3 towns), their story lives on and is told on many of Sparwood’s downtown buildings which celebrate and depict the life and history of these towns through a series of murals. There is also a story board on the history of these towns located at the Sparwood Information Centre.

In 1968, a company by the name of Kaiser Resources Limited developed a coal mine (known as the Elkview Mine), about half of Sparwood’s residents work as an inside employee of the mine or work as one of its truckers or laborers. The coal produced at this mine (which is owned by Teck Resources), is used to make steel.

Sparwood not only relies on the coal mining industry but also relies on logging and the oil and gas industry which are also a valuable asset to the economy. The town celebrates the coal mining heritage with a special event that takes place here annually, during the second weekend in June. Known as Coal Miner Days, this family fun event has everything from crib tournaments, street markets, to slo-pitch tournaments, and even bed races and parades.

Sparwood is home to the Terex Titan, at one time the world’s largest dual-axle dump truck, a major town attraction where it draws thousands of tourists a year to stop in Sparwood and take a picture of. Formerly from Kaiser Resources’ Eagle Mountain iron mine in southern California where it carried 70,000 pounds of rock. This truck is so large (about 350 tons of payload, 260 tons of weight, 6.88 meters in height, 20.09 meters in length, 17.07 meters with the box raised and 7.57 meters in width) that 2 Greyhound buses and 2 pickup trucks can fit on the back of it, all at the same time. Sparwood bought the truck in 1996 for only a dollar. This tourist attraction is located at the property of the Sparwood Tourist Information Center.

In terms of population size, Sparwood is the second-largest community in the Elk River Valley after Fernie. It is one of the province’s youngest and newest incorporated communities. It is however, older than Elkford, a town of about 2,500 people, located just north of Sparwood on Highway #43 as that town has been around only since 1971.

Sparwood's business center is situated along 3 main streets (Red Cedar Drive, Aspen Drive and Centennial Square). Business along these streets include a shopping center, drug stores, gas station, restaurants, tourist information center and a couple of motels.

Because of its location high in the mountains, the precipitation accumulations in Sparwood are more higher than other locations in the Rocky Mountain Trench such as Cranbrook. Summer temperatures in Sparwood tend to average around 23 degrees Celcius, but be prepared for cooler nights especially during late Summer. From November to April, winter temperatures hover around the -5 to -10 range, but can be colder depending on how cold the winter months are. Also during this time of year, be prepared for harsh driving conditions especially the Crowsnest Highway (Highway #3) from here to the British Columbia/Alberta border, where blowing snow and limited visibility are common.

Sparwood is a sister city to Kamisunagawa, a city of about 4,200 people, located in Japan, on the island and prefecture of Hokkaido, the northernmost and largest of Japan's 47 prefectures.

view of Sparwood

downtown Sparwood

GRAND FORKS

GRAND FORKS

Is a small city located at the confluence of the Granby and Kettle Rivers, the latter river being a tributary of the Columbia River and is named after the junction of the 2 rivers; about 21 and 95 kilometers west of Christina Lake and Castlegar respectively in the Boundary/Kootenay Region of southern British Columbia.

The history of Grand Forks dates back to the late 1800s, when the original settlers were attracted to the area’s rich agriculture farmland. Wagon roads north of Marcus, Washington and east of Penticton helped quicken the development of Grand Forks as construction of the Columbia and Western Railway through and from Castlegar promised a great supply of smelting ore from the Crowsnest fields and in turn, also helped jumpstart the Granby Mining and Smelting Corporation to construct a new smelter in Grand Forks.

In August of 1897, Grand Forks was officially incorporated as a city and in August 3 years later; a smelter was finally built and was once the largest copper smelter in the British Columbia and the second largest in the world.

Doukhobors, a group of Pacifist Russian immigrants, moved into the area from the Canadian Prairies in 1909 in search of religious freedom, and because of the area’s suitable and pleasant climate, worked in the agricultural and farming professions. A recall of the Doukhobors era is remembered in Grand Forks via a museum that tells the history of the Doukhobors as well as how the area was like back in the day.

During the decade of the 1990s, Grand Forks held the distinction of being the fastest-growing community in the Kootenay/Boundary area.

The smelter closed after the First World War and was razed shortly afterward, however some remains including traces of some of its old slag piles can still be seen just a short distance from town.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Grand Forks’ population: 4,036

Granby River

GENELLE

GENELLE

Genelle's population: 823

Genelle is a small unincorporated residential community located approximately 13 kilometres north

of Trail and 5 kilometers south of Castlegar, along the western banks of the Columbia River.

Genelle was established in 1900 when Peter Genelle operated a sawmill to supply lumber for the Cominco smelter at Trail.

During the same time, the nearby locality of China Creek was home to a settlement of Chinese miners who panned for gold in the creek of the same name, when this area was home to a stopping point on the wagon road from Trail to Robson.

Known today as a dormitory community for residents who travel to Castlegar or in Trail for employment opprotunities. Genelle is small but it does have some services including a gas station, community hall, post office, and general store.

KELOWNA

KELOWNA
Kelowna’s population: 106,707

The city of Kelowna is situated on the beautiful shores of 170-kilometer long Okanagan Lake approximately halfway between Vernon and Penticton.

Officially incorporated in 1905, Kelowna was first settled by Father Charles M. Pondosy, a Roman Catholic Oblate Missionary who opened a mission here in 1859 and thus became the first European to settle in the area. Its name is an Okanagan First Nations word for “female grizzly bear” said to be a referrence and citation of a scruffy and giant first settler who lived literally underground. The story says that one day when he crawled out of the ground like a bear, passing First Nations people called him Kimach Touche, which meant black bear’s face or brown bear. However in 1892 when a new name was chosen for the settlement, some townsfolk thought the name to be uncomfortable or ill at ease so Kelowna was chosen instead.

Kelowna has an unbeatable climate of long, sunny summers and short mild winters, resulting from a rain-shadow effect from the Cascade Mountain range that protects the city from substantial amounts of precipitation. This gives Kelowna summer temperatures that often exceed +35 degrees Celsius and winter temperatures that seldom reach the -10 degrees Celsius. There are many things to do in Kelowna including golfing, hiking up Knox Mountain, walking the downtown streets, swim or sunbathe at the beaches of Okanagan Lake, and skiing at Big White Ski Resort. The Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League (WHL), play their games at the Prospera Place, a 6,886 seat multi-purpose facility, used not only for ice hockey but also for concerts among other events including concerts.

Kelowna first became a city on May 5 1905; the first floating bridge in Canada was built in 1958 but was replaced in 2008 by the new William Richards Bennett Bridge, named after a former British Columbia premier. In 1963, the Okanagan University College opened its doors and offers diploma programs to students. A major service center for the entire of the Okanagan Valley with fruit-growing, wineries as well as tourism playing a huge role in its economy, Kelowna held the distinction of being one of British Columbia’s fastest growing communities during the 1980s, when it had a population of only about 55,000 people and since then is British Columbia’s 9^th largest city and has became a popular hotspot for retirees.

Highway #33 is a 129-kilometre highway that goes from downtown Kelowna to Rutland (a neighborhood of the city), Big White Ski Resort, and finally the small South Okanagan hamlet of Rock Creek. In 2003, some 2,000 homes were destroyed and about 30,000 residents were evacuated when a 61,000 hectare forest fire consumed much of Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, caused by a lightning strike and fuelled by a constant wind, this fire was so large it also destroyed 12 of the 18 Myra Canyon Trestles originally built for the historic Kettle Valley Railway. Aside from being the Okanagan Region’s and Interior of British Columbia’s largest city, Kelowna is also the largest city outside of the Lower Mainland and Victoria.