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53-609: Home to just under 1 million people, the British Columbia Interior's 14 regional districts contain many cities, towns, airports, and associated regional, provincial , and national parks connected by the province's highway and railway network. The region is known for the complexity of its landforms, the result of millions of years of tectonic plate movements. The ecology of the region is dominated by temperate coniferous forest with patches of alpine tundra found atop its numerous mountain ranges. The region, which includes

106-585: A North West Company fur-trading outpost, the Rocky Mountain Portage House, at the foot of the canyon directly across the river from the current townsite. This was the only significant portage site on the Peace River between Fort Chipewyan and Fort McLeod . The Hudson's Bay Company took control of the fort after merging with the North West Company in 1821 but abandoned it in 1823 after

159-500: A few cases that is also a phrase referring to the land district of the same name, which is a system of legal survey blocks rather than descriptive of the actual geocultural landscape which evolved on top of them. In most cases, the "Country" and "District" are often dropped, and these regions are referred to as, for example, "the Kootenay" or "the Omineca". In some cases, notably the Kootenay,

212-572: A few provincial parks were moved into the Pacific Rim National Park and Gwaii Haanas National Park when those federal parks were established. Hudson%27s Hope, British Columbia Hudson's Hope is a district municipality in northeastern British Columbia , Canada, in the Peace River Regional District . Having been first settled along the Peace River in 1805, it is the third-oldest European-Canadian community in

265-404: A land area of 826.7 km (319.2 sq mi), it had a population density of 1.0/km (2.6/sq mi) in 2021. While the community is one of the province's oldest, the first census that included it as a defined subdivision was that of 1966, which recorded 3,068 people. An earlier report put the population at less than 100 in 1954. The 1960s peak was due to workers coming to the area for

318-471: A massacre in the nearby Fort St. John outpost. The HBC opened a new trading post on the southern river banks in 1866 to compete against free traders coming in from the west. (Hudson's Bay Company Archives B.39/b/18 p. 57) Though its origins are unclear, the name Hudson's Hope was first recorded in 1868. Theories on its origin include an explorer named Hudson searching for the Northwest Passage, or

371-565: A prospector named Henry Hudson searching for gold, or the use of the English and Scottish word hope , meaning a small enclosed valley. In 1899 the fort was moved to the townsite's present-day location on the north bank to better serve those portaging northwestwards. Much of the area was explored by prospectors and surveying crews as the Peace River Block was opened to mineral staking in 1908 and homestead claims in 1912. A permanent settlement

424-482: A short freeway. Then it continues 496 km (308 mi) east through Salmon Arm , Revelstoke , Rogers Pass , Golden , and Kicking Horse Pass (the highest point on the highway, at 1,627 metres), to Banff , Alberta. List of British Columbia Provincial Parks [REDACTED] Mount Robson Provincial Park The British Columbia Parks and Protected Areas System is the collection of physical properties owned or administered by BC Parks , an agency of

477-451: A volume of 0.216 km (0.052 cu mi). The oligotrophic lake is fed by Williston Lake and 5 tributaries (Gething, Johnson, Moosebar, Starfish and Mogul creeks). Most of the municipality is forested by aspen and poplar trees. Animals common to the area include moose, bear, deer, sheep, goats and elk. A hatchery annually releases sportsfish, mainly rainbow trout, into the lakes. Dinosaur tracks and fossils have been discovered in

530-457: Is a small airport with a 1,585 m (5,200 ft)-long paved runway that handles private and chartered flights. The closest commercial airport, with regularly scheduled flights, is approximately 86 km (53 mi) to the east, near Fort St. John. The closest regional bus stop and rail station is about 60 km (37 mi) to the south, in Chetwynd. The town draws its drinking water from

583-622: Is associated in regional terms usually with the South and Central Coast and Vancouver Island. The northern reaches of the Northern Interior beyond the Omineca and Skeena-Bulkley regions is usually just referred to as "the North", although it also is considered part of the Northern Interior . "The North" may also refer to Prince George, one of the largest cities in the Interior and also the only major city in

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636-416: Is economically dependent on BC Hydro as its single major employer. It has marketed its isolation and extensive outdoor recreational opportunities as a benefit to living in the area. The main townsite is 3 km (2 mi) wide, 8 km (5 mi) long flat along the north bank of the Peace River, and the rural communities of Beryl Prairie, Lynx Creek, and Farrell Creek. The Peace River originates at

689-578: Is incorrect. The Southern Interior roughly falls south of the Thompson River and Shuswap Country (corresponding mostly to the post- Oregon Treaty remainder of the old, original, Hudson's Bay Company Columbia District ). When used directly, it generally means the Okanagan and adjoining areas, particularly the Similkameen , southern Monashees and Boundary Country . Due to a new federal political riding of

742-555: Is used for theatrical performances, dances, and public meetings. Annual events include a rodeo in June, a fall fair in August, and a torchlight parade in December. The district operates three public parks: Beattie Park with a playground and visitor information centre, Centennial Park with its chainsaw carvings and totem poles, and Memorial Park with tennis courts, swimming pool and toboggan hill. Outside

795-738: The British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy . These protected areas are established by order-in-council under one of several different pieces of enabling legislation. The system includes 644 provincial parks , 2 recreation areas , 156 conservancies , 84 protected areas , and 148 ecological reserves . Four provincial parks are designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites , while 24 provincial parks are designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserves . The following articles list provincial parks of British Columbia by regional district . This list includes provincial parks that were cancelled. Provincial parks that were cancelled for

848-630: The Interior Plateau as well as various mountain ranges and the valleys between them, comprises everything inland from the Coast Mountains and reaching east to the Rocky Mountains and, in the northeast, British Columbia's sector of the Prairies, the Peace River Block . "Interior" is usually and properly capitalized but turns up in lower-case in various books and magazines. The non-coastal areas of

901-531: The W. A. C. Bennett Dam and its associated Gordon M. Shrum Generating Station for hydroelectric power. Its construction involved thousands of workers; the project was served by the distant highway and railway 85 km (53 mi) to the south at Chetwynd . To help organize and finance the project, the Hudson's Hope Improvement District was incorporated in 1962 and the District Municipality of Hudson's Hope

954-478: The school district . Such a system results in candidates who appeal to the majority of voters. In a December 2, 2012 by-election, Gwen Johansson was elected as the mayor of Hudson's Hope, replacing Karen Anderson. In November 2011 Karen Anderson had been elected mayor. She had first been elected mayor in 2008, defeating former mayor Lenore Harwood. The mayor is appointed by the council as the District's representative on

1007-511: The 14 regional districts of British Columbia defined as being in the Interior region: The Northern Interior begins somewhere between the Cariboo and the city of Prince George , which lies just south of the big bend in the upper Fraser. The city of Quesnel may be considered to be part of the Northern Interior, but it is usually conceived of as primarily being in the Cariboo, which is normally termed

1060-543: The Bennett Dam focuses on the massive engineering and construction programs to build the reservoir and world's largest earth-filled dam. The museum at the Peace Canyon Dam focuses on the natural history of the area, especially the dinosaur finds that were discovered during construction of the dam. The town maintains a library, skating arena, curling rink, and an outdoor heated swimming pool. The Hudson's Hope Community Hall

1113-689: The Central Interior, or North-Central Interior. The Northern Interior includes Robson Valley (the upper reaches of the Fraser basin) to the southeast of Prince George as well as the Omineca District and the Bulkley and Nechako basins. The communities of the upper Skeena are sometimes referred to as being in the Northern Interior, though in cultural terms and usual usage they are part of the North Coast , which

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1166-915: The Chilcotin and the Cariboo, they can be are often referred to as simply Kootenay, Chilcotin and Cariboo.. Some are referred to only without the "Country" or "District" attached, such as "the Tulameen" and "the Similkameen", and in other cases this is more common than the longer form though both occur ("the Stikine" is more common than "the Stikine Country". Combination forms are common, such as Cariboo-Chilcotin, and Thompson-Okanagan, and these often turn up in names of governmental administrative districts, electoral districts and private or public organizations. All often correspond to linguistic and cultural-political divisions of

1219-466: The First Nations as aboriginal history was also shaped by the landscape's isolating and defining characteristics as settler culture. The main historical subregions, with their own subregions an irrespective of very common overlaps between some areas, and in their most common forms, are as follows: As of 2016 the population is 961,155. The British Columbia Interior's society and culture is affected by

1272-706: The Fraser Canyon, or until the summits of the Coquihalla and Allison Passes . The boundary between "the Coast" and "the Interior" along the Highway 99 corridor is nominally between Whistler and Pemberton , as Pemberton is often described as being in the Interior, but from the inland perspective it is often seen as part of the Coast because of its wetter climate and close ties to the Lower Mainland. There are many subregions within

1325-523: The Hudson's Hope Learning Centre that focus on the oil and gas industry, as well as adult basic, continuing , and vocational education . The Hudson's Hope Museum is located in the old Hudson's Bay Store, built in 1942. It has exhibits on the area's prehistory (i.e. dinosaur fossils, bones and tracks), frontier times (i.e. aboriginal, North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company artifacts), and boom times (i.e. construction of Bennett and Peace Canyon dams). Both dams have museums and offer tours. The museum at

1378-638: The Hudson's Hope polls and re-elected with the Reform Party of BC in 1996 with 44% support, with the BC Liberal Party in 2001 and 2005 with 57% and 41% from Hudson's Hope polls, respectively. Federally, Hudson's Hope is located in the Prince George—Peace River riding, which is represented in the House of Commons by Conservative Party Member of Parliament Bob Zimmer . Prior to Zimmer,

1431-557: The Interior, some regions in their own right, and although there are no precise definitions, it is often broken up informally as the Northern Interior, the Central Interior, the Southern Interior, the Northeast Interior and Southeast Interior, and these names often appear in non-governmental organizations and company names as well as in government administrative districts and ministerial regions, and in weather reports. Below are

1484-674: The Lillooet Country is historically considered to be part of the Cariboo, though distinct in its own right. The Bridge River Country has also been referred to as the West Cariboo, but is not considered to be in the Cariboo by its residents. Many urban residents are under the impression that the Bridge River Country is part of the Chilcotin because of the "South Chilcotin" name for the Spruce Lake Protected Area , but this

1537-501: The Northern Interior (although that term can also apply to Prince George), which bears the sobriquet "Queen City of the North". The Northern Interior Plain is a continuation of the interior plain that takes in nearly all of Alberta and southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It extends from Monkman Provincial Park and Tumbler Ridge in the south, to Hudson's Hope and the Williston Lake in the west, to Fort St. John and Charlie Lake in

1590-615: The Okanagan cities south of the Shuswap as being in the Central Interior, but these are usually referred to as being in the Southern Interior or South-Central Interior. The Nicola, Fraser Canyon, Thompson and Bridge River -Lillooet Country are sometimes also referred to as being in the Southern Interior, with the Bridge River-Lillooet Country sometimes referred to, along with the Chilcotin, as the West-Central Interior, and

1643-428: The Peace Canyon Dam. Additional staff have been employed with the dams’ museums and tour-related activities. The only school in the municipality is the Hudson's Hope Elementary-Secondary School, administered by School District 60 Peace River North . The school, constructed in 1993, teaches students from kindergarten to grade 12 and has an enrollment of about 220 students. Northern Lights College offers courses at

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1696-433: The Peace River, and chlorinates and distributes it through 15 km (9 mi) of watermains. Sewage is collected through 8 km (5 mi) of sanitary sewers and processed in a two-cell lagoon system. The municipality funds weekly garbage collection from households in the townsite and transfer stations in the rural communities. Electrical power is supplied by the provincially owned BC Hydro and natural gas by

1749-568: The W.A.C. Bennett Dam from the Peace Reach Arm of Williston Lake and flows around the 1,427 m (4,682 ft) tall Portage Mountain and through Dinosaur Lake. The water is retained here for three days before being released to the Peace Canyon Dam. It flows northeastward past the townsite, and the rural communities of Lynx Creek and Farrell Creek, and eventually into the Arctic Ocean . The Hudson's Hope Suspension Bridge provides passage over

1802-701: The board of directors of the Peace River Regional District . Hudson's Hope is situated in the Peace River North provincial electoral district and is represented by Pat Pimm in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia . Prior to Pimm, the town was represented by Richard Neufeld who was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the 1991 provincial election with the BC Social Credit Party taking 31% of votes cast at

1855-483: The district maintains 33 km (21 mi) of paved and 27 km (17 mi) of unpaved roads with most of the businesses located along the Beattie Road portion of Highway 29. Community facilities and some residential areas are located between Beattie Road and the Peace River, and more residential areas are located on hills north of the downtown area. The Hudson's Hope Airport , 6 km (4 mi) west of town,

1908-487: The first school. Coal was discovered a few years earlier and used locally. Commercial coal mining, attempted in 1923, was not successful due to the isolation and high transportation costs to other markets. Construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942 created a high local demand and stimulated commercial coal mining. Major development came to the rural area in the 1960s, when the provincial government planned and constructed

1961-413: The longest in northern BC, with an average July temperature of 15 °C (59 °F). With the dams, both the lakes and the river are isothermal at about 2 to 10 °C (36 to 50 °F). In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Hudson's Hope had a population of 841 living in 378 of its 460 total private dwellings, a change of -17.1% from its 2016 population of 1,015. With

2014-603: The municipality, including deposits that were later covered by the filling of Dinosaur Lake. The ichthyosaur Hudsonelpidia was named after the community after being discovered there in the 1960s. Historically, winters have been very cold and snowy. However, since the filling of Williston Lake, the largest man-made lake in North America, the winters have been milder with an average January temperature of −15 °C (5 °F) and annual snowfall of 194 cm (76 in). The municipality has an average growing season of 135 days,

2067-477: The name derived from a prospector named Hudson who came to the area searching for gold. The District of Hudson's Hope slogan is the "Playground of the Peace". Nomadic aboriginal Dene zaa tribes originally occupied the area. Alexander Mackenzie and his team of voyageurs became the first Europeans to travel through as they canoed westward along the Peace River in 1793. Simon Fraser followed in 1805 and established

2120-463: The north bank of the Peace River, west of the townsite. Dinosaur Lake Campground near the Peace Canyon dam and Cameron Lake Campground near North Cameron Lake were both taken over by the district in 1989 from the province. The District of Hudson's Hope has a council-manager form of municipal government . A mayor and six councillors are elected at-large every three years, along with one trustee to

2173-696: The north. The term is used to mean the whole of the Northeastern Interior east of the Rockies, including Fort Nelson and other parts of the Liard drainage , and before W.A.C. Bennett Dam included the upper Peace River through its canyon between Finlay Forks and Hudson's Hope. The Central Interior is composed, roughly, of the Chilcotin , Cariboo, Bridge River - Lillooet , Fraser Canyon, Nicola , Thompson and Kamloops - Shuswap Countries . Some usages may refer to

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2226-404: The planning and construction of the hydroelectric dam. The town is located along Highway 29 , between Chetwynd and Fort St. John. The highway crosses the Peace River via the Hudson's Hope Suspension Bridge and runs eastward along the north bank of the Peace River through the townsite, Lynx Creek, and Farrel Creek. From the townsite, the W.A.C. Bennett Dam is 22 km (14 mi) west. In total,

2279-656: The populations of First Nations Canadians and French-Canadians people and residents living close to the US - Canada border. The Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) is the major roadway through the region. The TCH enters the region from the south after 186 km (116 mi) through the Fraser Canyon in the Lower Mainland toward Cache Creek . As a mostly high mobility highway with only occasional mandatory stops, it heads east for 79 km (49 mi) through to Kamloops where it becomes

2332-403: The privately owned Pacific Natural Gas. Hudson's Hope has a predominantly resource-based economy. The community was founded as a trading post along a portage trail but with sternwheelers and steamships navigating the Peace River in the 1800s resource extraction, such as logging and farming, began. The town's economy turned towards construction starting in the 1960s with the Bennett Dam followed by

2385-596: The province and well over 80% of its mainland. As it consists of a series of interlocking valleys and plateaus, geographic effects relating to isolation, physical remoteness, local indigenous culture, the background of various groups of settlers, and more, have contributed to an identifiable patchwork of regional identities, referred to as "districts" or "countries" (e.g., the Omineca Country, the Boundary Country). Usage such as "Lillooet District" are also common but in

2438-516: The province are considered to be "in the Interior", although the sparsely populated regions of its northern half are usually referred to only as "the North". The town of Hope , at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley and at the foot of the Fraser Canyon , is often considered the "Gateway to the Interior" and bears an entrance arch to that effect, though in practical terms the Interior does not begin until somewhere between Yale and Boston Bar , in

2491-511: The province, although it was not incorporated until 1965. Most jobs in the economy are associated with the nearby W. A. C. Bennett Dam and Peace Canyon Dam , and timber logging . There is debate about the origin of Hudson's Hope's name. One theory derives the word "Hudson's" from the Hudson's Bay Company and "Hope" from the Scottish word "hope" meaning a "small enclosed valley". Another theory has

2544-414: The purpose of moving the land into a different provincial park are not included. While some provincial parks were deleted as they were deemed to be not suitable for park purposes, most of the parks were deleted so they could be transferred to a municipality or regional district to be local or regional parks. In 2004 several provincial parks were moved into the federal Gulf Islands National Park ; likewise

2597-479: The river near the town. The forested foothills of the Rocky Mountains, including Mount Johnson and the 1,230 m (4,035 ft) Two Ridge Mountain, dominate the area south of the Peace River. The foothills continue north of the river, passing into prairie land at Beryl Prairie. Dinosaur Lake is the deeply entrenched reservoir of the Peace Canyon Dam, having a surface area of 805 ha (3 sq mi) and

2650-811: The same name (see Southern Interior ) the usage has now come to apply to the cities of the West Kootenay , along with the rest of the Kootenays , although the West Kootenay has usually been referred to in the past, and is today, as the Southeast Interior. The Big Bend of the Columbia and the Rocky Mountain Trench are in the Interior, but are not usually included in mentions of either the Central Interior or Southern Interior. The Interior comprises over 70% of

2703-561: The townsite, the district helps maintain the Beryl Prairie Community Park, and Jamieson Woods Nature Preserve. Williston Lake, Dinosaur Lake, Cameron Lake and the Peace River are used for canoeing, kayaking, sailing and fishing. In addition to private campgrounds, the district operates four campgrounds. King Gething Park and Alwin Holland Park, both named after 1920s–30s pioneers, are fully serviced campgrounds and RV parks on

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2756-466: Was established in 1912 by a police officer, who was previously stationed in Fort St. John, and a friend from Victoria, who staked the first homestead. Others joined them as they travelled through Edmonton, Dunvegan, and Fort St. John to found the communities of Beryl Prairie and Lynx Creek. Soon, as other settlers came, they built a post office, hotel, and church around the trading post. In 1923 settlers opened

2809-498: Was incorporated 2 years later. The two incorporated areas merged in 1967 after construction was completed. As the reservoir was filled and the dam went online in 1968, most of the thousands of workers left for other areas. Soon afterwards a second dam, the Peace Canyon Dam , was planned and constructed, several kilometers downstream from the first. The second dam went online in 1980. The town has remained geographically isolated and

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