Tulameen, British Columbia

Tulameen is a small recreational community in British Columbia, Canada, about 20 kilometres northwest of the town of Princeton on the Crowsnest Highway (Hwy 3), and about 185 kilometres east from the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Located at the south end of Otter Lake and just north of the Tulameen River, it is on the lee side of the Canadian Cascades mountain range and enjoys a slightly semi-arid climate, sheltered from the heavy rains west of that range.

Early history

It was originally known in fur trade times as Campement des Femmes (Woman's Camp) and then, in the decades of exploration of the remote areas of the province following the creation of the Colony of British Columbia in 1858 and the flurry of exploration of backcountry engendered by the nearby Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, prospecting activity led to the discovery of gold in 1885 near the confluence of Granite Creek with the Tulameen River, near present-day Coalmont, about 10 miles south of Tulameen and the same distance north-northeast of Princeton, which lies at the confluence of the Tulameen and the Similkameen River. Around the site of the find, the boomtown of Granite Creek (also known as Granite City) sprang from nowhere to celebrated status overnight, and was touted (as with so many other BC boomtowns) to become the next great city of the new province - and claiming for itself the status of third-largest town in the province .

Some miners from this rush congregated by the amenable shores of Otter Lake, with the town that sprang up having the name Otter Flats or Otter Lake, which had a number of stores, 2 hotels, a saloon and post office.

The railway era

The name Otter Flats endured until 1901 when the name Tulameen was officially adopted as the town acquired some stability due to its being on the routing of the southern mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway, constructed in 1896 after a potential routing of the US-based Great Northern Railway to the Tulameen. The southern mainline is commonly known today as the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR), and connected the original mainline at Hope with the Okanagan and Kootenay cities and boomtowns farther east; today much of its route has been converted from railbed to a public hiking and biking as part of the Trans-Canada Trail. During this period, a proper townsite with a street grid was laid out and the lure of the lake, mountain scenery and dry climate of the area encouraged the first recreational residents, as Tulameen enjoyed something of an advantage of being the first drybelt town after the rail journey had overcome the steep grades and tunnels of the Coquihalla Canyon and Coquihalla Pass; coal seams in the area also were useful to rail company operations and the town was a regular stopping-place for taking on coal and water during the Age of Steam. Although early tourism never really transformed Tulameen into the fashionable watering-hole it might have been, the town enjoyed another small boom with the discovery of a major coal deposit in the area, with a mine nearby Blakeburn opening in the 1920s, but lasting only about 1940.

Tulameen today

Tulameen today has a population of about 500 and is in Electoral Area 'H' of the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District. There is now a Beach on Lake Otter. Lots of Cabins for not full time Residents. There is one General store that sells food, Gas and Alcohol

The name "Tulameen" is praised in the poem, "Say the Names" by Canadian poet Al Purdy.

References

* [http://www.geoqwestexcursions.com/geoqwesttulameen.html Geoqwest Excursions Tulameen page] (a commercial site for a backcountry tour company, but with excellent historical material)