Kamloops


Kamloops is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River and east of Kamloops Lake.
With an estimated population of 100,046 as of 2019, it is the largest community in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and the location of the regional district's offices. The surrounding region is more commonly referred to as the Thompson Country. Kamloops is ranked 36th on the list of the largest metropolitan areas in Canada and represents the 2nd largest census agglomeration nationwide, with 115,004 residents in 2019. The population of the regional district is 146,096.
Kamloops is known as the Tournament Capital of Canada and hosts over 100 tournaments each year at world-class sports facilities such as the Tournament Capital Centre, Kamloops Bike Ranch, and Tournament Capital Ranch. Health care, tourism, and education are major contributing industries to the regional economy and have grown in recent years.
In 2016, Kamloops was the first city in British Columbia to become a Bee City, as numerous organizations in the community are actively protecting and creating bumble bee habitats in the city.

History

The first European explorers arrived in 1811, in the person of David Stuart, sent out from Fort Astoria, then still a Pacific Fur Company post, and who spent a winter there with the Secwepemc people, with Alexander Ross establishing a post there in May 1812 – "Fort Cumcloups".
The rival North West Company established another post – Fort Shuswap – nearby in the same year. The two operations were merged in 1813 when the North West Company officials in the region bought the operations of the Pacific Fur Company. After the North West Company's forced merger with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, the post became known commonly as Thompson's River Post, or Fort Thompson, which over time became known as Fort Kamloops. The post's journals, kept by its Chief Traders, document a series of inter-Indian wars and personalities for the period and also give much insight to the goings-on of the fur companies and their personnel throughout the entire Pacific Slope.
Soon after the forts were founded, the main local village of the Secwepemc, then headed by a chief named Kwa'lila, was moved closer to the trading post to control access to its trade, and for prestige and security. With Kwalila's death, the local chieftaincy was passed to his nephew and foster-son Chief Nicola, who led an alliance of Syilx and Nlaka'pamux people in the plateau country to the south around Stump, Nicola and Douglas Lakes.
Relations between Nicola and the fur traders were often tense, but in the end Nicola was recognized as a great help to the influx of whites during the gold rush, though admonishing those who had been in parties waging violence and looting on the Okanagan Trail, which led from American territory to the Fraser goldfields. Throughout, Kamloops was an important way station on the route of the Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail, which connected Fort Astoria with Fort Alexandria and the other forts in New Caledonia to the north, and which continued in heavy use through the onset of the Cariboo Gold Rush as the main route to the new goldfields around what was to become Barkerville.
The gold rush of the 1860s and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which reached Kamloops from the West in 1885, brought further growth, resulting in the City of Kamloops being incorporated in 1893 with a population of about 500. The logging industry of the 1970s brought many Indo-Canadians into the Kamloops area, mostly from the Punjab region of India. In 1973, Kamloops annexed Barnhartvale and other nearby communities.

Etymology

"Kamloops" is the anglicized version of the Shuswap word "Tk'əmlúps", meaning "meeting of the waters". Shuswap is still spoken in the area by members of the Tk'emlúps Indian Band.
An alternate origin sometimes given for the name may have come from the native name's accidental similarity to the French "Camp des loups", meaning "Camp of Wolves"; many early fur traders spoke French. One story perhaps connected with this version of the name concerns an attack by a pack of wolves, much built up in story to one huge white wolf, or a pack of wolves and other animals, travelling overland from the Nicola Country being repelled by a single shot by John Tod, then Chief Trader, thus preventing the fort from attack and granting Tod a great degree of respect locally.

Geography, location and climate

Kamloops is in the Thompson Valley and the Montane Cordillera Ecozone. The city's centre is in the valley near the confluence of the Thompson River's north and south branches. Suburbs stretch for more than a dozen kilometres along the north and south branches, as well as to the steep hillsides along the south portion of the city and lower northeast hillsides.
Robert W. Service in 1904 described Kamloops as his delightful life and wrote "Life was pleasant, and the work was light. At four o'clock we were on our horses, riding over the rolling ridges, or into spectral gulches that rose to ghostlier mountains. It was like the scenery of Mexico, weirdly desolate and aridly morose. A discouraging land, forbidding in its weariness and resigned to ruin."
Kamloops Indian Band areas begin just to the northeast of the downtown core but are not within the city limits. As a result of this placement, it is necessary to leave Kamloops' city limits and pass through the band lands before re-entering the city limits to access the communities of Rayleigh and Heffley Creek. Kamloops is surrounded by the smaller communities of Cherry Creek, Pritchard, Savona, Scotch Creek, Adams Lake, Chase, Paul Lake, Pinantan and various others.

Climate

The climate of Kamloops is semi-arid due to its rain shadow location. Because of milder winters and aridity, the area west of Kamloops in the lower Thompson River valley falls within a desert climate. Kamloops gets short cold snaps where temperatures can drop to around when Arctic air manages to cross the Rockies and Columbia Mountains into the Interior.
watershed
Kamloops has the third mildest winter of any non-coastal city in Canada, after Penticton and Kelowna. The January mean temperature is. That average sharply increases with an average maximum temperature of in February. The average number of days where temperatures drop below` per year is 19.9 as recorded by Environment Canada.
Although Kamloops is above 50° north latitude, summers are warmer than in many places at lower latitudes, with prevailing dry and sunny weather. Daytime humidity is generally under 40% in the summer, sometimes dropping below 20% during a dry spell, which allows for substantial nighttime cooling. Occasional summer thunderstorms can create dry-lightning conditions, sometimes igniting forest fires which the area is prone to.
Kamloops lies in the rain shadow leeward of the Coast Mountains and is biogeographically connected to similar semi-desert areas in the Okanagan region, and a much larger area covering the central/eastern portions of Washington, Oregon and intermontane areas of Nevada, Utah and Idaho in the US.
These areas of relatively similar climate have many distinctive native plants and animals in common, such as ponderosa pine, big sagebrush, prickly pear cactus, rattlesnakes, black widow spiders and Lewis's woodpecker.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Kamloops was on 27 July 1939 and 16 July 1941. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 16 and 18 January 1950.

Economy

Kamloops' economy is diverse and includes thriving healthcare, tourism, education, transportation, and natural resource extraction industries.
The Royal Inland Hospital is the city's largest employer. RIH is the region's acute care and health facility and is one of two tertiary referral hospitals in the Southern Interior with 239 acute beds and an additional 20 more beds upon completion of the expansion in 2016.
Thompson Rivers University serves a student body of 25,754 including a diverse international contingent mainly from Asian countries. Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning is the biggest distance education provider in British Columbia and one of the biggest in Canada.
Heavy industries in the Kamloops area include primary resource processing such as Domtar Kamloops Pulp Mill, Tolko-Heffley Creek Plywood and Veneer, and Highland Valley Copper Mine.
Four major highways join in Kamloops, the BC Highway 1, the Coquihalla Highway, the Yellowhead Highway and BC Highway 97, making it a transportation hub and a place which attracts business. There are over 50 trucking and transport companies located in Kamloops that ship across Canada and into the United States. Both the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway service Kamloops with both lines running through the city.

Tourism

Kamloops welcomed 1.8 million visitors in 2017, a 9% increase from 2015. Kamloops' unique and social, cultural and environmental resources are major tourism attractions.

Economic overview

Tourism's economic ROI is immense. A$1.8 million destination marketing budget returned $449 million in economic benefit in 2017.The annual Direct Visitor Expenditure is estimated at $270 million, a 19% increase from 2015. Further, the total estimated tourism economic impact was $449 million in 2017, a 32.4% increase from 2015.
Tourism generates many types of income for the region, including business income, wage earnings, share earnings, rates and levies. Conservation springs from industry-wide support for management, research and education initiatives that benefit everyone through responsible tourism management.

Accommodation

Kamloops has over 50 accommodation choices from major hotels to bed and breakfasts. Accommodation occupancy rates were 61.5% in 2017, up 2.6% from 2016.

Attractions and events

Popular attractions include: the Adams River Sockeye Salmon Run; Kamloops Bike Ranch; BC Wildlife Park; Kamloops Heritage Railway; Kamloops Wine Trail; Secwepemc Museum, Tranquille Sanatorium, and Treetop Flyers Zipline.
Since 2012, four wineries have been established in the Thompson Valley wine region including: Sagewood Winery; Harper's Trail Winery; Monte Creek Ranch Winery, and Privato Vineyard and Winery. Since 2010, three micro-breweries have opened up in Kamloops including: Noble Pig Brewhouse; Red Collar Brewing, and Iron Road Brewing.
Kamloops hosts a range of cultural events year-round including:
Kamloops is an outdoor mecca for activities like hiking and mountain biking with an extensive trail network for year-round adventure. Multiple nearby lakes offer paddling, kayaking and fishing.
Known as the Tournament Capital of Canada, Kamloops has hosted many tournaments and is home to a range of professional athletes from many sports. Kamloops has the Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame, which includes 2008 Summer Olympics bronze medallist Dylan Armstrong and the National Finalist Roma's soccer team.

Fishing

With 100 lakes within an hour's drive, Kamloops has some of the best freshwater fishing in North America. Every year, the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC stocks lakes in the Thompson-Nicola region with roughly 1,000,000 fish including rainbow trout, brook trout, and kokanee salmon.
Kamloops is known for its professional anglers including Brian Chan, Jordan Oelrich, and Brennan Lund. Fishing guides in the Kamloops area include: DNA Fly Fishing; Interior Fly Fishing; Maricle Fly Fishing; Riseform Flyfishing; and Fast Action Fishing Adventures.

Mountain biking

Kamloops' extensive trail network and desert-like climate creates world-class conditions for year-round mountain biking across the city. Popular parks include the Kamloops Bike Ranch, Pineview Valley; Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area, and Kenna Cartwright Park. Two time UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships – Women's cross-country, gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2016 Summer Olympics bronze medallist Catharine Pendrel lives and trains in Kamloops. Kamloops is home to world-famous mountain bikers such as freeride pioneers and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame members Wade Simmons, Brett Tippie,, and Richie Schley. Freeriders Matt Hunter, and Graham Agassiz also live in Kamloops. Kamloops was featured in the first mountain bike film by Greg Stump, Pulp Traction, and later the first three Kranked films, which starred the original Fro Riders, Tippie, Simmons and Schley.
Ongoing trail maintenance has been spearheaded by local organizations such as the Kamloops Bike Riders Association, Kamloops Performance Cycling Centre, and Dirt Chix Kamloops.

Golf

Kamloops has highest number of golf courses per capita in Canada and boasts one of Canada's most diverse golf landscapes. Golfers enjoy three seasons of golf due to the dry and hot climate of the area. Several of the local golf courses have been designed by famous golf architects such as Robert Trent Jones, Graham Cooke, and Tom McBroom.
The 13 courses include: Tobiano Golf Course; The Dunes, Talking Rock Golf Course; Pineridge Golf Course; Rivershore Estates; Big Horn Golf & Country Club; Kamloops Golf & Country Club; Sun Peaks Golf; Eagle Point Golf Course; Mount Paul Golf Course, and Chinook Cove Golf.

Hockey

Kamloops is home to the Western Hockey League's Kamloops Blazers who play at the Sandman Centre. Alumni of the Kamloops Blazers include Mark Recchi, Jarome Iginla, Darryl Sydor, Nolan Baumgartner, Shane Doan, Scott Niedermayer, Rudy Poeschek and Darcy Tucker. Two-time champion coach Ken Hitchcock would later win the Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars.
Kamloops is also the hometown of 2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Champion and current defenceman for the Detroit Red Wings, Joe Hicketts.
On 6 February 2016, Kamloops hosted Hockey Day in Canada with Ron MacLean and Don Cherry.

Skiing

is a nearby ski and snowboard hill. Olympic medallist skier Nancy Greene Raine is director of skiing at Sun Peaks and the former chancellor of Thompson Rivers University. The Overlander Ski Club runs the Stake Lake cross country ski area with of trails.
Lacrosse teams include the Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League's Kamloops Junior B Venom, as well as the junior ice hockey team the Kamloops Storm. Also calling Kamloops home is the Canadian Junior Football League's Kamloops Broncos, and Pacific Coast Soccer League's Kamloops Excel, both of whom play at Hillside Stadium.

Sports tournaments

Kamloops hosted the 1993 Canada Summer Games. It co-hosted the 2006 IIHF World U20 Championship from 26 December 2005, to 5 January 2006. It hosted the 2006 BC Summer Games and 2018 BC Winter Games. In the summer of 2008, Kamloops, and its modern facility the Tournament Capital Centre played host to the U15 boys and girls Basketball National Championship.
Kamloops hosted the World Masters Indoor Championships in March 2010.
Kamloops hosted the 2011 Western Canada Summer Games.
Kamloops hosted the 2014 Tim Hortons Brier.
Kamloops hosted the 2014 edition of the 4 Nations Cup.

Other recreation

The Kamloops Rotary Skatepark at McArthur Island Park is one of Canada's largest skateboard parks. Also located at McArthur Island Park is NorBrock Stadium, the McArthur Island Sports and Events Centre and the McArthur Island Curling Club. The city boasts 82 parks which are great for hiking, including Kenna Cartwright Park, the largest municipal park in British Columbia.

Culture

Kamloops culture has grown in recent years to celebrate local talent that includes: culinary arts, sports, live entertainment, and fine art.

Performing and fine arts

Kamloops is home to many galleries including nationally recognized Kamloops Art Gallery, Secwepemc Museum and Heritage Park; the Kamloops Museum and Archives, the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, and Western Canada Theatre.
There are 29 outdoor murals – the Back Alley Art Gallery- throughout downtown Kamloops that the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association has spearheaded since the 2000s. Artists that have contributed to this project include: Zack Abney; Kyleen Cachelin; Evan Christina; Kelly Wright; Ken Wells; Alex Moir-Porteus; Robin Hodgson; Jack Morris; Janice Gurney, and Marianna Abutalipova.
The Western Canada Theatre is a professional theatre company located in Kamloops. The company manages and performs in two spaces: the 706 seat Sagebrush Theatre and the 150-seat Pavilion Theatre. James MacDonald is the current artistic director of the theatre company. Previous artistic directors include Tom Kerr, Frank Glassen, David Ross, Michael Dobbin, John Cooper, and Jeremy Tow.

Food and drink

Since 2007, Chefs in the City has been established as a "celebration of culinary arts, fine wine and beer from Kamloops and the surrounding region." In 2018, 21 local restaurants will have participated, as well as 10 local wineries and breweries. This annual event is presented by the Rotary Club of Kamloops and has raised over $325,000 since 2007.
Kamloops is emerging as an award-winning wine region with a climate perfect for growing grapes. It is home to four award-winning wineries: Harper's Trail, Monte Creek Ranch, Privato and Sagewood. Kamloops has over 120 acres under vine. The top grapes planted by local wineries are Riesling, Chardonnay, pinot gris, pinot noir, Cabernet Franc, Marechal Foch and Marquette.
Since 1998, the Kamloops Wine Festival has taken place in the spring as a fundraiser to support the Kamloops Art Gallery. The Kamloops Wine Festival had raised over $200,000 by 2018.
In 2014, Brewloops Beer Festival was established as a non-profit organization that promotes Kamloops culture across the city throughout the year. Brewloops celebrates BC craft beer, music, and entertainment with the wider Kamloops community and had donated $27,000 to community groups by 2018. Bands that have performed at Brewloops include: Dehli 2 Dublin, Yukon Blonde, and at Mission Dolores.

Transportation

Kamloops is located at the crossroads of the Coquihalla Highway, Yellowhead Highway, and Trans-Canada Highway and is a transportation hub in the region.
The Canadian Pacific and Canadian National mainline routes connect Vancouver in the west with Kamloops. The two railways diverge to the north and east where they connect with the rest of Canada. Kamloops North station is served three times per week by Via Rail's Canadian.
The Rocky Mountaineer and the Kamloops Heritage Railway both use the Kamloops station.
Kamloops is home to Kamloops Airport. Airlines flying to Kamloops include: Air Canada Express, WestJet Encore, Canadian North, and Central Mountain Air, as well as three cargo airlines. Vancouver and Calgary are primary routes for passenger service to this regional airport. In 2018, Air Canada Rouge launched non-stop seasonal service from Kamloops to Toronto.
Greyhound Canada previously connected Kamloops with Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary, with service ending at the end of October 2018. After Greyhound's departure, several companies stepped in and commenced intercity service. Ebus and Rider Express both provide service to Vancouver and in between cities and towns, with Ebus connecting to other Interior cities like Kelowna and Vernon, and Rider Express continuing east to Calgary.
Local bus service is provided by Kamloops Transit System and funded through BC Transit with 14 routes across the Kamloops area that are operated by contractor First Student Canada. In 2018, the City of Kamloops partnered with the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc to expand its services on Tk'emlups te Secwepemc land for Route 18: Mount Paul.

Demographics

Demographics of the City of Kamloops according to Statistics Canada 2016 census.
Data is from the 2001 census.
Kamloops historically had a Chinatown on Victoria Street where most ethnic Chinese lived. John Stewart of the Kamloops Museum and Archives stated it was not a "true Chinatown". It was established by Chinese immigrants by 1887, and by 1890 the community had up to 400 Chinese. Stewart said this was an "amazingly large" population for the rural area. By the 1890s, about 33% of Kamloops were ethnic Chinese; they worked primarily on construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Economic changes in Kamloops resulted in many Chinese seeking work elsewhere. In addition, there were two fires in 1892 and 1893, and a 1911–1914 demolition that dismantled the Chinatown. Peter Wing, the first ethnic Chinese mayor in North America, was elected in 1966 and served three terms as the Mayor of Kamloops.
In the 1880s the Kamloops' Chinese Cemetery was founded in Kamloops, the only one in the province dedicated to Chinese pioneers, It is one of the largest cemeteries in the province, but the last interment was made there in the 1960s.
In 2013 the provincial government announced it would begin a consultation process to discuss wording of a formal apology to Chinese in B.C. for past wrongs. Joe Leong, president of the Kamloops Chinese Cultural Association, said he believed that the province should build a museum to honour Chinese history in the province, as a way to recognize the contributions of the people. As Kamloops had the only cemetery dedicated to the Chinese pioneers, he felt this city would be an appropriate site for the museum.

Media

The city's main daily newspaper was The Kamloops Daily News which ceased publication in 2014.
The city is also home to Kamloops This Week, a free newspaper which publishes three times a week.

Education

The Kamloops Indian Residential School, part of the Canadian Indian residential school system opened in 1893 and ran until 1977.

K-12

Public schools in Kamloops and adjacent communities are run by School District 73 Kamloops/Thompson.
Private schools include Kamloops Christian School, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, and St. Ann's Academy.
The Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique operates one Francophone school: école Collines-d’or primary school.

Post-secondary

offers a range of undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as certificate and diploma programs. It has satellite campuses in:
Thompson Rivers University also has an open-learning division. Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning is the biggest distance and online education provider in British Columbia and one of the biggest in Canada. The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack are the athletic teams that represent Thompson Rivers University.
Thompson Career College and Sprott Shaw College are private post-secondary institutions with campuses in Kamloops.

Neighbourhoods

Officially recognized neighbourhoods within the city of Kamloops.
Informally recognized sub-areas are listed beneath the neighbourhoods to which they belong:
Below is a list of people who are from Kamloops, or who lived there for an extended period.

Historical figures

Elections into the municipality in Kamloops are held with the rest of the province every four years.
Provincially, Kamloops is considered to be bellwether, having voted for the governing party in every provincial election since the introduction of parties to British Columbian elections, until 2017. By contrast, Kamloops has regularly voted against the party in power federally until the 2006 Federal election. Kamloops is represented in two provincial ridings – Kamloops-South Thompson and Kamloops-North Thompson – and one federal riding – Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.
Federal members of parliament:
The city's name has been given to a crater on the surface of Mars. was officially adopted by the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 1991. The crater lies at 53.8° south latitude and 32.6° west longitude, with a diameter of.

Sister cities

In "Cementhead," a 1989 episode of the television series Booker, the titular detective tracks a capricious professional hockey player back to his hometown of Kamloops.
Kamloops and surrounding areas have been used for various Hollywood films such as An Unfinished Life, The A Team, 2012, The Pledge, Shooter, Firewall, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Monster Trucks, and various others.
"The Eye of Jupiter", the eleventh episode of the third season of Battlestar Galactica was filmed in Kamloops in 2006.