Canada British Columbia From Vancouver to Jasper

Kamloops town area

Prior to the arrival of european settlers, the Kamloops area was inhabited by the Secwepemc (Shuswap) nation and the Cree-Saulteaux band, led by Chief Yawassannay who migrated this region in the early 15th century. The Yawassanay band's Kamloops settlement was the largest of their three tribal areas. The first European explorers arrived in 1811, when David Stuart was sent from Fort Astoria, a Pacific Fur Company post. He spent a winter there with the Secwepemc people with Alexander Ross establishing a post there in May 1812 - "Fort Cumcloups".

The North West Company established another post, Fort Shuswap nearby in the same year. The two were merged in 1813 when the North West Company officials in the region bought out the operations of the Pacific Fur Company. After the North West Company's forced merger with the Hudson 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 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.

The gold rush of the 1860s and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s 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.

Click on the picture to have a larger version

Various seen in and out of Kamloops and in the town

Wooden bridge	Small railway museum		On way out	Nice garden

< Back to the index