Kamloops

Sister cities

• Ali Sabieh
• Uji

History

The first European explorers arrived in 1811. David Stuart, a trader sent from Fort Astoria, then still a Pacific Fur Company post, spent a winter with the Secwépemc people. In May of the following year, trader Alexander Ross established a post, which was known as "Fort Cumcloups". The rival North West Company established Fort Shuswap nearby in the same year. The two businesses merged in 1813 when the North West Company bought the operations of the Pacific Fur Company. In 1821, the Hudson's Bay Company merged with the North West Company, and the post became known commonly as Thompson's River Post, or Fort Thompson. Later it was known as Fort Kamloops. The post's Chief Traders kept journals, which document a series of inter-Indian wars and personalities for the period, in addition to the daily business of the fur companies and their personnel along the entire Pacific Slope. Soon after the forts were founded, Kwa'lila, chief of the main local village of the Secwépemc, moved his people closer to the trading post, so they could control access and gain in prestige and security. After Kwa'lila died, his nephew and foster son Nicola became chief. He later led an alliance of Syilx (Okanagan) and Nlaka'pamux peoples in the plateau country to the south around Stump, Nicola and Douglas lakes. Relations between Nicola and the fur traders were often tense, but Chief Nicola was recognized for his aid to European settlers during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858. He did try to control 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 Vancouver with Fort Alexandria and the…

Geography

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. The area surrounding the city is sometimes referred to as the Thompson Country. 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 northernmost 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. The following are the officially recognized neighbourhoods within the city of Kamloops. Informally recognized sub-areas are listed beneath the neighbourhoods to which they belong: * Aberdeen **Pacific Way * Barnhartvale * Batchelor Heights **Batchelor Hills **Lac Du Bois * Brocklehurst **Airport Entry Corridor **Brock Centre **North Kamloops West **Ord Road * Campbell Creek **The Burrows * Dallas * Downtown **Columbia Precinct **Downtown Core **East End **East Entry…

Most-observed species

• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,257
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,133
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  4,116
• Black-billed Magpie

  Pica hudsonia (Sabine, 1823) · Aves
  4,009
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,482
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  3,377
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,354
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,018

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2015-12-16
  22 km E of Cache Creek, Canada
• M 2.5 — 2013-08-24
  4 km NNE of Merritt, Canada
• M 3.2 — 2003-08-20
  39 km ESE of Merritt, Canada
• M 4.5 — 2002-08-17
  39 km ESE of Merritt, Canada