Salmon Arm

Sister cities

• Inashiki

History

Following the laying of the Canadian Pacific Railway in September 1885, Salmon Arm began to develop. While miners and settlers looked for gold in the surrounding areas, the beaches of Salmon Arm lay virtually untouched. The town had grown to include many new buildings such as two general stores, a school, and a hotel by the end of the 1890s. The population had also grown to include over 200 citizens. Salmon Arm soon acquired a reputation for having an excellent fruit harvest. The local businessmen grew fruit as a main export, sending it to the larger, more populated towns that surrounded it. A formal local government was started at the request of its citizens in May 1905. Salmon Arm upgraded its town status to an official city in 1912. Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visited Salmon Arm in 1951 while on a royal tour of Canada. While Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau and his sons passed through Salmon Arm on August 8, 1982, they were confronted by three demonstrators protesting "high unemployment and the way the Prime Minister was handling the economy." Trudeau infamously gave the protesters the finger; his gesture was caught on a single television camera and immediately used by some as, "a vivid symbol for those who thought the Liberal prime minister arrogant and hostile to Western Canada." However, to many Trudeau's response was seen as a commemorated joke. Only a month after the incident T-shirts, which depicted a caricature of Trudeau leaning out of a train with his middle finger raised, were being produced and sold to the citizens of Salmon Arm. were destroyed during the firestorm in the Silver Creek area to the south of Salmon Arm, which also produced Canada's largest civil evacuation up to that date when the…

Geography

Salmon Arm is on the shores of Shuswap Lake, where the Salmon River empties into the Salmon Arm reach of the Lake. Directly south of the city lies Mount Ida, to the west Fly Hills, and across Shuswap Lake lies Bastion Mountain.