U. S. writer Stanley Washburn was almost obsessed with the upper Fraser River, making several attempts to visit when it took more than 70 days just to travel from Edmonton.
On a return visit in 1910 he drifted down the Fraser with friends through "an endless sea of magnificent timber," and later recalled the wilderness that would become the area of McBride as "a scene of beauty I can never hope to describe." The forest was so thick and full of deadfalls that not even a trail apparently existed much west of Tete Jaune.
Washburn knew then that change was coming-a new transcontinental railway would soon thread its way along the valley, the dream of Grand Trunk Pacific president Charles Hays. The railway planned stations not just for maintenance but to encourage settlements. At some divisional points, towns were laid out with a large station as the focus of Main Street and parks on the adjacent blocks.
As work continued, Hays was lost with the Titanic in April 1912. Later that spring, massive forest fires scorched much of the valley floor and up the face of the Rockies, transforming the landscape, but no doubt making surveying easier. By late 1912 the grade was ready for the tracklayer to move west of Tete Jaune.
In 1913, as temporary construction camps moved west, permanent stations were built at Croydon, Dunster and Raush Valley, among many others. Mile 90 with its flat land and clean water had been chosen as the site of the first divisional point west of Alberta. Around June it was renamed McBride after BC's premier, and the track arrived in July. Railway worker George Holdway arrived that summer in the town of burnt stumps and clay, and described it as hot and dry..." (He stayed on as one of McBride's leading lights for nearly seven decades.) Amid great optimism for McBride's future, dozens of stores were built and the station completed late that year.
In following years July 1st was chosen to celebrate McBride's birthday. Through 2013 the Valley Museum and Archives will celebrate the centenary, with the help of photos from the Holdway collection. Visit www.valleymuseum.ca for news about exhibitions and events.
The Whistle Stop Gallery, showcase for 91 valley artists, writers and crafters. The model locomotive was built by locomotive engineer Dave Hartley, who worked on the line almost from the beginning.
Founded in 2000, the Whistle Stop Gallery revived the connection between McBride's railway station and community in a whole new creative way. It now features works by 91 people from the valley in a wide range of media, including many books about the area's history. Come by to see the ways this "scene of beauty" has inspired a community of artists a century later. The gallery is open seven days a week 10-4.
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