This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
Kamloops Growth and Early Industry in British Columbia
Kamloops gained benefit from excitement as Mara and Wilson opened a store in 1867. William Fortune built the first house and later the interior’s first flour mill, using burrs from Buffalo costing 1200 dollars. A wagon road to Savona extended to Kamloops, James McIntosh added transportation links. John Petersen pre-empted land east of the village, creating the Petersen ranch that formed the new town. Barnard’s express stages expanded to Kamloops and Okanagan mission by 1870. A flour and lumber mill emerged circa 1857 under Mara Wilson McIntosh Usher, with Usher later murdered by the McLean and Hare gang in 1879. the killers were hanged in 1881. The Lady Dufferin steamer began in 1878, ferried between Savona and Spallumcheen, with Spallumcheen owned by Mara & Wilson also operating on those waters.