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Only an indomitable spirit could endure the treacherous terrain in the valley between the Rocky Mountains, Cariboo Mountains and the Monashee Mountains in interior British and the history of the Valemont area is full of such resolute spirits.
Shushwap natives camped here in the summer to fish for salmon. Pierre Bostonais, an Iroquois Métis fur trader and guide, dared the rocks, river and rapids in the early 1800s. His nickname “Tete Jaune” inspired the naming of the Yellowhead Pass and Yellowhead Highway. In 1862, the Overlanders steadfastly rode Red River carts from Manitoba to the gold-laden creeks of the Cariboo. Gritty Canadian Northern Railway Company workers blasted a passage through the mountains for train tracks from Edmonton to Vancouver, between 1911 and 1915. In the early 1940s, 1500 Japanese nationals, interned in 17 camps, helped to construct the Yellowhead-Blue River highway by hand.
By 1920, the Village of Valemount had developed as a community base for the railway and forest industries with a roadhouse, train station, post office and school. By the end of the 1960s, however, trains had made way for major highways. Today, only memories and photos of this era remain.
This Community Memories exhibit resurrects some of the lively and unique personalities that lived in the Valemount area as it developed from a horse-back trail to a major transportation route.
