Small
Tenacity, the Story of Hedley, Then and Today begins with the 1898 Gold Rush boom in the Similkameen Valley; where hundreds of men and women came in search of fortunes, or a wage paying job and a touch of luck. Today the community continues with generational lineages that span not only the past hundred years, but those families whose earliest ancestors came to the Similkameen Valley thousands of years before, the Upper Similkameen People.
To grasp the tenacious character of those who built Hedley, one only needs to look thousands of feet above the town where the Nickel Plate Mountain meets the sky, where wooden structures cling precariously to the mountain strata; a place where hard luck was won and lost at the Hedley Mascot Mine, and below, in Hedley City where the dreams of riches in gold were matched by the reality of life in a geographically remote location and on lands that have reputedly been cursed by a Similkameen medicine man.
Community memories, including written history, shared stories and photographic evidence, paint the inhabitants of Hedley as imaginative, tenacious and as tough as the mountain they were determined to triumph over in order to secure their riches.
Hedley today is a vibrant village with population nearing three hundred, including the Upper Similkameen Indian Band, a thriving community of 75 band members. Every spring, Twenty Mile Creek roars into the Similkameen River, and rocks still tumble into town from Stemwinder and the Nickel Plate, covering trails along the creek and nearing homes – reminders to townsfolk that nature can only be appreciated and not restrained.
Now restored, the Mascot Gold Mine buildings sit perched in situ on Climax Bluff above the Nickel Plate Mountain, while the relics and ruins of the stamp mill leave a visual reminder of Hedley’s once golden and bustling past.
Hedley, then and today, remains a continuation of persistence and cooperation. The population has ebbed and flowed over its hundred years; the mining economy is now only a prospector’s dream; and yet the spirit of hope, tenacity and community are found in every individual who resides together, wedged between Stemwinder and Nickel Plate Mountains and the Twenty Mile Creek basin.
Hedley is where Community Stories are built.
