Sicamous () is a district municipality in the Shuswap Country region of south central British Columbia. The place is adjacent to the narrows, which is the confluence of Mara Lake into Shuswap Lake. At the BC Highway 97A intersection on BC Highway 1, the locality is by road about west of Revelstoke, east of Kamloops, and north of Vernon.
First Nations and fur traders The Secwepemc (Shuswap) First Nations have long inhabited the shores of Shuswap and Mara lakes, evidenced by the presence of pit-houses dating back over 3,200 years. An annual potlach was held at the mouth of the Eagle River. In the 1840s, an encampment existed west of the narrows on the slopes later called CPR hill.
From the early 1820s, they brought furs to trade at the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fort at Kamloops. By the 1840s, an HBC outpost opened at the mouth of the Eagle River. For centuries, the river had provided an abundance of salmon, which also created a trade in dried fish. A trail on the north side of the river was used up to the 1930s to reach tracts of wild blueberry bushes.
Name origin "Schik-mouse", recorded in 1865, was the earliest known spelling of the First Nations word for Sicamous. The word describes the narrows, but the specific aspect has remained unclear. Suggestions have been "place cut through", "the narrows", "stream winding round a hill", "river circling mountains", "in the middle", and "narrow" or "squeezed in the middle". The Sicamous Channel is the only inland port in BC that does not freeze during the winter.
Earlier general community at the Eagle River mouth During the Big Bend Gold Rush of 1865, Governor Frederick Seymour commissioned Walter Moberly to identify the best route for a wagon road or railway from Shuswap Lake to the Columbia River. Although most prospectors travelled via Seymour Arm, many instead went up the Eagle River and followed First Nations trails to the Columbia. Moberly camped at the river mouth in 1865, which was soon called Eagle Pass Landing, because the river flowed from the direction of the Eagle Pass. A boom town of tents sprang up at the landing. The main buildings were an assay office, general store, blacksmith, and saloons, which were largely abandoned by the end of the following year, when the goldrush ended.
George Murdock obtained the first pre-emption in the vicinity. During 1882–1892, in partnership with Mr. Hill, he operated a hotel, store, and saloon. In 1884, the Gustavus Blin Wright syndicate completed the wagon road through the pass to Revelstoke. At the time, Murdock ran the only business at the landing. Steamboats connected to Kamloops and Savona. By the next year, during the peak of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) construction, more than 100 buildings lined the foreshore. The rebuild included a few hotels, stores, dance halls, livery barns, and a NWMP barracks and jail. Railway contractors Mackenzie and Mann had their headquarters at the landing. The new name was Eagle City. A stage operated to Farwell. In 1885, Fred White was appointed inaugural postmaster of the short-lived post office. The unwillingness of Mr. Bryne to sell land for a railyard east of the narrows compelled CP to build on the west side. This decision soon vacated the river mouth location, which then became known as the Old Town or Old Sicamous.
Earlier general community west of the narrows In 1884, Colonel E. Forester constructed the first building, which was the Lake View Hotel. In 1887, he built a two-storey extension which housed a store on the ground floor, was appointed postmaster, and erected a barn. The Kamloops general store owned by John Andrew Mara operated this Sicamous store as a branch.
At that time, a narrow and swampy in places wagon road was built to supersede the trail southward along the western side of Mara Lake, which connected Sicamous and Enderby. Schubert Bros. established a stage service on the route. In 1890, Wood and Tunstall purchased the J.A. Mara business.
The access point for Okanagan mail had transferred from Ducks to Sicamous, and the Schubert stage carried the mail for several years. In 1892, the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway (S&O) assumed the mail contract, the railway construction having severely damaged the Mara Lake road.
In 1894, fire destroyed the hotel and store. A few months later, the replacement hotel opened immediately south of the present highway bridge on the same site. A couple of ownership changes occurred. In 1906, the building burned to the ground. The next year, the three-storey Bellevue Hotel was opened by Leopole Congreve on the site.
In 1890, the first CP hotel was built beside the station. In 1898, a fire ignited by a dropped oil lamp in the dining room of the hotel spread to the station, destroying both properties.
While the new station/hotel was under construction, the Lake View Hotel thrived. In 1900, the new CP hotel opened. In 1908, a further storey was added. In 1914, an electrical fire caused considerable damage to the upper storey. In 1919, the lobby and main staircase at the west end were transposed with the dining room at the east end. All 75 guest rooms had hot and cold running water. Important guests included a stay by the future Edward VIII in the 1920s. CP funded a police constable based at the hotel from 1890. The jail was built on the other side of the tracks, east of the hotel in 1909.
In 1892, Mary Janet Finlayson opened a store west of the station. Two years later, the building burned down. Her next store was north of the Lake View Hotel site.
The government wharf was west of the station before relocating to the narrows in 1913, where the new wharf was built. On the arrival of the government telephone line in 1914, phones were installed in the Finlayson store and two hotels.
In 1921–22, a footbridge was attached to the rail bridge.
Situated east of the CP hotel, the CP power plant provided electricity to these premises and a few houses on CPR hill. About 1929, hydro power transmission lines arrived being extended eastward across the narrows in 1949.
Great Depression relief camp workers built the Canoe–Sicamous road, which would reduce the travel distance between Salmon Arm and Sicamous by . In 1934, the road was completed to a rudimentary level. By this time, Robert (Bob) H. Congreve supplied boats and cars at his service station on the shore below the Bellevue Hotel. The upgrading of this road continued over subsequent years.
In 1956, the primary access point for rail passengers into the Okanagan switched to Salmon Arm, which offered a superior bus connection. The CP hotel at Sicamous closed that year and was demolished in 1964.
In 1957, Phil Gaglardi, minister of highways, officially opened the rebuilt Canoe–Sicamous section of highway.
Railway Main line In August 1871, as a symbolic gesture that the railway would one day become a reality, Ed Mohun, government engineer, drove the first stake on the CP route in BC at Sicamous. In September 1885, the eastward advance of the CP rail head from Port Moody passed through Sicamous, reaching a point about west of Revelstoke by month end. A construction camp was based at Solsqua. The Sicamous station built at that time was the standard-design (Bohi's Type 3) station building with prominent overhang (identical to Albert Canyon and Beavermouth).
The 1885 timber pile trestle rail bridge had a wooden drawbridge for river traffic, which was replaced in 1898 by a manually turned swing span. In 1913, three and one steel spans replaced timber trestles. In 1982, a double track swing bridge, comprising five spans plus a swing span, was erected higher than the former single track structure, adjacent to its north.
During World War I, a military camp was established to house soldiers guarding the rail bridge. In 1939, when the westbound royal train made a 10-minute stop, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth came out onto the rear observation platform of their car and the king chatted with the children who filed by in an orderly procession. In 1951, the westbound royal train carrying Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip made a stop, where the royal couple alighted, greeted the crowd at Finlayson Park for over 10 minutes, reboarded, and waved from the observation platform. In 1959, the westbound royal train carrying the Queen and Prince Philip made a 20-minute stop, which comprised a similar program to the previous visit. The train stopped overnight opposite the station, entering the branch line the next day.
Branch In May 1891, the southward advance of the S&O rail head from Sicamous passed through Enderby. Before the 25-year lease of the line ended in 1915, CP purchased the remaining shares in the S&O. The Okanagan Valley Railway leased the former S&O trackage 1998–2009.
Ferry and road bridges over the narrows Established in 1933, the subsidised ferry was operated by Bob Congreve throughout its existence. Described as two riverboats about long, apart, straddled by a railed platform, the former Squilax reaction ferry was manoeuvred by either an outboard or his power-boat. The season was May to the end of December. The hours were 7am–10pm and the fare was 50 cents per car.
In 1942, a new four-car ferry was installed. That year, the ferry became free, but a charge was made for after hours service. A different account states a 24-hour service operated until 1942, when it became 7am–8pm six days a week. The fare was one-way for visitors but return for locals.
The ferry operated until a trestle bridge opened in June 1949. Built by the Salmon Arm Bridge crew, the structure was long with a steel girder main span. The wooden crossing was south of the Bellevue Hotel, connecting with the old highway (Finlayson St). In 1957, the bridge was redecked.
Contracts awarded in 1961 for the new bridge were the substructure to Vega Construction ($197,775) and the superstructure to Canada Iron Foundries ($335,504). The two-lane crossing with a sidewalk stood above high water. Originally named the Sicamous Narrows Bridge on completion in 1962, the crossing was renamed the RW Bruhn Bridge the following year. In 1964, the former bridge was dismantled.
Work on a four-lane replacement, which started in 2023, is expected for completion in 2026 but demolition of the old bridge could extend the project into 2027.
Forestry In 1902, the province incorporated the Shuswap Shingle and Lumber Co. to acquire certain lumber businesses that James C. Shields owned, which included the shingle mill west at Annis. James remained as manager. By 1904, the operation was part of the Kamloops Lumber Company, which included large sawmills at Kamloops and Enderby.
By 1906, James had left the Annis mill to pursue lumber interests at Savona. The Annis venture appears to have closed by this time, and a conversion to a sawmill took place from 1907 to 1909, when it emerged as Shields' Sovereign Mill. The business existed into the 1910s.
In 1920, Sicamous Sawmills was incorporated with a capital of $100,000. That year, Rolf Wallgren Bruhn owned the first house on CPR hill, where his lumber head office was also located. The corporation had a tie loading facility at Sicamous and a pole yard south at Mara Point. The company workshop was some distance west of the Sicamous station. In the late 1930s, he established a sawmill on the Old Town shore, which was expanded in 1942 but closed in 1949. Mr. Van Schmidt had a shingle mill in this vicinity in the early 1940s. On the east shore south at Two Mile, Ross Graham operated a sawmill for about a decade before burning down in 1949.
On the liquidation of the Bruhn assets in 1949, Federated Co-op purchased the logging and sawmill interests and B.J. Carney the post, pole, and tie ones. Initially, Carney maintained a branch office at Sicamous, but in 1966, he established a big yard for post-peeling activities. By 1973, all his peeling was centralized at Sicamous. In 1990, his Enderby office closed to consolidate at Sicamous.