Place:Hudson's Hope, Peace River, British Columbia, Canada

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Hudson's Hope is a district municipality in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, in the Peace River Regional District. Having been first settled along the Peace River in 1805, it is the third-oldest European-Canadian community in the province, although it was not incorporated until 1965. Most jobs in the economy are associated with the nearby W. A. C. Bennett Dam and Peace Canyon Dam, and timber logging.

There is debate about the origin of Hudson's Hope's name. One theory derives the word "Hudson's" from the Hudson's Bay Company and "Hope" from the Scottish word "hope" meaning a "small enclosed valley". Another theory has the name derived from a prospector named Hudson who came to the area searching for gold. The District of Hudson's Hope slogan is the "Playground of the Peace".

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Nomadic aboriginal Dene zaa tribes originally occupied the area. Alexander Mackenzie and his team of voyageurs became the first Europeans to travel through as they canoed westward along the Peace River in 1793. Simon Fraser followed in 1805 and established a North West Company fur-trading outpost, the Rocky Mountain Portage House, at the foot of the canyon directly across the river from the current townsite. This was the only significant portage site on the Peace River between Fort Chipewyan and Fort McLeod.

The Hudson's Bay Company took control of the fort after merging with the North West Company in 1821 but abandoned it in 1823 after a massacre in the nearby Fort St. John outpost. The HBC opened a new trading post on the southern river banks in 1866 to compete against free traders coming in from the west. (Hudson's Bay Company Archives B.39/b/18 p. 57) Though its origins are unclear, the name Hudson's Hope was first recorded in 1868. Theories on its origin include an explorer named Hudson searching for the Northwest Passage, or a prospector named Henry Hudson searching for gold, or the use of the English and Scottish word hope, meaning a small enclosed valley. In 1899 the fort was moved to the townsite's present-day location on the north bank to better serve those portaging northwestwards.

Much of the area was explored by prospectors and surveying crews as the Peace River Block was opened to mineral staking in 1908 and homestead claims in 1912. A permanent settlement was established in 1912 by a police officer, who was previously stationed in Fort St. John, and a friend from Victoria, who staked the first homestead. Others joined them as they travelled through Edmonton, Dunvegan, and Fort St. John to found the communities of Beryl Prairie and Lynx Creek. Soon, as other settlers came, they built a post office, hotel, and church around the trading post. In 1923 settlers opened the first school. Coal was discovered a few years earlier and used locally. Commercial coal mining, attempted in 1923, was not successful due to the isolation and high transportation costs to other markets. Construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942 created a high local demand and stimulated commercial coal mining.

Major development came to the rural area in the 1960s, when the provincial government planned and constructed the W. A. C. Bennett Dam and its associated Gordon M. Shrum Generating Station for hydroelectric power. Its construction involved thousands of workers; the project was served by the distant highway and railway to the south at Chetwynd. To help organize and finance the project, the Hudson's Hope Improvement District was incorporated in 1962 and the District Municipality of Hudson's Hope was incorporated 2 years later. The two incorporated areas merged in 1967 after construction was completed. As the reservoir was filled and the dam went online in 1968, most of the thousands of workers left for other areas.

Soon afterwards a second dam, the Peace Canyon Dam, was planned and constructed, several kilometers downstream from the first. The second dam went online in 1980. The town has remained geographically isolated and is economically dependent on BC Hydro as its single major employer. It has marketed its isolation and extensive outdoor recreational opportunities as a benefit to living in the area.

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