Period 1901 – 1903

Period 1901 – 1903 for South-western Canada

• 1901
  Copper 16.5¢/lb., Silver 60¢/oz., Gold $20/oz.
• 1901
  Federal: The Geographic Board of Canada renames Crow’s Nest as “Crow Nest.”
• 1901
  Federal: Similkameen & Keremeos Railway receives charter.
• 1901
  Nelson, BC: CPR launches the tug Valhalla (153 tons). Sold in 1931.
• 1901
  Kimberley, B.C.: CPR builds station.
• 1901
  Blairmore, N-WT: RN-WMP establish a post.
• 1901
  Frank, N-WT: Knox Presbyterian Church raised, first church in “The Trough.”
• 1901
  Morrissey, BC: CPR builds a spur of the BC Southern 4 miles up to the CNP Coal mines in the Morrissey Creek valley.
• 1901
  B.C.: Dewdney Trail east from Princeton to Okanagan Valley converted to a waggon trail.
• 1901
  Rossland, BC: Central fire hall completed.
• 1901
  Ymir, BC: London and B.C. Goldfields, Limited installed an 80-stamp mill and a cyanide tailings treatment plant at Ymir mine.
• 1901
  B.C.: The British Columbia (Rossland and Slocan) Syndicate, Limited, organized the Snowshoe Gold and Copper Mines, Limited, capitalized to £250,000 to work the Snowshoe Group on Phœnix Mountain.
• 1901
  Creston, BC: First apple orchard established.
• 1901
  Wynndel, BC: The nearby Alice Group acquired by two principals in the Alberta and British Columbia Exploration Company, and the Lancaster and York Syndicate.
• 1901
  Fernie, B.C.: Albert Mutz, Fritz Sick et al re-erect the salvaged works of the Fort Steele Brewing Company.
• 1901
  B.C.: No. 7 mine begins halting production near Midway.
• 1901
  Lethbridge, N-WT: Fritz Sick builds a brewery.
• 1901
  Lethbridge, N-WT: Chinook Club founded.
• 1901
  District of Alberta, N-WT: “Hammerburg” subdivision laid out near Lethbridge.
• 1901
  Grand Forks, B.C.: Granby Consolidated installs a Gates converter in the smelter to reduce “matte” copper to 98.5% pure “blister” copper.
• 1901
  T.W. Holland receives a State of Washington charter for his Republic and Kettle River Railway.
• 1901
  Grand Forks, B.C.: Six-room school opens.
• 1901
  The Northwest Elevator Association changes name to Northwest Grain Dealers Assoc.
• 1901 January
  B.C.: City of Nelson, BC, obtains a provincial licence to generate electricty on the Lower Kootenay. Immediately engaged by West Kootenay Power in court over location.
• 1901 Jan. 20
  B.C.: CP completes wharfs and docks at Sunshine Bay near Procter.
• 1901 Jan. 22
  London: Queen Victoria dies. Edward VII succeeds.
• 1901 Feb. 12
  District of Alberta, N-WT: John Lineham, A.P. Patrick and Geo. Leeson form The Rocky Mountain Development Company.
• 1901 Feb. 18
  Monday
• 1901 Feb. 18
  Greenwood, B.C.: British Columbia Copper blows in the first of the Anaconda Smelter’s furnaces.
• 1901 Feb. 19
  CNP Coal recapitalized to $3.5 million: J.J. Hill now owns 30%.
• 1901 Mar. 2
  George Mercer Dawson dead (1849).
• 1901 Spring
  MT: J.J. Hill agrees to buy the Great Falls and Canada Railway.
• 1901 Apr.1
  Hall Mines re-organized as Hall Mining and Smelting Company.
• 1901 Apr. 24
  B.C.: CNP Coal receives a provincial charter for the Crows Nest Southern Railway Company.
• 1901 May
  Great Northern Railway announces that it had acquired the Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway the previous April.
• 1901 May 1
  Fernie, B.C.: CNP Coal begins selling residential building lots.
• 1901 May 8
  Northpost, WA.: Le Roi smelter workers out on strike.
• 1901 May 11
  B.C.: Provincial charters granted for Coast-Kootenay Railway, the Vancouver & Grand Forks Railway, the Midway & Vernon Railway (J.H. Senkler, A.P. Judge, Edgar Bloomfield) and the Kootenay Central Railway Company (Robert Leslie Thomas Galbraith, J.A. Harvey, Dr. Hugh Watts, J.B. Lagley, W.R. Ross, Dr. J.H. King).
• 1901 May 21
  Canada: Alien Labour Act receives royal assent in Ottawa.
• 1901 May 21
  Canada: CNP Coal withdrew its federal application for the Kootenay Lake Railway.
• 1901 May 23
  B.C.: T.W. Holland granted federal charter for Kettle River Valley Railway by 1 Edward VII chapter 68. Cascade, BC, to Carson, BC, and 50 miles up the Granby River valley: $1.5 million.
• 1901 May 23
  Canada: 1 Edward VII chapter 8 “An Act to provide for the payment of bounties on lead refined in Canada” offers $5/ton for the year beginning July 1, 1902 and dimishing until nothing offered for the year beginning July 1, 1907. Amended and extended until 1908 by 3 Edward VII chapter 31, September 8, 1903.
• 1901 May 23
  Canada: 1 Edward VII chapter 45 permits the Alberta Railway and Coal Company lease or sell any or all of its assets to the CPR.
• 1901 May 23
  Kootenay Central Railway incorporated with $1 million in capitalization.
• 1901 June
  B.C.: Fernie Miners’ Union strikes CNP Coal.
• 1901 June 1
  B.C.: Village of Slocan incorporated.
• 1901 June 10
  Michel, BC: Fire destroys much of the residential district.
• 1901 June 14
  B.C.: City of Trail incorporated: Colonel E.S. Topping, mayor.
• 1901 July
  B.C.: Government commissions Edgar Dewdney to find a railroad route through the Cascades.
• 1901 July
  ID: Northport M&S is re-organized as the Northport Smelting and Refining Company and incorporated. Hdqtrs: Wallace.
• 1901 July 2
  District of Alberta, N-WT: Town of Cardston incororated.
• 1901 July 10
  District of Alberta, N-WT: Canadian North-west Irrigation Company and Jesse Knight sign agreement o construct sugar factory at Raymond.
• 1901 July 11
  Rossland, BC.: WFM Local No. 38 strike mines. Failure.
• 1901 August
  “Cardiff,” BC: The Moyie Lumber Company sets up a mill on upper Moyie Lake.
• 1901 Aug. 1
  B.C.: Operations on the Bedlington and Nelson north of Creston Junction (Wynndel) suspended.
• 1901 Aug. 1
  Frank, N-WT.: postal office opens.
• 1901 Aug. 1
  MT: The Montana and Great Northern Railway buys the Great Falls and Canada from the Alberta Railway and Coal Co.
• 1901 Aug. 31
  Kettle River Valley Railway/Republic and Kettle River Railway begins construction toward Republic, Washington, from Grand Forks, BC.
• 1901 Sep. 3
  District of Alberta, N-WT: Blairmore incorporated as a Village.
• 1901 Sep. 10
  Frank, N-WT.: Celebration marking the founding of the town.
• 1901 October
  Frank, N-WT.: Alexander Leitch opens first general store.
• 1901 October
  Spokane, WA: Sullivan Group incorporates a townsite company for Marysville, B.C.
• 1901 Oct. 10
  Jaffray, BC: Post Offices licences local bureau to Chas. Duncan McNab.
• 1901 November
  Canadian-American Coal and Coke Company formed.
• 1901 November
  District of Alberta, N-WT: The Rocky Mountain Development Company began drilling the Discovery oil well on the future site of Oil City.
• 1901 Nov. 5
  B.C.: CP selects the first two of its 6 allowed sections of coal measures in the Elk River valley at what became Hosmer.
• 1901 Dec. 1
  Fairview, BC: The New Fairview Corporation begins operating a 10-stamp mill on the Stemwinder claim.
• 1901 Dec. 18
  Indian Head, N-WT: Territorial Grain Growers Association organized as a result of a meeting of regional farmers on this date.
• 1901 Dec. 31
  As of this date, the Kootenay Railway & Navigation Company operates the Kaslo and Slocan, the Kootenay Valley, and the Bedlington and Nelson Railways, and the International Navigation and Trading Company.
• 1901 End
  Trail, B.C.: CP blows in two lead furnaces at the Canadian Smelting Works.
• 1902
  Michel, B.C.: Fire destroys much community.
• 1902
  Lethbridge, N-WT: Fire brigade professionalized.
• 1902
  Lethbridge, N-WT: Lethbridge Police Department founded. Ex-Mountie Thomas Lewis first constable.
• 1902
  District of Alberta, N-WT: Flume on the St. Mary”s Main Canal washed out.
• 1902
  District of Alberta, N-WT, and MT: Great falls and Canada / AR&C road to Coutts standardized.
• 1902
  B.C.: First full year of CNP Coal production in Morrissey Creek valley.
• 1902
  Christina Lake, B.C.: The Kutchem sawmill burns.
• 1902
  Frank, N-WT.: Canadian-American Coal and Coke builds tipple and an experimental battery of six coke ovens.
• 1902
  Frank, N-WT.: Two storey school built.
• 1902
  Cowley, N-WT.: Messrs. Murray and Grey build the Cowley Hotel.
• 1902
  Nelson, B.C.: Henry Rose hanged in the City gaol yard for the murder of J.J. Cole at Arrowhead. Last execution at Nelson.
• 1902
  Canada: Peter “the Lordly” Verigin arrives from Siberia.
• 1902
  CNP Coal gives up the idea of running Fernie as a company town.
• 1902
  Castlegar, B.C.: The Columbia and Western Railway builds station.
• 1902
  Nelson, B.C.: Post Office and Customs House completed.
• 1902
  Blairmore, N-WT.: Peter McLaren Lumber Company completes its new mill and begins production.
• 1902
  B.C.: W.E. Welby extends his stage service to Hedley from Penticton.
• 1902
  CPR completes Kootenay and Arrowhead Railway to Gerrard on Trout Lake and leases line in 1903. Abandoned in 1942.
• 1902
  Marysville, B.C.: Sullivan Group Mining Company begins building smelter.
• 1902
  Vermilion Forks Mining and Development Company lays out Princeton, BC, street grid.
• 1902
  Mackenzie, Mann and Company incorporated at Toronto, ON.
• 1902
  Wm. Aldridge brings in a rig to drill on his petroleum property in s-w Alberta.
• 1902
  B.C.: Yellowstone mine on Sheep Creek exhausted and mill shut down.
• 1902
  Greenwood, B.C.: Courthouse raised.
• 1902
  Kimberley, B.C.: North Star school opens. Miss C. Hall.
• 1902
  Phœnix, B.C.: Granby Consolidated buys Old Ironsides and Knob Hill.
• 1902
  Phœnix Mountain, B.C.:Hall Mines leases the Emma from William Mackenzie, Donald Mann and W.T. Smith.
• 1902
  Grand Forks, B.C.: Fraser’s Brewery shut down.
• 1902
  Macleod, N-WT.: Union Bank of Canada opens branch.
• 1902
  Macleod, N-WT.: Federal courthouse raised.
• 1902
  Flagstone, B.C.: Fred Douglas and Frank Downs establish logging buisness on Crows Nest Southern R/W line.
• 1902 Jan. 2?
  Le Roi Mining and Smelting Company declares bankruptcy.
• 1902 Jan. 14
  Granby Consolidated activated new converter to refine 98.5% pure copper “blister” from 50% pure copper matte.
• 1902 Jan. 18
  CPR launches York (134 tons) at Okanagan Landing. Pre-fabricated in Toronto. Sold to Kettle Valley Railway in March, 1920. Retired 1932.
• 1902 Jan. 20
  Granby Consolidated sends first shipment of blister to market.
• 1902 Feb. 3
  Granby Consolidated blows in No. 3 furnace at Grand Forks smelter.
• 1902 March
  James Wilkes of the Western Federation of Miners comes to the Pass to enrol the Fernie Miners’ Union into the Federation as District 7.
• 1902 Mar. 13
  Kettle River Valley Railway opened between Grand Forks and Pelham, Washington.
• 1902 Mar. 17
  Granby Consolidated blows in No. 4 furnace at Grand Forks smelter.
• 1902 Mar. 20
  CPR bridge at Castlegar, BC, opened to traffic after 2 years construction.
• 1902 Spring
  Montreal and Boston Copper Company, Limited, buys the Boundary Falls smelter near Greenwood, BC.
• 1902 April
  Provincial Progressive Party formed at Kamloops, BC.
• 1902 April
  Fernie, BC.: commercial city block in the downtown core burns.
• 1902 Apr. 12
  Kettle River Valley Railway/Republic and Kettle River Railway (“Republic and Grand Forks Railroad”) opened from Grand Forks, BC to Republic, WA.
• 1902 Apr. 19
  Memorial Hospital of Pincher Creek granted federal incorporation.
• 1902 Apr. 28
  International Coal and Coke Company, Limited, incorporated in the State of Washington by E.J. Dyer, et al.
• 1902 May
  City of Trail, BC, establishes a ferry service across the Columbia.
• 1902 May 15
  Federal: Canadian Northern Telegraph Company founded.
• 1902 May 16
  Federal: Canadian Northern Express Company founded.
• 1902 May 19
  Federal: By an Order-in-Council confirms its choice of its allowed 50,000-acre coal reserve in the Elk River valley area.
• 1902 May 22
  Coal Creek Collieries, B.C.: 1900 hours: blow-out at No. 2 Mine: 128 dead.
• 1902 May 23
  Federal: Royal assent granted 1 Edward VII chapter 8, “An Act to provide for the payment of bounties on lead refined in Canada” to a limit of $100,000 per producer per year. Beginning July 1, 1902, a per ton bounty of $5 offered, diminishing by $1 per ton each succeeding year. Amended by 3 Edwd. VII chap. 31, 1902/09/08.
• 1902 May 31
  End of Boer War.
• 1902 June
  Greenwood, BC.: B.C. Copper blows in Anaconda Smelter’s No. 2 furnace.
• 1902 June
  Nelson, BC.: Hall Mining and Smelting quit mining the Silver King. Leased to M.S. Davys.
• 1902 June 7
  WA: Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway/Washington Great Nothern Railway in operation from Republic to Marcus.
• 1902 June 19
  Boundary Falls, B.C.: First furnace activated in smelter.
• 1902 June 20
  B.C.: International Transportation Company voluntarily liquidated.
• 1902 June 25
  B.C.: WFM strikes CNP Coal operations. Ends in failure on August 4.
• 1902 June 28
  B.C.: Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway/Washington Great Nothern Railway’s first passenger train to Cooper’s Wye, south of Grand Forks.
• 1902 July 1
  B.C.: Canal Flats, B.C.: Captain Francis Patrick Armstrong sails the North Star northbound through Baillie-Grohman’s ditch.
• 1902 July 9
  B.C.: Kootenai River Transportation Company, Limited, disincorporated.
• 1902 July 9
  Lethbridge. N-WT: Floods wash away the last vestiges of the Alberta.
• 1902 July 10
  Elko, B.C.: The steel of the Great Northern’s Crows Nest Southern arrives.
• 1902 July 16
  N-WT: Charles Plummer Hill acquired mineral rights to the property which would ultimately host the Hillcrest mine.
• 1902 Aug. 2
  The Rossland Power Company, Limited, incorporated.
• 1902 Aug. 25
  Rossland, B.C.: Fire destroys upper Spokane Street.
• 1902 Aug. 28
  N-WT: Plan of the “City of Blairmore” registered.
• 1902 September
  B.C.: The Crows Nest Southern reaches Swindon near Morrissey.
• 1902 September
  Moyie, B.C.: St. Eugene mine closed after a year of maintenance.
• 1902 September
  Waterton, AB.: Rocky Mountain Development Company’s Discovery well strikes oil.
• 1902 September
  Morrissey, B.C.: First company cottages on the townsite occupied.
• 1902 Sep. 27
  William Carlin, Peter Lund, John Breckenridge, Alfred Doyle, et al, incorporate the Crow’s Nest Pass Lumber Company.
• 1902 October
  Fairview, B.C.: The “Big Teepee” burns.
• 1902 Oct. 20
  Edmonton, N-WT: The first train crosses the North Saskatchewan River on the Low Level Bridge from Strathcona on the rails of the Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific Railway.
• 1902 November
  B.C.: Workers briefly strike CNP Coal operations.
• 1902 November
  B.C.: CP had chosen its remaining four coal sections in the Elk River valley allowed under the tripartite Agreement of 1897.
• 1902 Nov. 9
  Grand Forks, BC: Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway crosses the Kettle River Valley Railway: KRVR retaliates by parking an old locomotive on the crossing.
• 1902 Nov. 12
  Grand Forks, B.C.: Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway built into town.
• 1902 Nov. 21
  B.C. political: Edward Gawler Prior replaces Jas. Dunsmuir as premier.
• 1902 Dec. 24
  D.C. Corbin, U.S. Senator George Turner, J.H. McGraw, Jacob Furth and C.S. Bihler, incorporated the Spokane and Kootenai Railway Company in the State of Washington.
• 1902 Dec. 25
  B.C.: Avalanche on Sunset Mountain above the West Arm of Kootenay Lake sweeps away the bunkhouse of the Molly Gibson mine, killing nine.
• 1902 End
  T.W. Holland retires from the “Republic and Grand Forks Railroad.”