Brookmere is an unincorporated community adjacent to Brook Creek in the Nicola region of southern

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. The former railway town, on Coldwater Rd (exit 256 from the

Coquihalla Highway Coquihalla may refer to: *British Columbia Highway 5, also known as Coquihalla highway *Coquihalla River *Coquihalla Pass *Okanagan—Coquihalla, a federal electoral district in British Columbia *Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park *Coquihalla River ...

), is by road about south of Merritt.

Name origin

Louis Henry Brooks and Phillip R. Brooks settled around 1909, naming the place as Brooksville. However, the general area was known as Otter Summit, deriving from Spearing Creek (formerly called the west arm of Otter Creek). The

Kettle Valley Railway The Kettle Valley Railway was a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) that operated across southern British Columbia, west of Midway running to Rock Creek, then north to Myra Canyon, down to Penticton over to Princeton, Coalmont, B ...

(KVR), a

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

(CP) subsidiary, called its station Otter Summit. The

Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway The Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway (VV&E) was a railway line proposed to connect Metro Vancouver with the Kootenays, in Canada. After acquisition by the Great Northern Railway (GN), most of the route was built, but a through service, u ...

(VV& E), a Great Northern Railway subsidiary, renamed the station as Brookmere in October 1914, acknowledging one or both of the Brooks brothers. The KVR may not have officially changed the name until 1915, and an overlap in common usage occurred. BrookmereBCPanorama1924

Railway

The KVR rail head from Merritt reached Otter Summit in September 1911, and trains operated the following year. In April 1913, the KVR and VV&E agreed to share the trackage to be laid between

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...

and

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

. The KVR would build eastward from Hope, and the VV&E westward from Princeton. In October 1914, Louis Hill drove the last spike five days after the two railways connected at Brookmere. The KVR passenger service through the stop began in May 1915. In 1916, the KVR constructed a station, small workshop, and three-stall roundhouse. Assumedly, the water tank and diameter

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

were built at this time. No evidence exists to indicate the VV&E built infrastructure at, or operated from, Brookmere. The KVR station, destroyed by fire in January 1917, was rebuilt by CP, but was available for joint use with GN. The replacement four-stall roundhouse, built in 1944, which was destroyed by a boiler explosion in 1947, was rebuilt. Odlum (previously called Petain and west of

) to Brookmere was the Coquihalla Subdivision, and Brookmere to

Penticton Penticton ( ) is a city in the Okanagan Valley of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, situated between Okanagan and Skaha lakes. In the 2016 Canadian Census, its population was 33,761, while its census agglomeration The ce ...

was the Princeton Subdivision. After the Coquihalla Subdivision remained unrepaired after the 1959 washouts, Princeton Subdivision became

Spences Bridge Spences Bridge is a community in the Canadian province of British Columbia, situated north east of Lytton and south of Ashcroft. At Spences Bridge the Trans-Canada Highway crosses the Thompson River. In 1892, Spences Bridge's population inclu ...

to Penticton, and Brookmere ceased to be a divisional point. In 1966, Brookmere closed as a crew base. Passenger service ended in 1964. By 1980, the former station building had been moved and became a private residence, but later burned down. CP ran the final freight train through Brookmere in 1989, and all track southeast of Spences Bridges was lifted by the end of summer 1991. Under threat of demolition, the two-spouted water tower was moved to its present location on an adjacent private property, where the pit of the former turntable still exists. The Brookmere train station was northwest of Spearing, and east of Brodie.

Early community

In 1915, the Betterton Fraser syndicate, owner of the Hastings Ranch, established the townsite of Brookmere on the property, erecting a sawmill to cut lumber for the construction of new buildings. E.J. Marshall was the inaugural postmaster 1916–1917. In 1916, C.R. Betterton, of Betterton Fraser, opened the Brookmere Hotel, with the general store likely being established around the same time. The store appears to have been housed inside the hotel during the early years. The hotel closed around 1935, the vacant building apparently consumed by fire a couple of years later. The general store, linked to Merritt by a substandard road, operated at least into the late 1950s, and possibly existed until the closure of the post office in 1969. The estimated population was 25 in 1923, 125 in 1934, 169 in 1945, and 172 in 1948. In 1953, the replacement of steam locomotives with diesels, dramatically reduced the population. The arrival of workers to build the

Trans Mountain pipeline The Trans Mountain Pipeline System, or simply the Trans Mountain Pipeline, is a Pipeline transport, pipeline that carries Petroleum, crude and Petroleum product, refined oil from Alberta to the British Columbia Coast, coast of British Columbia, ...

brought new residents for a few years, before the construction contingent moved on and the houses were removed.

Later community

Prior to the opening of the Coquihalla Highway in 1986, Brookmere was quite remote. Nowadays, the village has a small permanent population, most residents being seasonal. The water supply comes from wells and a small dam on Brook Creek, but the water is not potable.

Recreation

The former railbed, which runs adjacent to the settlement, is a linear parkway forming part of the

Trans Canada Trail The Trans Canada Trail, officially named The Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021, is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, Pacific to the A ...

. The area is also popular with ATV and motorcycle enthusiasts in summer, and snowmobiles in winter. Coldwater Rd has been used several times as a transit section for the Mountain Trials Rally, headquartered in Merritt.

References