100 Mile House is a

district municipality A district municipality is a designation for a class of municipalities found in several locations, including Canada, Lithuania, and South Africa. Canada British Columbia Under provincial law, municipalities in British Columbia are to be desi ...

located in the South Cariboo region of central

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada.

History

100 Mile House was originally known as Bridge Creek House, named after the creek running through the area. Its origins as a settlement go back to the time when Thomas Miller owned a collection of ramshackle buildings serving the traffic of the

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...

as a resting point for travellers moving between

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the North Thompson River, North and South Thompson Rivers, which join to become the Thompson River in Kamloops, and east of Kamloops Lake. The city is the ad ...

and

Fort Alexandria Alexandria or Fort Alexandria was a general area encompassing a trading post, ferry site, and steamboat landing in the North Cariboo region of central British Columbia. The present unincorporated community is on the eastern side of the Fraser ...

, which was north of 100 Mile House farther along the

Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail The Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail, sometimes referred to simply as the Brigade Trail, refers to one of two routes used by Hudson's Bay Company fur traders to transport furs, goods and supplies between coastal and Columbia District headquarters at For ...

. It acquired its current name during the

Cariboo Gold Rush The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly Ri ...

where a

roadhouse Roadhouse may refer to: Premises * Roadhouse (premises), a mixed-use premise to service passing travellers * Receiving house or roadhouse, a theatre for touring theatre companies * A truck stop in rural Australia Arts and entertainment Film * '' ...

was constructed in 1862 at the mark up the

Old Cariboo Road The Old Cariboo Road is a reference to the original wagon road to the Cariboo gold fields in what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. It should not be confused with the Cariboo Road, which was built slightly later and used a differen ...

from

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abo ...

. In 1930, Lord Martin Cecil left England to come to 100 Mile House and manage the estate owned by his father, the 5th Marquess of Exeter. The estate's train stop on the

Pacific Great Eastern The British Columbia Railway Company , commonly known as BC Rail, is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial ...

(now BC Rail leased and operated by

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

) railway is to the west of town and called

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

.BC Geographical Names entry "Exeter (locality)"
/ref> The town, which at the time consisted of the roadhouse, a general store, a post office, telegraph office, and a power plant, had a population of 12. The original roadhouse burned down in 1937. 100 Mile House is on Secwepemc unceded territory. The nearest Secwepemc band is the Tsq'escen for which a geographic reference point is the Canim Lake Reserve.

Demographics

In the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, 100 Mile House had a population of 1,928 living in 907 of its 974 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 1,918. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in 100 Mile House included: *

Irreligion Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ...

(1,035 persons or 58.0 percent) *

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

(630 persons or 35.3 percent) *

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

(95 persons or 5.3 percent)

Economy

At present, 100 Mile House is the primary service centre for the South Cariboo and has a population of approximately 2,000. The service area has a population roughly ten times the size of the town. It includes the communities of

Lac la Hache Lac La Hache is a recreational and retirement community in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, Canada. Located on the shore of Lac La Hache alongside British Columbia Highway 97 near the regional centre of 100 Mile House, the community's or ...

, Forest Grove, Lone Butte, Horse Lake, Bridge Lake,

70 Mile House 70 Mile House is a community situated on Highway 97 in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, Canada. Its name is derived from its distance from Lillooet, which was Mile 0 of the Old Cariboo Road. Other examples of towns named by their distan ...

, Canim Lake, and

108 Mile Ranch 108 Mile Ranch is a residential community of 700 homes situated in the South Cariboo region of British Columbia located in a historic area of ranches and lakes. Historically, en route to the great Cariboo Gold Rush, a few of the travellers se ...

, and is the largest residential centre between

and Williams Lake. The primary industries of 100 Mile House are forestry and ranching. Log home building and tourism are also an important part of the community.

Tourism

100 Mile House is a centre for outdoor activities and is becoming increasingly known for its richness of bird life. The surrounding area features hundreds of lakes for boating and fishing including

101 Mile Lake 101 Mile Lake is a small lake located near the town of 100 Mile House, British Columbia. Like the town, the lake is named because of its distance from Lillooet via the Old Cariboo Road. See also *List of lakes of British Columbia This is an ...

, 103 Mile Lake,

Lac La Hache Lac La Hache is a recreational and retirement community in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, Canada. Located on the shore of Lac La Hache alongside British Columbia Highway 97 near the regional centre of 100 Mile House, the community's or ...

, Canim Lake, Horse Lake, Green Lake, Bridge Lake and Sheridan Lake. The Cariboo ski marathon attracts a large and international field of cross-country (Nordic) skiers. The surrounding communities have various activities for residents and visiting tourists, including rodeos and an extensive trail system. This area is known for outdoor activities including hiking, snowmobiling, cross country skiing, and ATV riding. There are government campgrounds at Green Lake, Bridge Lake and Lac La Hache. There are also many private campsites around the area that also offer cabin and fishing boat rentals and RV hook-ups.

Transportation

100 Mile House was located historically along the Cariboo Road. Until 2002, it was served by

BC Rail The British Columbia Railway Company , commonly known as BC Rail, is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial ...

's daily

dayliner The Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC), also known as the Budd car or Buddliner, is a self-propelled diesel multiple unit (DMU) railcar. Between 1949 and 1962, 398 RDCs were built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The car ...

service between

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

and Prince George. Until 2013, 100 Mile House was served by

Greyhound Canada Greyhound Canada Transportation ULC (Greyhound Canada) was an intercity coach service that began as a local British Columbia bus line in the early 1920s, expanded across most of Canada, and became a subsidiary of the American Greyhound Lines in ...

. Today, the town is served by the 100 Mile House Regional Transit System and by Adventure Charters intercity bus service four times a week in each direction. The area is also served by BC Transit Health Connections. The town is home to the 100 Mile House Airport with no scheduled services and is located near the larger South Cariboo Regional Airport.

Nearby locations

* North of 100 Mile House are

(),

150 Mile House 150 Mile House (also referred to as "the 50") is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community of 1,172 people in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. It is located 15 km (9 mi) southeast of Williams Lake, British Columbia, Willia ...

(), Williams Lake (), and

McLeese Lake McLeese Lake, originally Mud Lake, is a lake in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the Cariboo Highway (British Columbia Highway 97) and is the namesake of the community of the same name. It was named for Robert M ...

(). * Also located north of 100 Mile House are

Quesnel Quesnel or Quesnell means "little oak" in the Picard language, Picard dialect of French language, French. It is used as a proper name and may refer to: Places * Le Quesnel, a commune the Somme department in France * Quesnel, British Columbia, a c ...

() and Prince George (). * Southeast of 100 Mile House are the

Interlakes The Interlakes, also known as the Interlakes District, is a geographic region of the British Columbia Interior, Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located along and around the British Columbia provincial highway 24, Interlakes Highway between ...

area and Bridge Lake (). * South of the town are

(),

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has also been used as a given nam ...

(), Cache Creek (),

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 inc ...

(), and

().

Climate

100 Mile House has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Dfb'') with mild summers combined with cool nights, along with cold, but not very cold winters for its latitude. In spite of the moderation that comes from its relative proximity to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, extreme winter temperatures can occasionally occur, with a record low of . 100 Mile House is located in a

rain shadow A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from body of water, bodies of water (such as oceans and larg ...

of the coastal mountains, resulting in reduced precipitation, much of it falling as snow.

Sports

100 Mile House is home to the

100 Mile House Wranglers The 100 Mile House Wranglers are a Junior 'A' ice hockey team based in 100 Mile House, British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Doug Birks Division of the Okanagan/Shuswap Conference of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League ( ...

who play

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

in the

Kootenay International Junior Hockey League The Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) is a junior ice hockey league in British Columbia, Canada and Washington (state), Washington, USA sanctioned by Hockey Canada. The winner of the Teck Resources, Teck Cup competes with the ch ...

. They are a junior 'A' team and play their home games at the South Cariboo Rec Centre.

Gallery

File:Ruddy duck in a pond at 100 Mile House (7959707550).jpg,

Ruddy duck The ruddy duck (''Oxyura jamaicensis'') is a species of duck in the family Anatidae. The ruddy duck is one of six species within the stiff-tailed ducks (genus ''Oxyura''). Stiff-tailed ducks occupy heavily vegetated habitats in North and ...

in a pond near 100 Mile House File:Spectacular sunset at a pond in 100 Mile House (8467187208).jpg, Sunset at a pond in town File:Town of 100 Mile House from the SW (7959672604).jpg, A view of town from the southwest File:Spectacular sunset at a pond in 100 Mile House (7959677940).jpg, Sunset at a local pond File:Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus -100 Mile House, British Columbia, Canada -male-8.jpg, Male

yellow-headed blackbird The yellow-headed blackbird (''Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus'') is a medium-sized blackbird with a yellow head. It is the only member of the genus ''Xanthocephalus''. Their scientific name derives from the Greek word for yellow, ''xanthous'', a ...

in 100 Mile House

References

External links

* * {{Authority control District municipalities in British Columbia Geography of the Cariboo Populated places in the Cariboo Regional District 1862 establishments in Canada Populated places established in 1862