Cherryville is an unincorporated community in the foothills of the
Monashee Mountains
The Monashee Mountains are a mountain range lying mostly in British Columbia, Canada, extending into the U.S. state of Washington. They stretch from north to south and from east to west. They are a sub-range of the Columbia Mountains. The hig ...
in
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 ...
with a population of approximately 930.
It is located east of
Lumby, along
Highway 6.
The small community of Cherryville was an old
gold mining
Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining.
Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...
camp founded in the 1860s by prospectors from the
California Gold Rush
The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
who had come north to the
British Columbia gold rushes British Columbia gold rushes were important episodes in the history and settlement of European, Canadian and Chinese peoples in western Canada.
The presence of gold in what is now British Columbia is spoken of in many old legends that, in part, led ...
. Between 1863 and 1895, the original town that is now known as Cherryville was a small mining camp located within the canyon walls of Cherry Creek. Its population was 100 people, half of which were Chinese miners.
With more and more miners heading into Cherry Creek area, a road was built from Lumby in 1877, through Blue Springs Valley, attracting new families to the area. The community was known by the post office name of Cherry Creek, then Hilton. It was officially named Cherryville in 1919, after the wild Choke Cherries (
Prunus virginiana
''Prunus virginiana'', commonly called bitter-berry, chokecherry, Virginia bird cherry, and western chokecherry (also black chokecherry for ''P. virginiana'' var. ''demissa''), is a species of bird cherry (Prunus subg. Padus, ''Prunus'' sub ...
) that grow along the banks of the creek.
Services in Cherryville include accommodation, two general stores, restaurants, a library, a campground, shops and other amenities. Originally an area of orchards, ranching and logging are major industries in the community.
Recreation opportunities in the Cherryville area include bird watching,
gold panning
Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts espec ...
, skiing, hiking, camping, horseback tours, and fishing.
See also
*
British Columbia gold rushes British Columbia gold rushes were important episodes in the history and settlement of European, Canadian and Chinese peoples in western Canada.
The presence of gold in what is now British Columbia is spoken of in many old legends that, in part, led ...
References
External links
Cherryville, B.C., Canada Website
{{authority control
Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia
Populated places in the Regional District of North Okanagan
Shuswap Country
Mining communities in British Columbia
Designated places in British Columbia
Populated places in the Okanagan Country