Sparwood is a district municipality in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

of British Columbia. It is the second-largest community on the Elk River. Located approximately 30 kilometres from Fernie, the District Municipality of Sparwood has approximately 4,200 residents. Sparwood is quite large for its population, taking up an area of 191.01 square kilometres and incorporating the local coal mines. In the late 1800s, there was a railroad stop known as Sparwood, which was so named because of the trees from this area being shipped to the coast for manufacturing spars for ocean vessels. Sparwood's welcome sign

Economy

The local economy is heavily dependent on steel-making

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

, one of British Columbia's primary industries. A large part of the population either works in the mines or as tradespeople and labourers in related support industries, such as trucking or as mechanics. Logging is another important industry. Sparwood/Elk Valley Airport is the local airport for general aviation. The closest airport with commercial service is Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport. Road access is provided by the Crowsnest Highway. Sparwood was formed on 12 May 1966 accepting people from the nearby towns of Michel, Natal, and Middletown (an urban renewal). Since the beginning of Sparwood, it has experienced many ups and downs in coal mining, the town's primary industry.

Attractions

Sparwood promotes itself extensively as the home of the Terex Titan, at one time the largest truck in the world. The green Titan, in service at Sparwood between 1978 and 1991, stands a few yards from the Crowsnest Highway where it can attract the attention of tourists and travellers. The adjacent tourist information centre serves visitors to the district municipality and the wider area. Sparwood is distinguished by mural art which depicts something of the history of the former Michel-Natal mining communities.

Sports

Sparwood is home to the 2011 B.C. provincial champion boys snowboarding team. Sparwood is also home to the 2011 Junior Boys and 2012 Junior Girls Provincial Bowling champions. Laurie Hockridge of Sparwood and Lethbridge College, is a CCAA-ACSC Hall of Fame inductee (WBB, '87–90). Her legacy includes back-to-back national championships and two national championship MVP trophies.

Fernie Memorial Arena disaster

On 17 October 2017 an ammonia leak at the Fernie Memorial Arena killed three workers (two City of Fernie employees and one CIMCO refrigeration employee from Calgary) during the Fernie Ghostriders' regular season. Because of this tragedy, the City of Fernie declared a state of emergency and people had to evacuate the area for days. The 'Riders were relocated because of this to the Elk Valley Leisure Centre in Sparwood during the 2017–18 KIJHL season until the City of Fernie installed a new chiller unit. The Ghostriders now play at their home rink again.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the 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%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), 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 cultur ...

, Sparwood had a population of 4,148 living in 1,815 of its 2,183 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 3,784. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Sparwood included: * Irreligion (2,405 persons or 58.0%) * Christianity (1,695 persons or 40.8%) *

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

(15 persons or 0.4%)

Education

There are two public schools in Sparwood; Frank J Mitchell which is an Elementary School and the new Sparwood Secondary School. These schools are operated by School District 5 Southeast Kootenay which is based in Cranbrook.

Climate

Sparwood has a warm-summer humid continental climate ( Köppen ''Dfb'') with relatively cold and very snowy winters combined with moderately warm summers with relatively high diurnal temperature variation. As a result of the low overnight lows in summer, September's mean of places Sparwood just above

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...

s (Dfc) in classification.

Local media

Newspapers

* ''Fernie Free Press'' – Weekly Paper * ''Kootenay News Advertiser'' – Weekly Paper * ''Fernie Fix'' – Monthly Glossy Magazine

Radio stations

* 99.1 FM – CJDR, a rebroadcaster of CHDR-FM, Rock * 92.7 FM – CFBZ, a rebroadcaster of CHBZ-FM, Country * 97.7 FM – CBTN, a rebroadcaster of CBTK-FM, CBC * 107.9 FM – CFSM-FM – Adult Contemporary

Cable television stations

* Channel 10:

Shaw TV Shaw Spotlight (formerly Shaw TV) is the name of locally based community channel services operated by cable TV provider Shaw Communications. The channels are available only to Shaw Cable subscribers and are produced in communities throughout w ...

* Channel 5: CFCN,

CTV CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...

* Channel 13: CBUT, CBC

Notable people

The following people were born in Sparwood: *

Daryl Boyle Daryl Boyle (born February 24, 1987) is a Canadian-German professional ice hockey defenseman who is currently playing for EHC Red Bull München of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Playing career A native of Sparwood, British Columbia, Boyle s ...

(born 1987), professional ice hockey player * Michelle Loughery (born 1961), muralist * Niki Sharma, politician

Sister cities

Since 1980, Sparwood has been the sister city of

Kamisunagawa is a town located in Sorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. As of September 2016, the town has an estimated population of 3,278. The total area is 39.91 km2. There is a microgravity test facility located in Kamisunagawa used for astrono ...

in Hokkaido,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

References

External links

* {{authority control District municipalities in British Columbia Mining communities in British Columbia Elk Valley (British Columbia) Regional District of East Kootenay