Revelstoke

The Sinixt and Secwépemc peoples used the Columbia valley here for fishing, hunting and travel long before Europeans arrived. The town itself owes its existence to the Canadian Pacific Railway. A survey crew came through in 1881, a settlement called Farwell grew up on the river crossing, and in 1885 the railway reached the valley and bridged the Columbia. The settlement was renamed by the railway for Lord Revelstoke, the head of Barings bank in London, whose firm had bought the railway's bonds when it was close to failure that year. The Last Spike was driven at Craigellachie, a short distance west, in November 1885.

Revelstoke became a divisional point where crews changed and locomotives were serviced before the hard climb over Rogers Pass, and the town grew on railway wages, sawmills and mining. A branch line ran south to Arrowhead, where steamboats connected down the Arrow Lakes. The brick blocks of downtown date from the railway era, and in 1914 Mount Revelstoke National Park was created on the mountain above the town after a campaign by local residents and their mountaineering and skiing clubs.

The town was quiet for much of the 20th century. The Trans-Canada Highway through Rogers Pass opened in 1962, and the Mica and Revelstoke dams of the 1970s and 1980s flooded the valley to the north and brought construction jobs. The decisive change came in 2007, when Revelstoke Mountain Resort opened on Mount Mackenzie and the deep snows that heli-skiers had known for decades became a destination for everyone else. Since then the town's population has grown again, by more than 9 per cent between 2016 and 2021.

Revelstoke's identity is built on two things: the railway and snow. The Railway Museum, the restored heritage blocks and the sound of long freight trains through town keep the first alive, and many families still work for the railway or trace their roots to it. Skiing goes back to Norwegian immigrants, and the Big Hill ski jump opened in 1916. Nels Nelsen, a local, set a world distance record there in 1925, and the jump drew crowds for decades. From the surrounding ranges are heli-skiing and cat-skiing country, and the town is a base for four heli-skiing and two cat-skiing operators and the mountain-guiding profession.

The arrival of the resort brought a younger, more international population — Australians, Québécois, Europeans — who come for a season and often stay. The result is a town where a hockey game of the junior Grizzlies, a brewery taproom, a backcountry safety course and a folk concert in the small downtown theatre all belong to the same week. Mountain biking, trail running, climbing and river paddling fill the summer, and the volunteer-built trail network is a point of local pride.

Visitors are expected to know the mountain rules: carry avalanche gear off-piste, respect wildlife closures and leave the trails as they found them. Mount Begbie, visible from the town and the ski area, is the local landmark against which everything is measured. Indigenous heritage is less visible than in some BC towns; the Sinixt, long declared extinct in Canada, were recognised by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2021 as having rights in their traditional territory, which includes this stretch of the Columbia.

About 8,000 people live in Revelstoke, a figure that has grown in recent years, and the population swells in winter with seasonal workers. The economy rests on the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway, which still runs crews from the town; on BC Hydro's dams; on forestry; and increasingly on tourism, construction and retail. Heli-skiing, the resort, guiding and the hospitality trade employ many of the newcomers.

People live in the old grid of downtown, in the bungalows of Columbia Park and Southside and on the bench at Arrow Heights near the resort. As in other mountain resort towns, the cost and supply of housing are a frequent local concern, particularly for seasonal workers looking for a room.

Days follow the mountain. In winter the early morning is given over to checking snow reports and avalanche bulletins, and the town empties to the slopes before filling the pubs again in the late afternoon. In summer the pace shifts to the trails and the river, and the Trans-Canada Highway brings a steady stream of travellers between Vancouver and the Rockies. Highway closures for avalanche control or accidents, wildfire smoke in late summer and the cost of groceries in a remote town are the shared frustrations.

There is no dish unique to Revelstoke; the town eats like the rest of interior British Columbia, with the appetite of people who have spent the day outside. Pub food — burgers, poutine (chips with cheese curds and gravy), wings, fish and chips — dominates the downtown menus, alongside pizza, sushi, Thai and Mexican kitchens that reflect the resort's international workforce. Breakfast is taken seriously, and the cafés around Mackenzie Avenue and First Street do a brisk trade in coffee, baked goods and large plates before the lifts open.

Craft beer is the local drink. Mount Begbie Brewing, named after the mountain, has brewed in the town since 1996. Après-ski in the resort base bars and the downtown pubs is a fixture of the winter calendar. The nearest wine country is the Okanagan, a few hours south-west, and its bottles appear on most lists.

Home baking, preserves and garden produce are part of summer life in a small valley town. Wild foods matter too: huckleberries picked on the mountainsides in summer, and salmon from the coast, since the Columbia's own runs were cut off by dams long ago. Produce and groceries are more expensive than in the cities, a cost of living at the end of a long supply chain.