Fernie, British Columbia

For the electoral district, see Fernie (electoral district).
Fernie
City
The Corporation of the City of Fernie

Downtown Fernie, looking south

Flag
Motto: "In montibus ad flumen"  (Latin)
"In the mountains by the river"
Fernie

Location of Fernie in British Columbia

Coordinates: 49°30′15″N 115°03′46″W / 49.50417°N 115.06278°W / 49.50417; -115.06278Coordinates: 49°30′15″N 115°03′46″W / 49.50417°N 115.06278°W / 49.50417; -115.06278
Country  Canada
Province  British Columbia
Region Elk Valley/East Kootenay
Regional District Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK)
Established 1904
Government
 • City Mayor Mary Giuliano
 • Governing body Fernie City Council
 • MP Wayne Stetski
 • MLA Bill Bennett
Area
 • City 14.83 km2 (5.73 sq mi)
Elevation 1,010 m (3,314 ft)
Population (2011)
 • City 4 811
Ranked 777th
 • Metro 6,873
Time zone Mountain Standard (MST) (UTC-7)
 • Summer (DST) Mountain Daylight (MDT) (UTC-6)
Postal code span V0B 1M(0–6)
Area code(s) 250 / 778 / 236
Highways BC 3
Website

City of Fernie

Fernie Travel & Tourism
Fernie's welcome sign

Fernie is a city in the Elk Valley area of the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia, Canada, located on BC Highway 3 on the eastern approaches to the Crowsnest Pass through the Rocky Mountains. Founded in 1898 and incorporated as the City of Fernie in July 1904, the municipality has a population of 4811[1] with an additional 1899[2] outside city limits in communities under the jurisdiction of the Regional District of East Kootenay. A substantial seasonal population swells the city during the winter months.

Fernie lies on the Elk River, along Canada's southernmost east-west transportation corridor through the Rockies that crosses the range via the Crowsnest Pass, 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the east. As the largest and longest-established community between Cranbrook and Lethbridge, Fernie serves as a minor regional centre, particularly for its fellow Elk Valley communities.

Geography

The city of Fernie, BC seen from Three Sisters mountain

Fernie is the only city-class municipality in Canada that is fully encircled by the Rocky Mountains. The townsite was laid out in the crook of a doglegged glacial valley that today is drained by the Elk River. Three tributaries of the Elk—Coal, Lizard, and Fairy Creeks—rise in its side valleys and join the Elk either within or in close proximity to the townsite.

To the north of the city lie Mount Fernie, Mount Klauer, The Three Sisters and Mount Proctor. To the northeast is Mount Hosmer, to the east is Fernie Ridge, to the southeast is Morrissey Ridge (and its notable outcropping, Castle Mountain) and to the southwest are the various peaks of the Lizard Range. Fernie gives the name to the Jurassic-Age Fernie Formation. The Lizard Range is home to Fernie Alpine Resort, one of the largest ski resorts in Canada, and Island Lake Catskiing, a resort.

Mining history

The Three Sisters and Mount Proctor, as seen from central Fernie

While the slopes of the mountains are the present focus of economic activity, until comparatively recently residents of the area were more interested in the mountains' innards. The vast Crowsnest Coal Field lies just to the east of the city, and Fernie owes its origins to nineteenth-century prospector William Fernie, who established the coal industry that continues to exist to this day. Acting on pioneer Michael Phillips' twin discoveries of coal and the Crowsnest Pass a few years earlier, Fernie founded the Crows Nest Pass Coal Company in 1897 and established a temporary encampment near Coal Creek. The Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in the valley the following year, and a townsite emerged parallel to the railway line slightly north of the initial encampment, or "Old Town." An Internment camp was set up at rented premises in Fernie from June 1915 to October 1918. [3]

Underground coal mines were dug 10 kilometres (6 mi) away from the townsite in the narrow Coal Creek valley and until 1960 a small satellite community known as Coal Creek stood adjacent to them. A variety of other mines were sunk into the coal fields in a fifty-kilometer radius in the following two decades. No mining was ever carried out in Fernie proper; coking of Coal Creek coal was carried out at the townsite, but otherwise the town developed into an administrative and commercial centre for the burgeoning industry. Forestry played a smaller role in the local economy and a local brewery produced Fernie Beer from Brewery Creek (mountain spring water).

Like most single-industry towns, Fernie endured several boom-and-bust cycles throughout the twentieth century, generally tied to the global price of coal. The mines at Coal Creek closed permanently by 1960 and the focus of mining activity shifted to Michel and Natal about twenty-five kilometres (15 mi) upriver, which sat on a more productive portion of the Crowsnest Coal Field. Kaiser Resources opened immense open-pit mines there in the 1970s to meet new thermal coal contracts for the Asian industrial market, predominantly for use in blast furnaces. Fernie would remain an important residential base for mine labour, along with the new communities of Sparwood and Elkford that sprang up much closer to these new mines. Today, Teck Resources operates all five open-pit mines, shipping out unit trains (often with more than 100 cars) along the Canadian Pacific Railway through Fernie to the Pacific Coast, where the coal is loaded onto freighters at Roberts Bank Superport in Delta.

Architectural heritage

After a disastrous fire leveled much of the downtown core in 1904, the fledgling municipal government passed an ordinance requiring all buildings in the area to be built of 'fireproof' materials like brick and stone. Consequently, a new city centre rose from the ashes sporting brick buildings along broad avenues that would have looked more at home in a sedate and refined Victorian city than a rough-and-tumble frontier coal town. They were short-lived, however, as a second, larger inferno swept through the city on August 1, 1908. Whipped up by sudden winds, a nearby forest fire burnt its way into a lumber yard on the edge of the community and sparked a Dresden-style firestorm that melted brick and mortar and essentially erased the entire city in an afternoon. There were few casualties, however, and for a second time a stately brick downtown core rose from the ashes. Today, these historic buildings, most of which still stand, are a treasured and distinctive feature of the community.

Downtown Fernie was used for the downtown of the fictional Kodiak Valley ski resort in the 2010 Hollywood film Hot Tub Time Machine.

Climate

Climate data for Fernie
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 15.0
(59)		 15.5
(59.9)		 21.0
(69.8)		 28.9
(84)		 33.0
(91.4)		 36.1
(97)		 36.0
(96.8)		 36.0
(96.8)		 33.0
(91.4)		 28.0
(82.4)		 18.3
(64.9)		 12.5
(54.5)		 36.1
(97)
Average high °C (°F) −0.7
(30.7)		 1.6
(34.9)		 6.5
(43.7)		 11.9
(53.4)		 16.9
(62.4)		 20.6
(69.1)		 25.1
(77.2)		 25.1
(77.2)		 19.3
(66.7)		 11.6
(52.9)		 2.9
(37.2)		 −1.9
(28.6)		 11.6
(52.9)
Daily mean °C (°F) −5.2
(22.6)		 −3.8
(25.2)		 0.8
(33.4)		 5.4
(41.7)		 9.9
(49.8)		 13.6
(56.5)		 16.8
(62.2)		 16.3
(61.3)		 11.3
(52.3)		 5.5
(41.9)		 −1.1
(30)		 −6.1
(21)		 5.3
(41.5)
Average low °C (°F) −9.6
(14.7)		 −9.2
(15.4)		 −4.9
(23.2)		 −1.1
(30)		 2.8
(37)		 6.6
(43.9)		 8.4
(47.1)		 7.4
(45.3)		 3.3
(37.9)		 −0.7
(30.7)		 −5.0
(23)		 −10.1
(13.8)		 −1.0
(30.2)
Record low °C (°F) −39.4
(−38.9)		 −40.0
(−40)		 −32.8
(−27)		 −20.0
(−4)		 −11.0
(12.2)		 −2.2
(28)		 0.0
(32)		 −2.0
(28.4)		 −18.3
(−0.9)		 −24.4
(−11.9)		 −32.2
(−26)		 −41.7
(−43.1)		 −41.7
(−43.1)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 139.3
(5.484)		 88.0
(3.465)		 97.8
(3.85)		 92.8
(3.654)		 91.8
(3.614)		 110.0
(4.331)		 67.0
(2.638)		 51.9
(2.043)		 75.8
(2.984)		 115.7
(4.555)		 179.1
(7.051)		 117.7
(4.634)		 1,227.1
(48.311)
Average rainfall mm (inches) 55.8
(2.197)		 41.5
(1.634)		 60.6
(2.386)		 80.0
(3.15)		 88.8
(3.496)		 109.8
(4.323)		 67.0
(2.638)		 51.9
(2.043)		 75.4
(2.969)		 109.4
(4.307)		 123.0
(4.843)		 39.0
(1.535)		 902.2
(35.52)
Average snowfall cm (inches) 83.5
(32.87)		 46.4
(18.27)		 37.2
(14.65)		 12.9
(5.08)		 3.1
(1.22)		 0.2
(0.08)		 0.0
(0)		 0.0
(0)		 0.4
(0.16)		 6.4
(2.52)		 56.2
(22.13)		 78.7
(30.98)		 324.9
(127.91)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.2 mm) 15.0 11.0 12.8 12.5 14.5 16.1 10.0 9.2 9.2 12.5 15.0 13.3 151.0
Average rainy days (≥ 0.2 mm) 4.9 4.4 8.6 11.2 14.2 16.1 10.0 9.2 9.2 11.7 9.2 3.6 112.1
Average snowy days (≥ 0.2 cm) 12.0 8.2 6.4 2.7 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 1.6 7.7 11.4 50.7
Source: [4]

Sports

Summer in Fernie is generally far quieter than the winter months, though mountain biking, fly fishing and golf are increasingly important tourist draws.

Club League Sport Venue Established Championships
Fernie Ghostriders
KIJHL
 Ice hockey Fernie Memorial Arena
1991
3

Local media

Newspapers

Radio stations

Cable television

Shaw Communications operates a cable system serving Fernie. The cable system offers most major channels from Vancouver and Calgary, as well as local programming on Shaw TV channel 10.

Schools and colleges

School District 5 Southeast Kootenay operates the following public schools in Fernie:

The Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique operates one Francophone school: école Sophie-Morigeau primary school.[5][6]

Private schools:

Post-secondary:

Notable people

The following people were born in or reside in Fernie:

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=POPC&Code1=0280&Geo2=PR&Code2=59&Data=Count&SearchText=fernie&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=&TABID=1
  2. ↑ http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/prof/details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CSD&Code1=5901017&Geo2=PR&Code2=59&Data=Count&SearchText=Cokato&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=
  3. ↑ "Internment Camps in Canada during the First and Second World Wars, Library and Archives Canada".
  4. ↑ "Canadian Climate Normals 1981-2010 Station Data". Environment Canada. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Carte des écoles." Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique. Retrieved on 22 January 2015.
  6. ↑ Home page. L’école Sophie-Morigeau.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Fernie.
Wikisource has the text of the 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article Fernie.


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