Article

Grand Forks

Published Online November 28, 2007

Last Edited March 4, 2015

Grand Forks, BC, incorporated as a city in 1897, population 3985 (2011c), 4036 (2006c). The City of Grand Forks is at the junction of the Kettle and Granby rivers, 124 km east of Osoyoos and 140 km west of Nelson.

Grand Forks, BC, incorporated as a city in 1897, population 3985 (2011c), 4036 (2006c). The City of Grand Forks is at the junction of the Kettle and Granby rivers, 124 km east of Osoyoos and 140 km west of Nelson. Like many other towns originally based on mineral extraction, Grand Forks has a history of boom and bust. A few ranchers settled in the 1880s, but the town was established as a result of the discovery of copper at nearby Deadwood and Phoenix.

In 1900 the Granby Co opened its smelter at Grand Forks. At its height this employed 400 men and had a capacity of about 3500 t of ore per day, but after WWI the price of copper dropped and in 1919 the smelter closed. By this time the fertile valleys surrounding the town had been settled, many of the settlers being DOUKHOBORS who began arriving from Saskatchewan in 1909.

Today, orchards and nurseries as well as logging and lumber manufacturing are the mainstays of the economy.