At one point there was a service area on Highway 16 known as North Croydon and a ferry across the Fraser River, connecting this road with Croydon Ferry Road.

There was a ferry across the Fraser River at the end of this road, connecting to the Croydon Road North.

Steve Kolida
Valley Museum & Archives Society

Stephanus (Steve) Kolida (1925-2013) was born in Poland and came to McBride, BC at 6 years of age with his family. Steve joined the 1st battalion of the Canadian Scottish in 1943 and proudly fought for his country for 3 years. He married his beloved Anne Prokopow on September 4, 1949 and raised his family in McBride. Steve worked for the CNR until 1958 and then became an entrepreneur, owning many businesses until his semi-retirement in 1993. Steve’s involvement in public service was always in the forefront and he served the village of McBride as Alderman and Mayor for 25 years. Steve loved sports, prospecting, hunting, fishing, berry picking and most of all spending time with his family and friends.

The Northern BC Archives has an interview with Kolida from 2002.

Philip Arthur Gaglardi (1913–1995), sometimes known as “Flying Phil,” was a politician in British Columbia. He is best known as Minister of Highways in the BC government from 1952 to 1972.

Sons Bob Gaglardi was founder of Northland Properties (whose holdings include the 60-hotel Sandman Hotel chain and 100-plus restaurants under various labels) whose family is the current owner of the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars.

Reporting on a 1970 McBride Chamber of Commerce meeting with Liberal MP Bob Borrie, the Robson Valley Courier reported that “A point of interest arose from a remark passed by Mr. Borrie concerning the supposed grab-off of property along the by-pass highway near McBride by the Gaglardis. He was assured that such was not the case — the property in question [site of the Sandman Hotel in McBride] was up for sale long before the Gaglardis stepped in, the by-pass was built and the new Fraser Bridge under construction before the sale so that there should have been no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the value of the property.”

lan Monroe pilots nephews Leonard and Andrew Foster and son Doug
The Valley Sentinel, June 15, 2012

After Ian George Monroe [1951–1987], pilot, killed in a helicopter accident. Monroe and others made presentations to the Wilderness Advisory Committee, eventually leading to the creation of Kakwa Provincial Park.

Ian Monroe, the fifth child of Everett Monroe [1917–1998] and Dorothy Apsey [1920–1979], was a member of the third generation of a family of trappers, guides, and prospectors in Kakwa area. Ian got his fixed wing pilot’s license, floatplane, and helicopter endorsements and became a third partner in CCI Aviation. CCI stood for Charlie Chitwood, Charlie Leake, and Ian Monroe. The CCI camp is at the base of this mountain.

Name adopted in March 1988 as submitted by McBride Chamber of Commerce and BC Parks.

Mile 53 from the north-west, at the backwater SS Operator can be seen on the river
Valemount & Area Museum

James Alexander Walker surveyed the area in 1914:

From Mile 53 — this mileage is reckoned from the Summit at Yellowhead Pass along the railway — the [Fraser] river is navigable in high water as far as Soda Creek, a distance of nearly 500 miles. The Fraser has proved to be invaluable to the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, despite the fact that so many lives and so much property have been lost in its waters. These accidents have happened mostly through carelessness and ignorance. The chief obstacles to navigation are due to the existence of shifting sand and gravel bars, the Goat Rapids, the Grand Canyon, and the Giscome Rapids, all above Fort George. High water minimizes this danger for the larger craft, but presents sometimes greater dangers for the smaller ones.…

Construction of the GTP from the east suffered several delays. Encouragement was given the company by the McBride government of BC, in the form of an exemption from the payment of taxes for ten years, but it was 1912 before the steel reached the eastern boundary of BC. By the end of 1912 it had reached Mile 53 within the province. The work was continued apace during 1913 and reached Prince George by the end of that year.

Mile 53 was the slightly more sophisticated area of Tête Jaune. Nicknamed “Snob Hill” by the workers living in the tent town one mile away, Mile 53 was home to the engineers, magistrate, surveyors and the bosses. Mile 53 was also the site of both the Siems Carey and Foley, Welsh, and Stewart’s wharves and warehouses. The two companies had sternwheelers which competed for business carrying supplies down the river. The warehouses beside the river were up to 400 metres long. A forest fire destroyed all the houses at Mile 53 in 1916, after Tête Jaune had become a deserted ghost town.


Named in 1924 by climbing party of Allen Carpé [1894–1932] and Rollin Thomas Chamberlin [1881–1948], in association with the nearby mountain and pass that they proposed be named Mount David Thompson and David Glacier, in the mistaken belief that the pass was the true source of the North Thompson River.

John Memeno, the last Cree Indian to remember James Evans, with church leaders at Norway House, Manitoba, 1925. Chown at the right.
United Church of Canada Archives

Mount Chown was named for Samuel Dwight Chown [1853–1933] of Winnipeg, Manitoba, a general superintendent of the Methodist Church, and one of the founders of the United Church of Canada. The United Church was formed in 1912 due to the needs of hundreds of small prairie towns where it was impractical to have 3 or 4 separate churches. The peak was named by H.A. Stevens in 1912.