Ashcroft, British Columbia

Ashcroft (2016 population: 1,558)[2] is a village in the Thompson Country of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is 30 kilometres (19 mi) downstream from the west end of Kamloops Lake, at the confluence of the Bonaparte and Thompson Rivers, and is in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

Ashcroft
Village
The Corporation of the
Village of Ashcroft[1]
The historic fire hall in Ashcroft, which was rebuilt after a major fire in 1919
Ashcroft
Location of Ashcroft in British Columbia
Coordinates: 50°43′32″N 121°16′50″W
Country Canada
ProvinceBritish Columbia
RegionThompson Country-South Cariboo
Regional DistrictThompson-Nicola Regional District
Founded1880s
Incorporated as a Village1952
Government
 • TypeElected village council
 • MayorBarbara Roden
 • Governing bodyAshcroft Village Council
 • MPJati Sidhu (Liberal)
 • MLAJackie Tegart (BC Liberals)
Area
 • Total51.45 km2 (19.86 sq mi)
Elevation
335.2 m (1,099.7 ft)
Population
 (2016)
 • Total1,558
 • Density32.3/km2 (84/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC−8 (PST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−7 (PDT)
Postal Code
V0K 1A0
HighwayHighway 97C
WaterwaysKamloops Lake
Bonaparte River
Thompson River
Websitewww.ashcroftbc.ca
Ashcroft's welcome sign

Ashcroft's downtown is on the east side of the Thompson River, although the municipal boundaries straddle the river, with housing and the town's hospital and recreation complex on the west bank. It is something of a "twin" to nearby Cache Creek, which unlike Ashcroft is on the major highway.

History

Ashcroft was named after the nearby Ashcroft Manor on Ashcroft Ranch founded in the 1860s, during the Cariboo Gold Rush, by two English brothers named Clement Francis Cornwall and Henry Pennant Cornwall, who emigrated to Canada from Ashcroft, at Newington Bagpath in Gloucestershire.[3] The brothers had originally come in search of gold; however, on hearing stories from failed gold searchers they decided to found the town to give future gold searchers a place to saddle their horses. They sold flour to packers and miners, helping to make the community. The Cariboo Road ran nearby but on the west bank of the Thompson River.

Ashcroft was a major stop for trains, where mining supplies were dropped off.

The Canadian Pacific Railway reached Ashcroft in 1884 and the town became a division point and service centre for the rail line. The province built a bridge across the river in 1890 so travellers could ride the train to Ashcroft then board a stagecoach for a journey north. In 1920, when the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (now BC Rail) was partially built, running from Squamish to Clinton and Williams Lake, Ashcroft lost strategic importance as a supply centre and transit point for the north. After this, the townsfolk started to rely on farming to sustain the community. Despite being dry, farming was very successful because of water from the Thompson River and hot sun. During the 1920s the small but successful Chinese community made money by testing the growing of potatoes and tomatoes. A tomato cannery was built in the village, which later closed in 1957.[4]

In 2001, Ashcroft expanded its boundaries to include the Ashcroft Ranch, which had been bought in 2000 by the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) with the intent of using it as the site of a landfill to succeed the Cache Creek sanitary landfill. In 2011, however, the British Columbia government denied an environmental assessment certificate for the landfill, and Metro Vancouver expressed a desire to divest itself of the property.[5]

Geography

The geography in and around Ashcroft resembles that of desert terrain, due to the near desert conditions in lower elevation areas[6] and has been marketed as sets for the film industry. A number of old west films and movies depicting the middle east have used this area as a stand in.[7]

Climate

Ashcroft has a dry, and generally mild semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk).[8]

Climate data for Ashcroft
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 13.5
(56.3)		 16.0
(60.8)		 24.5
(76.1)		 31.3
(88.3)		 34.6
(94.3)		 40.6
(105.1)		 41.7
(107.1)		 41.0
(105.8)		 36.3
(97.3)		 26.3
(79.3)		 23.7
(74.7)		 13.5
(56.3)		 41.7
(107.1)
Average high °C (°F) −0.5
(31.1)		 4.0
(39.2)		 10.0
(50.0)		 15.8
(60.4)		 20.7
(69.3)		 24.6
(76.3)		 28.0
(82.4)		 27.6
(81.7)		 21.6
(70.9)		 14.2
(57.6)		 5.4
(41.7)		 0.4
(32.7)		 14.3
(57.8)
Daily mean °C (°F) −3.9
(25.0)		 −0.1
(31.8)		 4.7
(40.5)		 9.3
(48.7)		 13.9
(57.0)		 18.0
(64.4)		 20.8
(69.4)		 20.5
(68.9)		 15.2
(59.4)		 9.2
(48.6)		 2.2
(36.0)		 −2.5
(27.5)		 8.9
(48.1)
Average low °C (°F) −7.3
(18.9)		 −4.1
(24.6)		 −0.6
(30.9)		 2.9
(37.2)		 7.2
(45.0)		 11.4
(52.5)		 13.7
(56.7)		 13.5
(56.3)		 8.9
(48.0)		 4.2
(39.6)		 −1.0
(30.2)		 −5.4
(22.3)		 3.6
(38.5)
Record low °C (°F) −24.4
(−11.9)		 −21.7
(−7.1)		 −16.8
(1.8)		 −3.5
(25.7)		 −0.6
(30.9)		 4.5
(40.1)		 8.5
(47.3)		 6.1
(43.0)		 1.7
(35.1)		 −4.1
(24.6)		 −21.1
(−6.0)		 −21.9
(−7.4)		 −24.4
(−11.9)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 39
(1.5)		 23
(0.9)		 15
(0.6)		 15
(0.6)		 20
(0.8)		 26
(1.0)		 25
(1.0)		 27
(1.1)		 27
(1.1)		 25
(1.0)		 34
(1.3)		 41
(1.6)		 317
(12.5)
Source 1: Environment Canada (extremes)
Source 2: Climate-data.org (normals)[9]

Transportation and communication

Ashcroft town is not on the Fraser Canyon Highway, rather it sits on the east bank of the river below the bench. The highway runs from Spences Bridge to Cache Creek, and there is a turnoff at the Ashcroft Ranch for a separate road that goes into town. As a flag stop Via Rail's The Canadian calls at the Ashcroft railway station three times per week in each direction.

Ashcroft is served by a community television station (run by the Ash-Creek Television Society), CH4472 on VHF channel 4 (with an effective radiated power of 74 watts at 15 meters above ground level), with a repeater (CH4473 on VHF 8, with an effective radiated power of 49 watts at 45 meters) in the neighbouring town of Cache Creek.

Attractions

Ashcroft was home to the Nl'akapxm Eagle Motorplex, a ¼-mile IHRA-sanctioned dragstrip, which opened in 1987 and closed in April 2016.

Ashcroft had its first annual Wellness Festival in July 2013.

Sister city

The Japanese town of Bifuka, in Hokkaido, was twinned with Ashcroft in 1994. Tourism between Ashcroft and Bifuka residents is common.[10]

Television and film

Projects that have been filmed in the area include[11]

gollark: APIONET you. By which I mean my ingame APIONET for opencomputers microcontrollers.
gollark: I have to click something like twenty buttons to have it automatically make an OC system's components, then I have to install openOS and move all the parts around and whatnot.
gollark: I have one, it's still annoying.
gollark: And to set up simple oC machines for single tasks.
gollark: It's MUCH more annoying to craft OC parts.

References
  1. "British Columbia Regional Districts, Municipalities, Corporate Name, Date of Incorporation and Postal Address" (XLS). British Columbia Ministry of Communities, Sport and Cultural Development. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
  2. "Census Profile: Ashcroft, British Columbia". Statistics Canada. 4 May 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  3. "Ashcroft". BC Geographical Names.
  4. "History of Ashcroft - Canterris Inc., British Columbia, Canada". www.ashcroftbc.ca. Archived from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
  5. Sinoski, Kelly (9 September 2011). "Province Rejects Metro's Bid for Environment Assessment for Ashcroft Dump". The Vancouver Sun. Postmedia Network Inc. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  6. "Deserts of the Thompson-Nicola Region: Kamloops to Cache Creek, Ashcroft and Spences Bridge". Thompson Nicola Film Commission. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  7. "Welcome to the Thompson-Nicola Region in BC". Thompson Nicola Film Commission. February 4, 2013. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  8. Columbo, John Robert (1995), The 1996 Canadian Global Almanac, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Canada, pp. 21–23
  9. "Ashcroft Climate". Climate-data.org. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  10. "Our Sister City". Village of Ashcroft. Village of Ashcroft. Archived from the original on 26 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  11. "Most Popular Titles with Location Matching 'Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada'", IMDB.com.
  12. "Cadence". 15 February 1991 – via IMDb.
  13. "The X-Files". 10 September 1993 – via IMDb.
  14. "Double Cross". 29 June 1994 – via IMDb.
  15. "Zacharia Farted". 23 October 1998 – via IMDb.
  16. "Eyes of a Cowboy". 1 January 2000 – via IMDb.
  17. "The Pick-up". 1 January 2000 – via IMDb.
  18. "Lola". 26 April 2002 – via IMDb.
  19. "Traffic". 26 January 2004 – via IMDb.
  20. "Miss Texas". 9 May 2005 – via IMDb.
  21. "Partition". 2 February 2007 – via IMDb.
  22. "Centigrade". 26 August 2007 – via IMDb.
  23. "The Andromeda Strain". 26 May 2008 – via IMDb.
  24. "2012". 13 November 2009 – via IMDb.
  25. "Alien Trespass". 1 January 2009 – via IMDb.
  26. "Rain Down". 1 January 2000 – via IMDb.
  27. "Thirst". 22 June 2010 – via IMDb.
  28. "Flicka 2". 4 May 2010 – via IMDb.
  29. "Afghan Luke". 11 June 2011 – via IMDb.
  30. "The Walk". 8 March 2013 – via IMDb.
  31. "#DUPE#". 10 September 1993 – via IMDb.
  32. "Tomato Red". 1 January 2000 – via IMDb.
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