Cascade City - Christina Lake, BC
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 49° 02.673 W 118° 12.402
11U E 411818 N 5433109
Cascade City was a town whose future hinged on both the railway and the copper smelting industry. it's future, unfortunately, was not bright.
Waymark Code: WMMQZR
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 10/27/2014
Views: 3
This sign of history gives us a quick little glimpse into the fate of a boundary country boomtown which is no more. It's the type of story which played out innumerable times in this area as the mines played out, the railroad was routed elsewhere or an anticipated industry failed to materialize. Today a ghost town, most of the old town site is now the Christina Lake Golf Course while a few individuals continue to live in the wilderness on the outskirts of the old town.
This sign, as well as other information and maps of the Columbia & Western Rail Trail, which passes nearby, are to be found in front of the Christina Lake visitor centre. This visitor centre, housed along with a bistro, is on Kimura Road, just west of Highway 3 at the northern edge of the town of Christina Lake, which is on the lake of the same name.
The Railway Brings Boom and Bust
to Cascade
Cascade City was located about 3km. south of present-day Christina Lake. It was the border stop for trade with Spokane and other American destinations, and in the late 1890s had a population of about 1000 people. The dam on the Kettle River was generating power for Greenwood, Phoenix, Grand Forks and various mines and smelters in the region; it operated until the 1920s.
The future of Cascade was looking pretty good when the Columbia and Western Railway came to town in 1899, securing a Canadian transportation route for the region's gold, silver and copper. The Canadian Pacific Railway was also considering Cascade as the location for their new smelter.
Shortly after the railway came to town however, the CPR decided to locate its new smelter in Trail instead of Cascade. This was followed by a fire that devastated the town on September 30, 1899. Rebuilding bad hardly begun when another fire ripped through town in 1901 marking the beginning of the end for Cascade.
From the sign