We have no information as to how long this church served the Catholic residents of Ymir, only that it has been a private residence for quite some time now. The little town of Quartz Creek came into being in the former part of the 1890s as a result of gold, silver and lead ore strikes in the immediate vicinity of the townsite.
Luckily, the architecture was changed almost not at all when the building became a residence. The cute little bell tower remains almost exactly as it was when built. One visible difference is the change in roofing material on the tower from cedar shingles to sheet metal. Old photos of the building indicate that the church may never have installed a bell in the tower, unless it was installed much later.
In 1893 the Nelson & Fort Sheppard railway pushed through the area on its way to Nelson and a townsite, was begun near the older town of Quartz Creek. The name was changed to Ymir to avoid confusion with other Quartz Creeks in BC. Mining and the arrival of the railroad pushed the population of Ymir to 1,000 or more by the earky 1900s, with several hotels and saloons in the town, as well as the requisite stores and services.
In 1897 the first school was built and in about 1897-98 the Presbyterian Church and manse were built. This church didn't come along until 1904 and was the second and final church to be built in Ymir. Mining continued into the 1930s, but the town slowly dwindled from its turn-of-the-century peak. Though little mining takes place in the area today, Ymir hangs on as a small lumbering and tourist town.
Though we would guess that this church saw its last mass sometime in the 1930s, that is, nonetheless, only a guess.
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