History of the Tranquille Valley and Area

Settlers started homesteading in these valleys when people first started to arrive in BC in serious numbers in the 1870s. By the 1920s there were a lot of homesteads. Homesteads usually started with a small one room log cabin, clearing land, a small barn for animals, then a bigger barn, and then a bigger house. Much of the history has been written down by the authors Mona Saemerow and Warren and Carolyn Bepple. There are remnants of pioneering cabins, place names that pre-date memories and written records. First Nations hunted and travelled through this area since the glaciers retreated, and they used the big field south of the Criss Creek Bridge to herd wild horses.

When homesteading in these areas began, neighbours relied on each other to survive. Life was hard, and people pulled together to make it work. They built schools, recruited and boarded teachers, built homes, cut hay, tended to gardens, animals, plus worked on the roads to pay their property taxes. There was also a Post Office, saw mills, and mining. People hunted year round, and when the game warden was on his way, neighbours alerted each other ahead of his arrival to hide their food! Trips to town could take days. Life was obviously very different back then.

The first school in the wider area was opened in 1919 and was located beside the Seven Lakes road near what is now the kitty litter mine. At the time, the majority of homesteads with children were in that area as it was the main road to Criss Creek. The school changed locations depending on where the majority of children lived!

In 2007, the former Tranquille Valley School which was a portable with one classroom and an activity room was removed due to lack of pupils. While the school was in use, the community also had the use of the activity room for various events. Rarely a month would go by without bingo, the traveling library (when there was such a thing); even Santa was a regular visitor, speakers, meetings of the TVCA itself. All these events also drew neighbours from the wider areas of Red Lake, Copper Creek and Criss Creek. This was a time when the community had a place to gather and swap stories.

Nowadays, most of us live in private homes and mostly rely on ourselves. We have become a bedroom community, with a lot people travelling to town during the week to work. The area has been experiencing an influx of people from outside the community since the road had an upgrading in 2008. Many travel the road to access hunting, fishing, and forms of recreation. Traffic in general on the main road is on the upswing. It’s about progress, dragging up everyone’s property values. Most of us are former city slickers. Now we have big yards, relative freedom (compared to town), solitude, nature, peace, quiet and recreation. Privacy is a priority of the rich and famous costing millions, and yet some of us in the back woods have found it for cheap (relatively). It’s a unique area with a lot of history, beauty and vastness.