Kamloops

Kamloops (/ˈkæmluːps/ KAM-loops) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers, which join to become the Thompson River in Kamloops, and east of Kamloops Lake. The city is the administrative centre for, and largest city in, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, a region of the British Columbia Interior.

The city was incorporated in 1893 with about 500 residents. The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed through downtown in 1886, and the Canadian National arrived in 1912, making Kamloops an important transportation hub. Kamloops North station is the first stop on VIA Rail's eastbound transcontinental service, The Canadian, while the Rocky Mountaineer and the Kamloops Heritage Railway both use Kamloops station.

With a 2021 population of 97,902, it is the twelfth largest municipality in the province. The Kamloops census agglomeration is ranked 36th among census metropolitan areas and agglomerations in Canada with a 2021 population of 114,142.

A college town, Kamloops is home to Thompson Rivers University as well as the Royal Inland Hospital and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, all of which significantly shape the city's economy. Kamloops is promoted as the Tournament Capital of Canada. It hosts more than 100 sporting tournaments each year at facilities such as the Tournament Capital Centre, Sandman Centre, and Tournament Capital Ranch. More recently, Kamloops has become a mountain biking destination; home to Canada's largest municipal bike park, the 26-hectare Kamloops Bike Ranch, the city is often described as the birthplace of freeride mountain biking.

The first European explorers arrived in 1811. David Stuart, a trader sent from Fort Astoria, then still a Pacific Fur Company post, spent a winter with the Secwépemc people. In May of the following year, trader Alexander Ross established a post, which was known as "Fort Cumcloups".

The rival North West Company established Fort Shuswap nearby in the same year. The two businesses merged in 1813 when the North West Company bought the operations of the Pacific Fur Company. In 1821, the Hudson's Bay Company merged with the North West Company, and the post became known commonly as Thompson's River Post, or Fort Thompson. Later it was known as Fort Kamloops. The post's Chief Traders kept journals, which document a series of inter-Indian wars and personalities for the period, in addition to the daily business of the fur companies and their personnel along the entire Pacific Slope.

Soon after the forts were founded, Kwa'lila, chief of the main local village of the Secwépemc, moved his people closer to the trading post, so they could control access and gain in prestige and security. After Kwa'lila died, his nephew and foster son Nicola became chief. He later led an alliance of Syilx (Okanagan) and Nlaka'pamux peoples in the plateau country to the south around Stump, Nicola and Douglas lakes.

Relations between Nicola and the fur traders were often tense, but Chief Nicola was recognized for his aid to colonizers during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858. He did try to control those who had been in parties waging violence and looting on the Okanagan Trail, which led from American territory to the Fraser goldfields. Throughout, Kamloops was an important way station on the route of the Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail, which connected Fort Vancouver with Fort Alexandria and the other forts in New Caledonia to the north (today's Omineca Country, roughly). It was integral during the onset of the Cariboo Gold Rush as the main route to the new goldfields around what was to become Barkerville.