And now, Kimberley can add another thing to the list: the best small town in British Columbia.
After a seven-week rivalry between communities of 500 and 12,000 in 128 BC, Kimberly emerged victorious in the Search for the Best Small Town in BC, defeating Vancouver’s Ucluelet 57 to 43 percent in the championship.
“It feels beautiful, very awesome,” Kimberley Mayor Don McCormick told reporters on Friday morning on CBC’s Daybreak South.
“There are so many great communities in BC, especially the communities we competed with in this competition, and I’m very proud to have won.”
In the first rounds, the mountain community north of Cranbrook narrowly defeated a number of Kootenay communities that may be best known to tourists – including Rossland, Fernie and Nelson.
But then it had bigger wins as it moved on, with a lot of votes from its neighbors, while Ucluelet failed to garner as much support on Vancouver Island in the finals.
McCormick said voter support in communities across the East Kootenay area helped Kimberley win.
“I think that helped it reach the top,” McCormick said, adding that social media had become a strategic campaign tool.
“‘Vote and share’ became the cry of battle.”
The mayor said that the tourist city attracts many visitors from Alberta and we hope that this victory will encourage more people from the coast of BC. to come and see what Kimberley has to offer.
Kimberley’s location off the main highway, without a busy road, means they had to work harder to attract tourists. (Maggie MacPherson / CBC News)
From mining to tourism
In a way, Kimberley is unique to a successful small town in British Columbia: it is not located on a main freeway or by the ocean. There are no major international marketing campaigns and it takes more than three hours to drive to any community of at least 50,000.
But it has a similar history to many communities in British Columbia: it settled around natural resources and railways.
When zinc deposits were found in the mountains between the Rocky and Purcell Mountains, the area was named Kimberley, after a huge diamond mine in South Africa, and people hoped that this new mine would one day be just as successful.
A subsidiary of CP Rail (Cominco) eventually bought it and it soon became one of the largest mines in North America, with Kimberley in many ways resembling a company city for several decades.
But as it became clear the mine would eventually close – as it did in 2001 – Kimberley changed and adapted to a more touristic and recreational mindset.
It has created a city where different generations have different attachments to Kimberly – they have all embraced what they are today.
“I hear a lot of people say, ‘Oh my God, we’d like to live here.’ So why not do it? ‘ said Bill Roberts, who has worked in the mine for more than 35 years, and in his retirement tells stories of the past on the Kimberley Underground Mining Railroad.
“It’s five minutes to work. Five minutes on the ski slope. Five minutes on the golf course. What else do you want in life?”
This is why Kimberley has grown faster than the vast majority of communities in the province over the past decade.
And that’s why it’s now the Best Small Town in BC.
Kimberley amusement parks include the 840-acre Kimberley Nature Park, located at the top of the former mine and the largest municipal park in the province. (Justin McElroy / CBC News)
