Background-Report.Pdf

TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION 1: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HOPE 1 1.1 1st Nations: Sto:lo – People of the River 1 1.2 Early Settlement: Hudson’s Bay Company, the fur trade, the gold rush 1 1.3 Transportation, Forestry, and Mining: The Boom Years 1880 – 1970 2 1.4 Community in Transition: the last 50 years 2 1.5 Other Historical Influences on Hope 3 SECTION 2: HOPE TODAY – SNAPSHOT 5 2.1 Industry and economic drivers 5 2.2 Community demographics 7 2.3 Taking stock: Current SWOTs and Visions of community organizations 9 2.4 Previous Brand Positionings 13 2.5 In the Media 15 2.6 Web Resources 16 2.7 A Visual Exploration of Hope: Photo Journey (see external PowerPoint) 2.8 The Look & Feel of Hope: Community Assets 25 SECTION 3: CONTEXT FOR HOPE – NATIONAL, PROVINCIAL, REGIONAL BRANDS 27 3.1 Canada Brand 27 3.2 British Columbia Brand 27 3.3 Regional Brands 28 SECTION 4: PERCEPTION OF HOPE – COMMUNITY SURVEY 30 4.1 General Observations and Trends 30 SECTION 5: FINAL WORDS 38 APPENDICES A Print Publications B Community Survey Questions C Community Survey Results REFERENCES HOPE BRANDING INITIATIVE: BACKGROUND RESEARCH & ANALYSIS SECTION 1: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HOPE Hope’s history has been a relatively short and colourful one. In order to understand the character of the present day Hope region, one must look to the historical roots of the community. Echoes from the past are a subtle but significant influence on the human make up of the area today. Like good stock is to good soup, a rich heritage is to the brand story. This section will provide a very brief review of the human development of Hope over the past 150 years. 1.1 FIRST NATIONS: STO:LO – THE RIVER PEOPLE The story of Hope, and the brand of Hope, begins with First Nations presence in the Fraser Valley, the Fraser Canyon, and in Western Canada in general. As far back as 10,000 years ago there have been humans living in the Hope area.1 As recently as 200 years ago, the First Nations populations around Hope were estimated to be approximately 30,000 people.2 As their translated name would suggest, Sto:lo peoples have an intimate and spiritual relationship with the natural world, particularly with the river and salmon. The Fraser River was not only the Sto:lo’s main transportation corridor, but also their lifeline as it supplied their main source of food, salmon. As Europeans filtered into the area in the form of explorers, fur traders, and then eventually settlers, the Sto:lo people worked as guides, hired hands, and interpreters for the pale-skinned interlopers. Their numbers dwindled dramatically due to the introduction of diseases such as small pox, as well as the prolific settlement by the Europeans and Americans. The Sto:lo presence endures today in the Hope area, particularly by the banks of the Fraser when the salmon are running. They are an integral part of the cultural mosaic of Hope. 1.2 EARLY SETTLEMENT: THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY, THE FUR TRADE, AND THE GOLD RUSH EARLY EXPLORERS, THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY, AND THE FUR TRADE In the development of Western Canada, nothing was as urgent as securing a trade route across to the Pacific. In the late 18th century, this resulted in major exploration and the claiming major waterways by Europeans (namely the British). This is how Simon Fraser, the first of European decent, came to discover the Hope area on his voyage down the Fraser Canyon in 1808. He deemed the Fraser River not suitable as a trade route with the interior, as the waters through the canyon were too treacherous. The border dividing Canada from the USA was established in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty. This essentially gave the lower Columbia River to the USA, creating an urgent need for an alternate trade route across the southern interior of British Columbia. In 1848, Fort Hope and Fort Yale were established as trading posts. Drawings and sketches of this time period would show a small settlement with frontier-style wood buildings, canoe travel on the Fraser, packhorses, hardy bearded men, few tough young pioneering families, Sto:lo locals and other First Nations traders, and surveyors from trade companies and “New Caledonia”. THE GOLD RUSH In the spring of 1858 things changed overnight with the discovery of gold on Hill’s Bar in the Fraser Canyon. Word of the gold deposits spread through the Pacific Northwest drawing all kinds of dreamers and vagabonds to the Hope area and north through the canyon. Life in the Fraser Valley, in particular in Hope and Yale, became quite lively and somewhat debaucherous. Responding to the lawlessness of gold panning camps and threat of war between the Sto:lo and the mostly American gold seekers, British Columbia was officially formed as a British 1 Fran Thomas, Forging a New Hope (Cloverdale, BC: Friesen Printers, 1984), 17. 2 SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, “The Sto:lo People,” www.sfu.museum/time/en/panoramas/beach/the-stolo- people (accessed January 12, 2013). Section One: A brief history of Hope 1 HOPE BRANDING INITIATIVE: BACKGROUND RESEARCH & ANALYSIS Colony. The gold rush ran its course as the easy pickings quickly disappeared. In its place, mining claims popped up across the region and would become an ever-present industry in Hope, albeit an inconsistent one. This was a time characterized by tough settlers, shady transients looking for riches, dreamers, speculators, saloons, and other boisterous entertainment establishments. Paddle wheelers also became a part of the landscape on the Upper Fraser River for a brief time (mainly during the gold rush). 1.3 TRANSPORTATION, FORESTRY, AND MINING: THE BOOM YEARS 1880 – 1970 1880 signaled a new era for the Hope region (and for the rest of Canada as well). In order to maintain control over the tenuous border, the country needed to be commercially linked. The Canadian Pacific Railway was the ambitious undertaking that would define the country, in particular, the western part. Hope is the natural geographical place through which any southern route to the coast must pass. As such, the CPR rail construction brought with it the boom of industry and the introduction of logging and wood mills to supply the construction demand. This trend of transportation development and support services would be one of the most significant economic drivers for the Hope area over the next 100 years. The growth of Hope continued to follow the growth and expansion of travel routes, as well as resource industries of forestry and mining. As technologies advanced in both the transportation and resource extraction fields, so to did the demand for both. Railways and roadways were constantly being developed until the completion of the Coquihalla Highway (#5) in the 1980s. During this time, the development and growth of BC (as well as the country) created high demand for forestry and mining products. As a result, forestry and, to a lesser extent, mining became ingrained as cornerstones of the local economy. This is a fairly simplified look at that very productive century, but taken as a whole, this was a time of significant growth and prosperity in the Hope Area. The growth was at times interrupted by the two World Wars and the great depression, but overall, constant economic growth and demand for local resources formed the backbone of the community. This prosperity can be seen in the images from the early part of the 20th century. There is an unmistakable vitality in the community that comes through in photographs – community events, well-kept storefronts, camaraderie, youthful families, and community pride are all phrases that come to mind when flipping through the history books and archives. 1.4 COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION: THE LAST FIFTY YEARS ECONOMIC DECLINE: FROM RESOURCE TOWN TO A SERVICE-BASED TOWN As early as the 1970s a decline in the forestry industry across BC had begun. As the largest economic engine for the District of Hope, the impact of this steady decline can be measured by the slow decline in the health and vitality of the community. Compounding this problem, were closures of two main mining interests, the Giant Mascot Mine (in 1973) and the Carolin Mine (in 1985). Since then, any renewed mining activity (such as the Emancipation Mine) has been sporadic. A final factor in the slow down of the local economy was that transportation infrastructure development had come to a halt with the completion of the Coquihalla Highway in the mid 80s. Since then, there have been no significant developments in highways or railways. As a result of the economic decline in the latter half of the 20th century, the last 50 years have seen a shift from “resource industry town” to a largely “service-based town”. Highway maintenance, public, professional, and private services have become the main source of local incomes in the past 20 years (approximate). Tourism-related services such as accommodations and restaurants have always made up a portion of the local economy, and have remained relatively constant over the past several decades. With the exception of Nestle Waters, there have been no significant industrial developments in Hope (as measured by local economic contributions). Section One: A brief history of Hope 2 HOPE BRANDING INITIATIVE: BACKGROUND RESEARCH & ANALYSIS Another transition has been the shift to Hope as a “retirement community”. This is partly attributed to the loss of higher-paying family-supporting jobs, forcing younger people and families to leave town for gainful career and employment opportunities. On the other side of the coin, what makes Hope an attractive place to retire (as compared to the rest of BC), is the mild climate, affordability of houses, peacefulness of a small town, the proximity of Hope to Lower Mainland services (i.e.

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