The British Columbia Interior or BC Interior or Interior of British Columbia, usually referred to only as The Interior, is one of the three main regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the other two being the Lower Mainland, which comprises the overlapping areas of Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, and the Coast, which includes Vancouver Island but not including the Lower Mainland. Canada consists of ten provinces and three territories. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages English de facto (none stated in law) Flower Pacific dogwood Tree Western Redcedar Bird Stellers Jay Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 36 6 Area... The Lower Mainland is the name that residents of British Columbia apply to the region surrounding the City of Vancouver. ... Motto: Building a sustainable region Area: 2,878. ... Fraser Valley is the section of the Fraser River basin in southwestern British Columbia downstream of the Fraser Canyon. ... The British Columbia Coast is one of Canadas two continental coastlines, the other being the coastline from the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean via the Northwest Passage and Hudson Bay to the Ungava Peninsula and Labrador and the Gulf of St. ... Vancouver Island is separated from mainland British Columbia by the Strait of Georgia and the Queen Charlotte Strait, and from Washington by the Juan De Fuca Strait. ...

Definitions

The region, which includes the Interior Plateau as well as various mountain ranges and the valleys between them, is comprised of everything inland from the Coast Mountains and reaching east to the Rockies and, in the northeast, British Columbia's sector of the Prairies, the Peace River Block. "Interior" is usually and properly capitalized but turns up in lower-case in various books and magazines. All non-coastal areas of the province are considered to be "in the Interior", although the sparsely populated regions of its northern half are usually referred to only as "the North". The Interior Plateau comprises a large region of central British Columbia, and lies between the Cariboo and Monashee Mountains on the east, and the Hazelton Mountains, Coast Mountains and Cascade Range on the west. ... The Coast Mountains are the westernmost range of the Pacific Cordillera, running along the south western shore of the North American continent, extending south from the Alaska Panhandle and covering most of coastal British Columbia. ... Rocky Mountain National Park (photo courtesy of NPS) View of Colorado Rockies. ... The Peace River Block is an 3,500,000 acre (14,000 km²) area of land located in northeastern British Columbia. ...

The town of Hope, at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley and at the foot of the Fraser Canyon, is often considered the "Gateway to the Interior" and bears an entrance arch to that effect, though in practical terms the Interior does not begin until somewhere between Yale and Boston Bar, in the Fraser Canyon, or until the summits of the Coquihalla and Allison Passes. The boundary between "the Coast" and "the Interior" along the Highway 99 corridor is nominally between Whistler and Pemberton, as Pemberton is often described as being in the Interior, but from the inland perspective it is often seen as part of the Coast because of its wetter climate and close ties to the Lower Mainland. Hope ( ) is a community of approximately 7,000 people located at the confluence of the Fraser and Coquihalla rivers in the province of British Columbia, Canada. ... Fraser Valley is the section of the Fraser River basin in southwestern British Columbia downstream of the Fraser Canyon. ... View of Fraser Canyon near Fountain, BC View of Fraser Canyon looking upstream from Fountain, B.C. The Fraser Canyon is a stretch of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains enroute from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser... Front Street, Yale, British Columbia circa 1882 during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. ... Boston Bar is a town in the Fraser Canyon of the Canadian province of British Columbia. ... View of Fraser Canyon near Fountain, BC View of Fraser Canyon looking upstream from Fountain, B.C. The Fraser Canyon is a stretch of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains enroute from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser... Allison Pass is a highway summit along the Crowsnest Highway in British Columbia, Canada. ... Whistler, British Columbia is a Canadian resort town incorporated as a resort municipality, with a permanent population of approximately 9,965. ... Pemberton is a town north of Whistler in the Pemberton Valley and has a population of about 2,204. ...

There are many subregions within the Interior, some regions in their own right, and although there are no precise definitions, it is often broken up informally as the Northern Interior, the Central Interior, the Southern Interior, the Northeast Interior and Southeast Interior, and these names often appear in non-governmental organizations and company names as well as in government administrative districts and ministerial regions, and in weather reports.

Major Subregions and Nomenclature

Northern Interior

The northern Interior begins somewhere between the Cariboo and the city of Prince George, which just lies east of the big bend in the upper Fraser. The city of Quesnel may be considered to be part of the Northern Interior, but it is usually conceived of as primarly being in the Cariboo, which is normally termed the Central Interior, or North-Central Interior. The Northern Interior includes Robson Valley (the upper reaches of the Fraser basin) to the southeast of Prince George as well as the Omineca District and the Bulkley and Nechako basins. The communities of the upper Skeena are sometimes referred to as being in the Northern Interior, though in cultural terms and usual usage they are part of the North Coast, which is associated in regional terms usually with the South and Central Coast and Vancouver Island. The Cariboo is a region of British Columbia along a plateau stretching from the Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. ... These cutbanks on the Nechako River are Prince Georges signature natural landmark. ... North Coast may refer to The Northeast Ohio or Greater Cleveland regions of the U.S. state of Ohio, on the south shore of Lake Erie and hence referred to as Americas North Coast. North Coast, New South Wales The California North Coast. ...

The northern reaches of the Northern Interior beyond the Omineca and Skeena-Bulkley regions is usually just referred to as "the North", although it also is considered part of the Northern Interior . "The North" may also refer to Prince George, one of the largest cities in the Interior and also the only major city in the Northern Interior (although that term can also apply to Prince George), which bears the sobriquet "Queen City of the North".

Central Interior

The Central Interior is comprised, roughly, of the Chilcotin, Cariboo, Lillooet, Fraser Canyon, Nicola, Thompson and Kamloops-Shuswap Countries. Some usages may refer to the Okanagan cities south of the Shuswap as being in the Central Interior, but these are usually referred to as being in the Southern Interior or South-Central Interior. The Nicola, Fraser Canyon, Thompson and Lillooet Countries are sometimes also referred to as being in the Southern Interior, with the Bridge River-Lillooet Country sometimes referred to, along with the Chilcotin, as the West-Central Interior. The Chilcotin District, usually known simply as the Chilcotin is a plateau and mountain region on the inland lea of the Coast Ranges on the west side of the Fraser River, and also is the name of the river draining that region. ... The Cariboo is a region of British Columbia along a plateau stretching from the Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. ... View of Fraser Canyon near Fountain, BC View of Fraser Canyon looking upstream from Fountain, B.C. The Fraser Canyon is a stretch of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains enroute from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser... The Nicola River is an important tributary of the Thompson River in the Canadian province of British Columbia, entering the latter at the town of Spences Bridge. ... The Thompson River is a major tributary of the Fraser River in the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. ... Kamloops is a city in south central British Columbia, Canada at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River and near Kamloops Lake. ... The Nicola River is an important tributary of the Thompson River in the Canadian province of British Columbia, entering the latter at the town of Spences Bridge. ... View of Fraser Canyon near Fountain, BC View of Fraser Canyon looking upstream from Fountain, B.C. The Fraser Canyon is a stretch of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains enroute from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser... The Thompson River is a major tributary of the Fraser River in the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. ...

Southern Interior

The Southern Interior roughly falls south of the Thompson River and Shuswap Country (corresponding mostly to the post-Oregon Treaty remainder of the old, original, Hudson's Bay Company Columbia District). When used directly, it generally means the Okanagan and adjoining areas, particularly the Similkameen, southern Monashees and Boundary Country. Due to a new federal political riding of the same name (see Southern Interior) the usage has now come to apply to the cities of the West Kootenay, along with the rest of the Kootenays, although the West Kootenay has usually been referred to in the past, and is today, as the Southeast Interior. Map of the lands in dispute The Treaty with Great Britain, in Regard to Limits Westward of the Rocky Mountains, also known as the Oregon Treaty or Treaty of Washington, is a bilateral treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States that was signed... Columbia District was a regional department of the Hudsons Bay Company, and included all of the Columbia River basin, extending as far north as the Thompson River. ... Monashee Mountains are a mountain range in British Columbia, Canada covering the areas of British Columbia (78%) and Washington State (22%) and extending 530 km from north to south and 150 km from east to west. ... The Boundary Country is a historical designation for a district in southern British Columbia lying, as its name suggests, along the boundary between Canada and the United States. ... British Columbia Southern Interior is a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons, and located in the province of British Columbia. ... West Kootenay was the name of a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. ... The Kootenay Region (in common parlance The Kootenays) comprises the southeastern portion of British Columbia. ...

Exceptions

The Big Bend of the Columbia and the Rocky Mountain Trench are in the Interior, but are not usually included in mentions of either the Central Interior or Southern Interior.

Historical geographic regions

The Interior comprises over 70% of the province. and well over 80% of its mainland. As it is comprised of a series of interlocking valleys and plateaus, geographic effects relating to isolation, physical remoteness, local indigenous culture, the background of various groups of settlers, and more, have contributed to an identifiable patchwork of regional identities, referred to as "districts" or "countries" (e.g. the Omineca Country, the Boundary Country). Usage such as "Lillooet District" are also common but in a few cases that is also a phrase referring to the Land District of the same name, which is a system of legal survey blocks rather than descriptive of the actual geocultural landscape which evolved on top of them. In most cases, the "Country" and "District" are often dropped, and these regions are referred to as, for example, "the Kootenay" or "the Omineca". In some cases, notably the Kootenay, the Chilcotin and the Cariboo, they can be are often referred to as simply Kootenay, Chilcotin and Cariboo.. Some are referred to only without the "Country" or "District" attached, such as "the Tulameen" and "the Similkameen", and in other cases this is more common than the longer form though both occur ("the Stikine" is more common than "the Stikine Country". Combination forms are common, such as Cariboo-Chilcotin, and Thompson-Okanagan, and these often turn up in names of governmental administrative districts, electoral districts and private or public organizations. All often correspond to linguistic and cultural-political divisions of the First Nations as aboriginal history was also shaped by the landscape's isolating and defining characteristics as settler culture.

The main historical subregions, with their own subregions an irrespective of very common overlaps between some areas, and in their most common forms, are as follows:

• The Cariboo
  • South Cariboo (Clinton-100 Mile House-Bridge Lake, and also including the Thompson as far south as Lytton
    • Bonaparte Country
  • North Cariboo
  • Central Cariboo
  • The term "West Cariboo" was once used for the Bridge River Country
• The Chilcotin
  • West Chilcotin (Chilko and Taseko Lakes area)
  • South Chilcotin (see Southern Chilcotin Mountains Provincial Park
  • North Chilcotin (Anahim Lake, Alexis Creek, Nimpo Lake)
• Fraser Canyon a.k.a. "The Canyon". This term is often used to include the canyon of the Thompson River between Ashcroft and Lytton, partly because the highway route is usually referred to as both the Canyon and the Fraser Canyon.
  • Lillooet Country (considered part of both the Fraser Canyon and the Cariboo, although distinct within both, and also historically including areas not in either)
    • Bridge River Country (an important subarea of the Lillooet Country, often combined as Bridge River-Lillooet and at one time dubbed the West Cariboo. Now confused with the Chilcotin because of the coining of the term South Chilcotin in the 1950s for the area on its northern flank)
• Thompson Country
  • North Thompson
  • South Thompson (Kamloops-Ashcroft)
• Nicola Country (sometimes considered part of the Thompson, and comprising much of the Thompson Plateau
• The Okanagan
  • South Okanagan
  • Central Okanagan
  • North Okanagan (also Northern Okanagan)
• Shuswap Country (does not include the upper Shuswap River east of the Okanagan, which is usually considered Monashees.
• Boundary Country (sometimes included with the West Kootenay, and also with the Okanagan)
• The Monashees (the Southern Monashees are tied to or part of the Boundary Country)
• The Similkameen
  • The Tulameen
• The Kootenays a.k.a. "the Kootenay"
  • West Kootenay
    • Slocan
  • East Kootenay
    • Elk Valley
• Omineca Country
• Cassiar District
• Peace Country (extends in northern Alberta)
  • Peace River Block
• The Columbia
• The Bulkley (often combined with the sub-coastal Skeena Country as Skeena-Bulkley
• The Nechako
• The Stikine

Regions farther north in the Liard basin, northern Rocky Mountain Trench do not have any similar appellation, although the Atlin-Teslin area is known as the Atlin Country. The Cariboo is a region of British Columbia along a plateau stretching from the Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. ... Clinton is an English surname which may refer to a number of persons or places. ... (Redirected from 100 Mile House) 100 Mile House is a town located in central British Columbia, Canada. ... Bridge Lake is located 560 km north of Vancouver and around 140 km north to Kamloops in the Interlakes District close to the Fishing Highway (Highway number 24). ... Lytton may refer to: Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Secretary for Colonial Affairs at the time of the incorporation of the Crown Colony of British Columbia. ... The Bonaparte River is a tributary of the Thompson River, joining it at the community of Ashcroft, British Columbia. ... Tsilhqotin, an Athabaskan First Nations people town of west-central British Columbia, usually known in English spelling as Chilcotin. ... View of Fraser Canyon near Fountain, BC View of Fraser Canyon looking upstream from Fountain, B.C. The Fraser Canyon is a stretch of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains enroute from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser... The Thompson River is a major tributary of the Fraser River in the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. ... John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) was the 79th Attorney General of the United States. ... Location map of the Thompson Plateau; dotted line is boundary of the Bonaparte Plateau. ... A view overlooking Skaha Lake in the Okanagan Valley The regional districts that comprise the Okanagan are shown in red. ... The Boundary Country is a historical designation for a district in southern British Columbia lying, as its name suggests, along the boundary between Canada and the United States. ... Monashee Mountains are a mountain range in British Columbia, Canada covering the areas of British Columbia (78%) and Washington State (22%) and extending 530 km from north to south and 150 km from east to west. ... The Kootenay Region (in common parlance The Kootenays) comprises the southeastern portion of British Columbia. ... West Kootenay was the name of a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. ... The Kootenay Region (in common parlance The Kootenays) comprises the southeastern portion of British Columbia. ... The Peace River Country (or Peace Country) is prairie land around the Peace River. ... Norhern Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. ... The Peace River Block is an 3,500,000 acre (14,000 km²) area of land located in northeastern British Columbia. ... The Columbia River (French: fleuve Columbia) is a river situated in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. ... The Bulkley River in British Columbia is a major tributary of the Skeena River. ... The Skeena River is on the north coast of British Columbia, passing through Terrace. ... Image:Canadian Rockies NechakoPlateau wEFraser. ... The Liard River is a river that flows through the Yukon Territory, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, and in Canada. ... Teslin is a synthetic printing media, manufactured by PPG Industries. ...

History

Demographics

Economy

Society and Culture

Transportation

External Links

• British Columbia Interior information and images.