Granisle, British Columbia

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Granisle, British Columbia, Canada

Motto:
Granisle, British Columbia, Canada.
Census division
Regional District	Regional District of Buckley-Nechako
Area:	40.21 km²
Founded
Incorporated	1971
Population Village Population	368 (2001)
Population density	9.2/km²
Time zone	Pacific: UTC -8
Postal code span	V0J 1W0
Latitude Longitude	54°53′3″N, 126°12′10″W
Elevation	m MSL
Highways
Waterways	Babine Lake
Mayor
Governing body	Granisle Village Council
1(sc) According to the Canada 2001 Census. 2(gr) Geographic references.

Granisle is a village in northern British Columbia north of Topley between Burns Lake and Houston.

[edit] History

The early inhabitants of the area were Carrier Indians, called "Babine" by the early explorers, referring to the distended ornamented lower lips of the native women.

The village of Granisle was founded in the late 1960's and early 1970's on the shores of Babine Lake as a home for the families of the miners working in the nearby copper mines. At the height of its population, Granisle boasted approximately 3,000 people.

After the last mine shut down in 1992, the community transformed into a retirement destination. Tourism in the area also began to grow and is now the area's main industry.

In 1971 workmen excavating in an open-pit copper mine at Babine Lake discovered the partly articulated skeleton of a Columbian Mammoth. The bones were taken from silty pond deposits overlain by very thick boulder-clay deposited by the last glacier that covered the area. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the animal sank in sticky pond deposits about 34,000 years ago. A replica of some of the Mammoth's Bones can be seen at the Granisle Museum.

[edit] External links

• Official website of the village of Granisle
• Touristic website of Granisle
• Article about Granisle in the Canadian encyclopedia
• Article about mining in Granisle