Ashcroft, British Columbia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ashcroft, British Columbia | |
 |
|
| Coordinates: | |
|---|---|
| Country |  Canada |
| Province | British Columbia |
| Regional District | Thompson-Nicola Regional District |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Andy Anderson |
| - Governing body | Ashcroft Village Council |
| Area | |
| - Total | 51.45 km² (19.9 sq mi) |
| Population (2006) | |
| - Total | 1,664 |
| - Density | 32.3/km² (83.7/sq mi) |
| Time zone | PST (UTC-7) |
| Highway | Highway 97C |
| Waterways | Kamloops Lake Bonaparte River Thompson River |
| Website: http://www.village.ashcroft.bc.ca | |
Ashcroft (2006 Population 1,664) is a village in the Thompson Country of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is located at latitude 50°43'00" and longitude 121°17'00". It is 30 kilometres (19 mi) downstream from the west end of Kamloops Lake, at the confluence of the Bonaparte and Thompson Rivers, and is in the Kamloops Division of the Yale Land District.
Ashcroft was first founded by two British brothers during the gold rush who emigrated to Canada from Ashcroft, Gloucestershire in Great Britain during the peak of the British empire, the brothers originally went in search of gold however on hearing stories from failed gold searchers the brothers decided to found the town to give future gold searchers a place to saddle their horses.
Ashcroft's downtown is on the east side of the Thompson River although the municipal boundaries straddle the river, with housing, the town's hospital and recreation complex on the west bank. It is something of a "twin" to nearby Cache Creek, which unlike Ashcroft is on the major highway.
The climate of Ashcroft is arid continental, with very hot, dry summers and moderately cold, although usually brief winters. It holds the distinction of having one of the hottest summers in Canada with a July average daily maximum temperature of 30°C (86°F). Daytime temperatures over 38°C (100°F) are common in mid-summer. Ashcroft is also the driest place in British Columbia and in southern Canada with an average annual rainfall of 6 inches, (although not the driest place in all of Canada). The sagebrush is the mainstay of lower-elevation terrain in this area, with dry pine on the heights above. The area is known for its cattle ranching, with the historic Ashcroft and Basque Ranches southwest of town, and the Parke Ranch - among the very oldest in British Columbia - skirting the town limits of Cache Creek.
Ashcroft recently expanded its boundaries to include the Ashcroft Ranch, bought in 2000 by the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) as the successor site to the Cache Creek Sanitary landfill. The Ashcroft Landfill Project has yet to be approved (2005) by the BC government, but if approved the Ranch would become the repository of most of the garbage produced in the Province of British Columbia for the next one hundred years.
The town's Japanese sister city is Bifuka, Hokkaido.
[edit] References
The Thompson Country, Mark Sweeten Wade
[edit] External link
|
||||||||||||||
