TUMBLER RIDGE, B.C. – Alberta farmers George and Debbie White look
forward to the day when they can sell their 100 head of cattle and move
permanently to this northeastern British Columbia playground.
“This is like Canmore without all the hassles, the people and the
tourists,” said George who bought two houses for less than $70,000. One
he hopes will be his retirement home when he quits farming. The second
is a rental unit to earn extra income. Canmore, near Banff, Alta., is
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bursting with new residents.
“We’re working towards getting here,” said George during a weekend
visit to their Tumbler Ridge home.
The combination of inexpensive homes in a mountain setting has lured
many young families as well as couples preparing for their retirement
to Tumbler Ridge.
Many people thought the Whites were taking a risk investing in a
20-year-old coal mining community whose largest employer had just
announced it was closing the mine. Carved out of the bush to supply
coal to Japan and create B.C. jobs, the town could easily have died
like hundreds of other one-industry towns across Canada. Instead, the
lure of cheap houses has drawn people to the area.
“A lot of people in the beginning thought we were nuts,” said George,
who spent days inspecting the hundreds of vacant homes for sale.
“Then it was, ‘damn I wish we’d done that.’ “
Armed with a price list and house descriptions, George and Debbie
looked at houses from morning to night. Each morning officials with
Tumbler Ridge Housing would unlock the doors to more than 700 houses
for sale to allow prospective buyers to inspect at will. Each night the
houses would be relocked.
“Some days we looked at more than 40 houses,” said Debbie.
Since they bought a house, George’s brother Bill has bought one, as
have two of George and Debbie’s children.
Sarah, 22, paid $26,900 for a house and Melissa, 28, paid $39,900 for
hers.
“When you were in camps you might as well live here when you can buy a
house for $30,000,” said Debbie of the many families who live one week
in a camp and come back to Tumbler Ridge for their week off.
But cheap housing hasn’t been the only attraction for families. The
District of Tumbler Ridge has worked hard to become a tourist
destination.
Hundreds of kilometres of snowmobile trails have been built through the
surrounding mountains, hiking paths lead to seven of the closest
waterfalls and several hunting and fishing businesses have opened to
take tourists and fishermen down the Murray River to the nearby Kinuso
Falls, higher than Niagara Falls.
“There’s got to be good hunting,” said George, who has already seen
elk, moose and grizzly bear on his visits to the area.
“The more I come here, the more I want to come here and stay,” said
Debbie.
She visits their Tumbler Ridge home every couple of weeks when she gets
off shift from an oilfield camp along the Alaska Highway where she
works as a camp attendant and first aid staff.
“I didn’t know for sure if I’d like it, but I really like it here.”
