The history of the Nicola Valley in the South Central part of British Columbia is only recent;contact with the local indigenous population is about 200 years. However in that time we have experienced a significant amount of mining activity.

William Hamilton Merritt an early 20th century business man was here briefly and  got his name  used when the town incorporated a hundred years ago. He helped bring into the valley the railroad and coal mines. Hamilton Hill to the east of town also got its name from him.

 Merritt ( a corruption of a french name ) came from a family of  some renown and especially in regards to the construction of the Welland Canal in central  Canada. One member of that family is said to have raised 25 thousand dollars to put to gether a regiment to go to the Boar War.  He is credited with volunteer milita work. Another of his family is also said to have paid his own passage to that conflict for the British Crown.

William Hamilton Merritt has been called the Father of  Transportation in Canada. The town here bears his name.

The great depression also caused a flurry of small mines here and the local sidehills sported lots of abandoned head-frames and workings.  Another historic mining community that of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island suffered the loss of a couple of young people to abandoned mines some decades ago. This made it a concern for old workings here and a local Ray Schindler was involved in making them safe, he said that he bought old big cars for local rural residences and turned them upside down and back-filled the entrances to the regulated mines not is service here. He said this was done after going into the limit of  the air supply to investigate for explorers and other trespassers. There is no living memory of people being injured in old workings here.*

Ray Schindler lives in an unicorporated area to the west of Merritt and is retired after capping his working career as a City maintenance worker.       

*Editors note : comes from a single source with no cooberation.

Today in History, March 19, 1931

Gambling becomes legal in the US State of Nevada.

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