This year the District of 100 Mile House is marking it’s 60th Anniversary of Incorporation.
Mayor Maureen Pinkney said the little town started just as a ranch back in 1867.
“I was born here so I have seen a lot.” Pinkney noted, “A lot of our downtown core that has buildings now use to be where people would go duck hunting, I remember when downtown was a dirt road. The early 70’s saw most of the development of apartment buildings, our mall, and stuff like that, huge changes. Not as many in the last couple of decades but the main growth of our community came in the 70’s and 80’s.”
On the District’s Facebook Page it noted at the heart of this journey have been the people who sat in the Mayor’s chair, playing a vital role in shaping the town into what it is today.
“Mitch Campsall was the Mayor before me,” Pinkney said, “He had a super big heart and he had to deal with a lot of the big tragedies that happened in our most recent history, the closing of our mills,
fire when we were evacuated in 2017 and COVID. The other Mayors struggled building our community but he had to struggle with really a lot of the emotional things that happened and it was tough.”
Pinkney also spoke about an former Mayor, Donna Barnett who served for 7-terms.
“She is the volunteer extraordinaire. Our community was built on volunteers and her husband Jack built the Snowmobile Gold Rush Trail, she was instrumental in getting a lot of the other ball fields, soccer fields, infrastructure, you name it, she got it done. It was a big job in a young, growing community.”
Pinkney reflected on what makes the District of 100 Mile House a great place to live, work and play.
“You really only have to look at what happened here this last weekend (July 18 to 20). A true standing ovation to the Hot July Night’s group that put on a car show with 450 entries, it was massive so a big thank you to all these volunteer groups that put things on in our community. We just had an 18-team ball tournament and our Junior Hockey Team brings in players from all over. Our town is so friendly and we hear that from everyone who visits and all the new people that have moved here.”
Pinkney added that she is very proud to be the Mayor at this time and to have been born and raised here.
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