On Monday, Oct. 3, BC Parks repossessed Beaver Creek Provincial Park from long-time managers, the Trail Kiwanians, and began construction on upgrades to the campground.
“At this time the Kiwanis Club of Trail will close gates and surrender stewardship of the park,” said Chris Vlanich, Trail Kiwanis. “It is a sad time for the club which will lose a long time project dating back to the establishment of the Kiwanis Club of Trail back in 1945.”
Costs and efforts of running a campground in today’s economy is beyond the scope of the present membership, he said.
Beaver Creek Provincial Park
Beaver Creek Park was established as a provincial park on March 24, 1965. The 89-hectare expanse is situated along the eastern bank of the Columbia River, north of the Waneta International border crossing and parallel to Highway 22A. It is bordered by residential lands and the Trail Regional Airport. The park is a popular local recreation area and protects the habitat of a variety of wildlife and vegetation species, some of which are rare and endangered.
“What About Beaver Creek?”
The above was a headline in the Feb. 11, 1964 Trail Times edition. The clipping doesn’t include the author, nevertheless the article provides an interesting read from a local perspective.
“It is three years now since the recreation department took over the Kiwanians’ Beaver Creek project and announced plans to concert it into a Class “A” provincial park. For three years Mr. Brothers (Rossland-Trail MLA Donald L. Brothers) has been verbally assuring our mayor, who happens to be a Kiwanian, that ‘this summer, work will begin.’
Work has not yet begun and there is no sign that Victoria intends to do anything this year either. The Beaver Creek project may have only limited interest and value to Trail residents, but it certainly has worth to tourists.
Not every tourist wants to stay in a provincial campground, of course: a great many prefer first-class hotel and motel accommodations.
Nevertheless, there are many families which of necessity make use of parks and campgrounds, and a properly developed Beaver Creek park would do much to hold in the Trail vicinity families which now depart the area after a few hours.
The Kiwanians … are hot in pursuit of another campground project — this time on land east of Laburnum Drive on Highway No. 3A — left over from the Glenmerry subdivision extension.
The mayor (Mayor J. Palyga, 1964) intends that this land shall be fully developed and equipped with power, water and sewer services, and that the city shall supervise the campground and collect fees from campers. The Kiwanians apparently are all set to take over the project and convert to campground use this land, which the mayor says has no other value.
In the meantime, the provincial government has fallen down on the Beaver Creek project. Undoubtedly the opening of the Salmo-Creston highway is going to put a great many more tourists in the Trail area; and, for those who enjoy and require organized camping facilities, we shall need all the park projects we can get much closer to the city than Paterson or Champion Lakes.”