Keremeos Tourist Attractions
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Keremeos (413 m / 1355 ft), the fruit-growing center situated in the middle of the fertile Simikameen valley, a protected area, boasts that it has more fruit-stalls per inhabitant than any other town in Canada. During the harvest season the roadside is littered with stalls set up by the farmers and fruit-growers.In the first half of the 19th c. the Hudson's Bay Company ran a ranch in Keremeos, and in the 1860s the first settlers came to the warm valley, a Mexican built the first and for a long time the only corn-mill, great herds of cattle spent the winter on the wide valley floor and in spring were driven along the Dewdney Trail to Hope. In 1897 F. X. Richter, an immigrant from Bohemia, planted the first fruit plantation. After the introduction of artificial irrigation meadows gave way to fields of vegetables and fruit plantations. In 1907 the first canning factory was built.Highway 3 leads from Keremeos direct into the Okanagan Valley at Penedicton, 50 km (30 mi.) north.The Similkameen Country Information Centre is located in the Keremeos Memorial Park and is only open during the summer months.
Cathedral Provincial Park
Enjoy the beautiful scenery, abundant wildlife and spectacular landscape of the Cathedral Range while walking through Cathedral Provincial Park. The forests, meadows, and geological formations are breathtaking.
The Grist Mill and Gardens
On Upper Bench Road, 3 km (2 mi.) north of Keremeos via Highway 3, will be found Price's Grist Mill, a corn-mill with a water-wheel, built in 1876. The mill, together with a small historical museum in the former general store, is open to visitors during the summer months.When Price's Grist Flour Mill was built in the 1870s it was considered ahead of its time during that era. In the 1980s the mill was completely restored with careful attention paid to detail in recreating the mill to its former state. It is now fully function as it was over a century ago.The setting here is particularly striking beside the Keremeos Creek with the mountains in behind.
Keremeos Museum (South Similkameen Museum)
What was once the prison cell in the court building on 6th Ave. and 6th St. today houses the little Keremeos Museum, called the South Similkameen Museum.This little white house, almost resembling a doll house, was built in 1907 and was moved to its present location a decade later and used as a jail until 1959. With the building of a new jail the little old jail was closed. It became a designated heritage building in 1991 and has served as the South Similkameen Museum since 1973.
Keremeos Pictures
