Keremeos (pop. 1000; 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.
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