Fort St. John, British Columbia City Profile

Here we have another city which has been located in several different places. This one has moved mainly due to economic reasons rather than mother nature. The temperatures get pretty crazy here with highs in the 90’s and lows getting down below -60. That kind of weather is no joke. It’s located east of the Rocky Mountains which is probably a main factor in the temperatures getting so crazy. Fort St. John gets over 70 inches of snow every year. I bet they don’t close their schools down with an inch of snow on the ground. The population is very large for this part of the world so you are going to have most of the amenities that you could ever need here. The airport has flights to Vancouver, Dawson Creek, Edmonton, Fort Nelson, Prince George, and Calgary. There are not flights to Alaska at this time unfortunately.

This community has been moved at least 6 times since people started settling in the area prior to the 19th and 20th centuries. For example during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s there were a series of forts created after Sir Alexander Mackenzie explored the area in 1793. The forts were built along the Peace River and were used as a supply depot for further expeditions into the territory. These forts were shut down in 1805 and a new fort was built in 1806. This fort was originally called Fort d’Epinette and was built downstream from the Beatton River (which was at the time known as the Pine River). This for was shut down in 1823 and was eventually designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1958. Fort St. John is British Columbia’s oldest non-aboriginal settlement and still has that air of excitement when you are there. It was established as a community in 1928 and became more populated when the Alaska Highway started construction in the area. Since then there have been several discoveries of high grade oil found in the area and pipelines have been built to transport this oil elsewhere.

If you are looking for a small town feel with big city amenities you must stop in and stay here for at least a day on your way to Alaska. Fort St. John might be one of the last stops you get before you head into the wilderness of unknown as you explore the final frontier of North America.

Population: 20,155 (City) | 28,396 (Metro)
Elevation: 2,260 feet (690m)
Website: https://www.fortstjohn.ca/
Newspaper: Fort St. John’s Alaska Highway News