Penny, between Longworth and Dome Creek on the northeast side of the Fraser River in central British Columbia, offers an access point for outdoor recreational activities.Prince George Citizen, 17 Jul 2010 With a community hall and 15 permanent residents,Clarence & Olga Boudreau recollections, Dec 2019 No utilities infrastructure exists. Prior to the post office permanently closing on 31 December 2013, the community was the only one in Canada that still relied upon the railway for its postal service.
Transportation A trackside signpost marks Penny station, a flag stop for Via Rail's Jasper – Prince Rupert train. The immediate Via Rail stops are Longworth station. to the northwest and Bend to the southeast.
History Railway Penny lies at mile 69.5, Fraser Subdivision. Previously designated as Mile 159 during the line's construction, it was the area headquarters for Foley, Welch and Stewart, the prime contractor.Fort George Herald, 17 May 1913Diary of Ada Adelia Sykes The Siems-Carey headquarters,Fort George Herald, 21 Jun 1913 and a work camp existed at Mile 160. Mr. Flannigan, a contractor at this camp, who considered all the camps maintained exceptional sanitary conditions, complained of IWW agitators seeking better wages and camp conditions.Fort George Herald, 12 Apr 1913 The government sanitary inspector, who described camp conditions as fair, destroyed 20,000 lbs. of beef at about Mile 160, and bacon unfit for human consumption at other camps. He advised contractors to stop dumping garbage into the Fraser River.Fort George Herald, 31 May 1913 Soon after, typhoid and diphtheria cases filled the medical outpost. In one 10-day period, the facility treated five victims of dump-car accidents, and the latest patient from Camp 162 had been cut in two.Fort George Herald, 7 Jun 1913 The Miles 160 and 162 camps were both large, and a hospital was mentioned at Mile 160. The true location of the hospital was likely Mile 73 (formerly around Mile 162.5).
Not a planned station on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (the Canadian National Railway after nationalization), Penny remained absent from the 1916 timetable. Exclusion from the 1919 and 1921 Official Guides probably reflects that only the employee timetables initially listed it as a footnote. Mention in the 1918 BC towns directory, and on a c.1919 map, suggest a 1917 or 1918 opening date for the station.
The settlement developed between Lindup to its northwest, and Guilford to its southeast. The name, a surname that emerged by the beginning of the 13th century, was selected for unknown reasons.Prince George Citizen, 27 Jan 1984 (44) Commonly claimed as an English place name on the list prepared by Josiah Wedgwood (submitted at the request of William P. Hinton, the railway's general manager),Prince George Citizen, 27 May 1957 no such location existed in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the name Penny, in use by 1914, predated the station by at least three years. Formerly it was known just as the Engineers' Camp.
Trains sometimes struck straying livestock,Prince George Citizen, 15 Jun 1944 but slowed to a crawl if sighted in time.Prince George Citizen, 25 Apr 2000 A passenger shelter likely existed prior to replacement in 1927 by a converted section tool house from Miworth. In 1947, the latter burned to the ground. Transported the by railway flatcar,Prince George Citizen: 4 Sep 1947, 16 Oct 1947 & 8 Jul 1989 Lindup exchanged its standard-design Plan 100-152 (Bohi's Type E) station building for Penny's Plan 110-101 converted sectionmen's bunkhouse. The CNR appointed the first station agent at this time.
A burned out journal box on a freight car immobilized a train at Penny for seven hours in 1955.Prince George Citizen, 1 Sep 1955 During the 1960s, 18 cars derailed from an eastbound 98-car freight train in the vicinity, which delayed the westbound passenger train for three hours.Prince George Citizen: 14 & 15 Dec 1961 In another incident, a head-on collision with a bull moose, just outside Penny, derailed 23 cars of a westbound 50-car freight train.Prince George Citizen, 17 Jan 1967
In 1970, CNR closed its section shop.Prince George Citizen, 24 Jun 1970 Isolated communities, like Penny, suffered when the Prince George–McBride way freight ceased operations in 1977.Prince George Citizen, 25 Jul 1977 The next year, Penny was one of the 11 communities between Prince Rupert and the Alberta border, where the CNR replaced its agent-operator positionPrince George Citizen: 2 & 8 Aug 1978 with a resident serving as CN Express agent.Prince George Citizen: 3 Oct 1978 & 13 Mar 1980
The deep snow of the 1981/82 winter near Penny caused hundreds of collisions between moose and trains.Prince George Citizen: 15 & 17 Sep 1982 By this time, the station was boarded up apart from a small waiting room.Prince George Citizen, 23 Jan 1985 In 1988, an ice bridge was built across the Fraser River to carry the station by flatbed truck to its new home, the Prince George Railway & Forestry Museum.Prince George Citizen: 11 & 12 Feb 1988 Using a raft 18 months earlier, volunteers transported a heritage railway speeder shed and tool shed from Penny to that site.Prince George Citizen: 19 & 21 Jul 1986
The remaining passenger shelter was removed in 1996.Prince George Free Press, 21 Jan 1996
Service c.1917–c.1919 c.1920–c.1921 c.1921–c.1924 c.1924–1931 1932–1942 1943–1977 1977–c.1989 c.1990–present 1920 Timetable. Bulkley Valley Museum. p. 8. 1922 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 8.1923 Timetable. p. 70. 1925 Timetable. p. 105. Prince George Citizen: 12 & 19 Nov 19311932 Timetable. p. 58.1933 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 8.1935 Timetable. p. 60.1942 Timetable. p. 58. 1943 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 9.1945 Timetable. p. 61.1949 Timetable. p. 59.1960 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 21–221964 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 441965 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–261967 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 381968 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–261972 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–261973 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 18 1990 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 95–971992 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 103–105Recent timetables Passenger Flag stop probably Flag stop Flag stop Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Flag stop Way freight Flag stop probably Flag stop probably Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop
Map
Hunting & trapping Trapper Fred Rankin (1879–1964), a keen astronomer and resident 1939–1964, who arrived in the district in 1910, had a cabin near the creek bearing his name west of Red Mountain Creek).
By 1921, the recognized guides for big game hunters in the Penny area were B. T. Sykes,Prince George Citizen, 12 Oct 1920 C. Hartsell and J. R. Norboe (c.1853–1921) (Narboe alternate spelling).Prince George Citizen, 13 Sep 1921
Forestry A. Roy Spurr (1885–1954), who arrived at the Tête Jaune railhead in 1911, was a fur trader, who operated a store, café and accommodation, and provided a bookkeeping service, at camps during the railway construction. Using his savings, he opened a sawmill at Penny in 1917,Fort George Herald: 9 Nov 1912 & 13 Sep 1913Prince George Citizen, 16 Aug 1954 later buying out his partners. The mill lay south of the village on the riverbank. As early as the 1920s, fellow lumber operators recognized his sawmilling and business expertise and sought his advice. Spurr's Red Mountain Lumber Co and the Penny Lumber Co. were both in operation by 1918,Prince George Citizen: 2, 16 & 23 Aug 1918; & 1 May 1924 but a later misconception that the former opened years later possibly inspired the questionable claim that Spurr also had an ownership interest in the latter.
In bankruptcy by 1921,Prince George Citizen: 7 & 11 Jan 1921; & 1, 8, 15 & 22 Mar 1921 the assets of the Penny Lumber were acquired by company president, George H. Lipsett (1866–1955).Prince George Citizen, 1 May 1924 Located south of the CNR track on Rankin Creek, it operated as Penny Lumber,Prince George Citizen: 30 Aug 1921 & 28 Oct 1921 and then as G.H. Lipsett Lumber,Prince George Citizen, 3 Jun 1926 until fire totally destroyed the mill in 1926.Prince George Citizen, 10 Jun 1926
The narrow strip of accessible spruce forest bordering the railway that stretched some east of Prince George was known as the East Line. In the 1920s, with logging limited to the winter and fall seasons to facilitate the hauling of logs over snow and ice, loggers were transient. However, year round work existed in sawmill towns such as Giscome, Aleza Lake, Hutton, Penny, and Longworth. Injuries and death were common in sawmills and logging camps. Sawyer Laughlin McKenzie (1856–1923) was killed when a saw severed his body from head to hips at the Red Mountain Lumber Co.Prince George Citizen, 19 Jul 1923
The proceeds from selling Red Mountain Lumber Co. during the 1928Prince George Citizen, 8 Nov 1928 boom year provided Spurr with the funds to acquire other mills at bargain prices during the Great Depression. The purchasers, who were owners of Cranbrook Sawmills, dismantled their mill at Otway, and either sold or relocated the machinery to Penny.Prince George Citizen, 2 May 1988(56) Like other sawmills during 1930–32, the Penny mill, then owned by the Joseph Campbell and John (Jack) Myers (1881–1960) partnership,Prince George Citizen, 2 May 1988(57) scarcely operated. In 1932, fire completely destroyed the sawmill and yard lumber.Prince George Citizen, 25 Aug 1932 At the time, Newlands, Snowshoe and Sinclair Mills were the only ones sawing, the latter having a big logging camp at Penny.Prince George Citizen, 11 Aug 1932
In 1933 Myers bought out his partner, and the following year rebuilt the Red Mountain Lumber Co. mill.Prince George Citizen, 10 May 1934 In 1940, the 50,000-foot per shift capacity sawmill was again destroyed by fire, but the planing mill and processed lumber piles escaped conflagration.Prince George Citizen, 12 Sep 1940 Fulfilling his prior commitment,Prince George Citizen, 29 Aug 1940 Myers sold the mill to John F. McMillan and C. Earl Jaeck (1904–52), formerly at Bend,Prince George Citizen, 21 Nov 1940 who changed the name to the Penny Sawmills. Jaeck died in a train/truck collision.Prince George Citizen, 28 Apr 1952
In 1942, a new dry kiln was installed,Prince George Citizen, 21 May 1942 and several new homes and bunkhouses were constructed on the mill site to accommodate the demand from running two shifts.Prince George Citizen, 27 Aug 1942 Since the homes mostly lacked indoor plumbing, outhouses were the norm and water came from a tap at the end of the road. The following year, fire destroyed the planing mill boiler room,Prince George Citizen, 22 Jul 1943 putting it out of operation for 6 weeks.Prince George Citizen, 9 Sep 1943 This may have been the occasion when a passing CNR locomotive rescued part of the building.Prince George Citizen, 27 Jan 1984 (40) In 1945, labour shortages closed one logging camp.Prince George Citizen, 30 Aug 1945 The company name changed again to Standard Tie and Timber, when Standard Forest Products acquired the mill in late 1945 or early 1946.Prince George Citizen, 22 Aug 1946
In 1947, the large bunkhouse was constructed at Penny.Prince George Citizen, 12 Jun 1947 The following year, the mill burned down,Prince George Citizen, 7 Oct 1948 and a portable mill set up at the mouth of the Red Mountain Creek was used until the old mill was rebuilt.Prince George Citizen: 16 Dec 1948 & 3 Mar 1949 In 1952, renamed as the Penny Spruce Mills,Prince George Citizen, 3 Mar 1952 the Totem Pole group, controlled by the Thurston family, purchased the operations, which included the bunkhouse and 35 family residences.Prince George Citizen, 27 Nov 1952 Leboe Bros. of Crescent Spur provided mainly fir logs from the Goat River area, which were floated down the Fraser to the mill.