Road Trip Fun: Downtown Cranbrook and Fernie BC
If your highway travels happen to go through Cranbrook and/or Fernie BC, be sure to stop and explore their downtowns, both of which are literally just off the highway.
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Cranbrook Walkabout
First stop - grab a coffee at the Kootenay Roasting Company, (and yes, it is great coffee - just as it says on the building’s façade). Now you are ready to enjoy wandering the downtown, with its heritage buildings like the Mt. Baker Heritage Hotel, Studio house and 1929 Fire Hall (now a restaurant with a great patio). There are also some heritage murals to be found. To see heritage homes, just wander along the residential streets adjacent to downtown.
Looking for some retail therapy after sitting in the car for too long? Kootenay Grounds Café & Bookstore is definitely worth exploring, as is Delamont Jewellers shop (Est 1947) now both a jewellery store and an upscale gift boutique and a great Mission Thrift Store.
Wander a bit further afield you will find a strange, fun or perhaps scary (depending on your perspective) dragon-like creature (public artwork) near Mount Baker High School
Love the sidewalk with footprints of different wildlife from the area.
There is also a baby elephant sculpture with a fun story. While not everyone agrees on what happened, it references an incident in 1926, when a circus was in town and 14 elephants escaped, three evading capture for some time. More details: The Day the elephants roared!
The Cranbrook History Centre's Canadian Museum of Rail Travel is worthy of a visit. It houses the largest collection of early 20th century rail cars in Canada.
The Royal Alexandra Hall has an interesting history. This 200-seat event centre, demolished in 1971 in Winnipeg, remained in storage until it was acquired and reassembled in 2004 at the Cranbrook History Centre.
The current fossil display at the Cranbrook History Centre features many new species of trilobites and other aquatic creatures found in the Rocky Mountain Trench and Purcell Mountains around Cranbrook.
Restaurant Tip: We highly recommend The Heid Out Restaurant & Fisher Peak Brewhouse. Great food (with an extensive menu) and lively ambience. We particularly liked the house-made desserts - the strawberry rhubarb cheese strudel was delicious. I had the Jaeger “Hunter” Schnitzel, paired with the Dark & Stormy Porter – both were good choices.
The Heid Out Restaurant & Fisher Peak Brewhouse
Delamont Jewellers shop (Est 1947)
Pages Book Emporium is a great place to explore.
Cranbrook 101
Originally inhabited by Ktunaxa peoples, the land that Cranbrook now occupies was bought by European settlers, notably Colonel James Baker who named his newly acquired land Cranbrook after his home in Cranbrook, Kent, England. In 1898, Baker successfully convinced Canadian Pacific Railway to establish their Crowsnest Pass line through Cranbrook rather than the nearby Gold Rush Boom Town, Fort Steele. With that accomplishment, Cranbrook became the major centre of the region, while Fort Steele declined. But not all was lost as Fort Steele has been preserved as a heritage town.
Fernie Fun
East of Cranbrook is Fernie, which has literally become an all-season playground for Calgarians, given it is just a scenic 3-hours’ drive away. It offers great skiing in the winter and fishing, golf, hiking and biking in the summer. Fortunately, its downtown heritage buildings (church, courthouse, bank, post office, school and retail buildings) are still in their original use or have found new uses.
Like most towns these days, several downtown murals add colour to what would otherwise be blank walls. But Fernie has added a new twist by also decorating those otherwise ugly dumpsters in its back alleys.
Stroll downtown Fernie’s historic main street features where you will find nearly 100 shops and restaurants (there is no shopping mall in Fernie). Some highlights include numerous restaurants (many with outdoor patios), coffee shops, a cheese shop, bookstore, several sports shops specializing in biking and hiking equipment, the Fernie Museum (free admission), the Fernie Arts Co-op (local artists display their works that are reasonably priced).
If you are travelling with young kids who need to get rid of some pent-up energy, check out Rotary Park (6th Ave and 6th Street) with its swings, slides, climbing structures and an old mine train engine to climb. Also, the Isabella Dicken elementary school (located on 13th St and 3rd Ave) has two large playgrounds
During the week you can wander inside Fernie’s heritage courthouse.
Fernie 101
Fernie is named after William Fernie who, alongside Colonel James Baker, was the driving force behind the coal mines located here. Starting in 1887, for ten long years they struggled to raise the money necessary to build not only the mines but also the railway needed to transport the coal to the outside world. Finally, in 1897 they achieved their goals, though effectively losing control of the company to eastern interests.
Fires destroyed Fernie in 1904 and 1908 which resulted in the rebuilding of the downtown in brick. The magnificent chateau-style Fernie Courthouse, built in 1909, is still in use today. The Fernie Heritage Library sits in Fernie's original post office, a heritage building that fortunately survived the fire of 1908.
Tourism and outdoor recreation have played a significant role in Fernie’s late 20th and early 21st century development. Fueled by enthusiastic residents, Snow Valley Ski Development - a locally owned company - opened the ski hill at its present site in January 1963 and Fernie’s bid for the 1968 Winter Olympics helped lay the foundation for today’s popular Fernie Alpine Resort.
Link: Fernie History
Everyday Tourist Tip: Just a few hundred feet away from the Visitor Centre is the Fernie Brewing Company. It not only has a retail store, but also a Tasting Room with both indoor (when the weather isn’t nice) and outdoor seating, which provide the opportunity to enjoy one of the brewery’s many unique offerings or order a taster tray with 4 or 7 samples.
Last Word
One of the great things about being an Everyday Tourist is always looking to get off the road most travelled (aka highway) and wander the small towns and cities, like Cranbrook and Fernie when on road trips. And you are almost always rewarded with fun experiences – and often a surprise or two.
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