FedHeritage Railway Station · 1919–1920Canadian National Railway Station, Smithers, British ColumbiaMain St. (at Railway Ave.)Photo: Nils Öberg · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons file
Canadian National Railway Station, Smithers, British Columbia · Photo: Nils Öberg · CC BY-SA 3.01historic place on the registers
History of Smithers · Canada’s heritage registers
1 historic place on the heritage registers in Smithers
Smithers’s one place is Canadian National Railway Station, Smithers, British Columbia, a heritage railway station begun in 1919. The municipality’s date on Wikidata is 1913: a founding, an incorporation or an amalgamation, the record doesn’t say which. Measured against its size, Smithers’s 1.8 per 10,000 residents puts it ahead of 85% of Canadian towns.
Historic places
1
1.8 per 10,000 residents
Highest designations
0
National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings
Other federal designations
1
Recognized buildings, railway stations, lighthouses
Oldest building
1919
the first construction date on its record
Homes built before 1961
15%
typical town: 18%
The map
Where Smithers’s history is
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Other federal designations
Hover a dot for its name; tap one to open its page.
The 1, by tier
1 Other federal designations
Most entries are federal, from Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations; local listings outside Québec are known only through Wikidata items with an article.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there.
Other federal designations
Federal heritage in Smithers: one more place
Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. Each one opens its own page.
Around the town
3 designated places lie within 100 km of Smithers
The record reaches back to 1800 with Kitselas Canyon, 84 km away. Closest of all is Gitwangak Battle Hill, in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine, 66 km off. Between them, 2 towns share them, mainly Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine and Electoral Area C (Part 1), Kitimat-Stikine.
The 3 nearest, within 100 km
| Gitwangak Battle HillNational Historic Site · 66 km away, in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine |
| KitwankulNational Historic Site · 78 km away, in Electoral Area B, Kitimat-Stikine |
| Kitselas CanyonNational Historic Site · 1800 · 84 km away, in Electoral Area C (Part 1), Kitimat-Stikine |
Homes by age
The biggest share of Smithers’s homes dates from 1961 to 1980: 36%
34% of Smithers’s homes were built from 1981 to 2000, more than the typical town’s 23%. Before 1961: 15% of Smithers’s homes, near the usual 18%. Homes built from 2001 to 2015 make up just 11% of Smithers’s, against 15% in the typical town.
15%
Before 1961
36%
1961–80
34%
1981–2000
11%
2001–15
4.1%
2016–21
SmithersTypical town
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
Towns its size
Smithers has the 3rd most of 16 towns its size
Towns of 5,600 to 5,700 residents, by places on the registers.
Smithers1
Only Memramcook and Wolfville have more. Their median is 0. 10 of them have none.
Neighbours
Smithers and its neighbours
| Town | People | Places | Highest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smithers | 5,627 | 1 | 0 | 1919 |
| Electoral Area A, Bulkley-Nechako | 5,829 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Telkwa | 1,544 | 0 | 0 | — |
In brief
Smithers in brief
The registers count 1 historic place in Smithers. Just 2 towns of its size, out of 16, have more historic places. Few of its homes are old, 15% before 1961, against 18% in the typical town. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: its designation dates from 1990.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Protection. National historic designation honours a place but binds only federal owners; a private building’s protection depends on its province or municipality.
- People and events. The open directory puts its national historic persons nowhere, so a town shows one only on firm ground: a birth there, matched by name and life years, or a historic place there named for the person whose record says so. Events are left out.
- The federal register. Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations lists every National Historic Site, federal heritage building, heritage railway station and lighthouse; the Canadian Register of Historic Places adds their statements in English and French.
- Provincial and municipal lists. Outside Québec, provinces’ and municipalities’ heritage registers aren’t open data; their places are known only through Wikidata items with a register number, and only those with an encyclopedia article get a page.
- The tiers. Tiers follow the designation: national recognition and classement first, other federal designations next, provincial and local listings last.
- Map points. Where a federal place sits on the map is Wikidata’s placing; the directory itself has no coordinates.
- The grade. There is no history grade: the page sets out the record and compares it with other towns.
Questions about Smithers’s history
How many historic places does Smithers have on the registers?
1 historic place in Smithers, from Canada’s heritage registers.
What is the oldest building in Smithers?
Canadian National Railway Station, Smithers, British Columbia — its record dates it to 1919 (Heritage Railway Station).
How old are the homes in Smithers?
15% of its homes were built before 1961, against 18% in the typical Canadian town.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada (Parks Canada).
Sources: Parks Canada, Directory of Federal Heritage Designations · Canadian Register of Historic Places (federal extract) · Wikidata (CC0) for map points, other names and articles · Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (homes by period of construction). Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).