Jim Hill represented one side of the epic struggle between the Canadian Pacific and the US Great Northern, as to who was going around the turn of the 19/20th centuries to capture the mining wealth of southern British Columbia. Oddly, the head of the CP was an American and Jim Hill of GN was a Canadian.

When the Great Northern ran a line up to Midway BC and thence westward, the struggle broke out in earnest, and the CP created the Kettle Valley Line to challenge GN. The GN (through their subsidiary the VV &E - Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern) line eventually ran through the Similkameen Valley from Chopaka, Keremeos, Hedley, and Princeton, ending Princeton's effective isolation. Local boosters called for the renaming of the Similkameen "the Jimhillkameen".

Jon Bartlett