Balancing Nature and Economic Growth
The history of Northern Sunrise County reflects that of the broader Peace River Country, characterized by the innate challenges of life on the frontier. The initial contact between local Indigenous peoples and incoming Europeans occurred during the fur trade era, which introduced a new economy to the region and demonstrated to newcomers that permanent settlement was possible. The area now known as Northern Sunrise County first became involved in the fur trade when traders established posts at the confluence of the Smoky, Heart, and Peace Rivers, where the Town of Peace River is located today.
Northern Sunrise County has witnessed key developments in the transportation network of the Peace River Country. Canoes and steamships once transported furs along the Peace River, the County's western boundary. Men freighting goods and hopeful settlers traversed the vast wilderness between Lesser Slave Lake and the Peace River along the Grouard Trail. The arrival of the railway further spurred the development of communities within the County, connecting them via the Central Canada Railway line into Peace River.
The potential of the Peace River Country was tested and fulfilled with the arrival of 6,300 newcomers between 1908 and 1916, with most settlement occurring south of the river. Many were drawn to the region by reports of the land's latent wealth, envisioning a place ripe for resourceful, hardworking men and women. These settlers often arrived to homesteads they had never seen and knew little about, carving out communities in isolation within one of the last true frontier environments in North America. Their legacy remains firmly rooted in the character of the Peace River Country.
