25 Acre Recreational Paradise in the Wildlife Rich Region of Princeton, BC

Price : $229,000

Select Property type: Sold
DESCRIPTION: Property offers 24.9 acres of open grassland and coniferous woodland. This is the perfect location to build the home of your dreams amongst the wild back drop of Princeton, BC. There is a brand new driveway, panoramic views and multiple build sites on this very private parcel of land.
LISTING NUMBER : 19064
PRICE: $229,000
SIZE: 24.908 acres

Description

This property is an outdoorsmen’s dream providing a beautiful mixture of open grassland and coniferous forest cover. The property occupies an elevated bench above Highway 5A. The elevated plateau, upon which the property sits, offers stunning panoramic views of the surrounding country side including mountains, forests and valleys. It also enhances the privacy found on the property preventing anyone from looking into the property and eliminating all traffic noise.

There are several flat building sites throughout the property, which present ideal locations to construct the home, or cabin of your dreams. The neighbouring properties have high producing drilled wells and there is electricity, natural gas and telephone service available at the property’s lot line.

A brand new driveway has been constructed off Highway 5A. This access point has a gentle grade and provides easy access up into the acreage from the highway below. There is sufficient gravel deposits surrounding the driveway for ongoing adjustments and repairs to this access point.

The property is largely flat on the top of the plateau with some minor undulations offering unique topographical features to explore. There is a small component of the property, which extends down into the adjacent hay fields on the south side of Summers Creek Road.

The property and surrounding countryside offers some of the most exceptional recreational outdoor opportunities in close proximity to the Lower Mainland. The property is located approximately 180 km from Chilliwack (under a two-hour drive). Few other places in British Columbia provide such excellent hunting, camping and fishing opportunities at a closer proximity to the Lower Mainland than the Princeton region.

LOCATION

This property is located approximately 8.5 km north of Princeton, BC as the crow flies. The majority of the property rests north of the intersection of Summers Creek Road and Highway 5A

In addition to the Lower Mainland, the property is also located close to these urban centers:

Merritt – 89 km

Kamloops – 174 km

Penticton – 112 km

Kelowna – 161 km

DIRECTIONS

From downtown Princeton, proceed north on Highway 5A for 9 km. Shortly past the road intersection with Summers Creek Road, the driveway, which ascends into the property will be located on the east side of the road.

AREA DATA
Princeton (originally Vermilion Forks) is a town in the Similkameen region of southern British Columbia. It lies just east of the Cascade Mountains, which continue south into Washington, Oregon and California. The mountains, valleys and hundreds of miles of backcountry roads make this region a natural setting for outdoor activities. The Tulameen and Similkameen Rivers converge here in Princeton and both of these rivers are excellent choices for gold panning, tubing and paddling. The 49 lakes in the area make Princeton a prime fishing destination throughout the year.

Manning and Cathedral Provincial Parks surround Princeton providing for ample recreational opportunities. Manning Park is only 45 minutes away and has an excellent ski hill, hundreds of camping sites and many hiking and cross-country ski trails. The larger Apex Mountain Ski Resort is also only 45 minutes away.

At the 2016 census, the population of Princeton was 2,828. Princeton centers on seven blocks of businesses along Bridge Street and five blocks on Vermilion Avenue; there are also businesses along British Columbia Highway 3. Princeton has a primary school (K to grade 3), one middle school (grades 4 to 7) and one high school (grades 8 to 12) as well as a continuing education center.

Historically, the area’s main industry has been mining – copper, gold, coal, and some platinum. The town’s biggest employers are Copper Mountain Mine and a sawmill owned by Weyerhaeuser, along with a few smaller timber companies, such as Princeton Wood Preservers and Princeton Post and Rail.

VEGETATION

Princeton is located just east of the Cascade Mountains, giving the town a rain shadow effect whereby the community receives very little precipitation relative to areas on the windward side of the Cascade mountains. Princeton is one of the sunniest places in British Columbia with 2088 hours of sunshine annually. The 323 days per year with measurable sunshine, defined by having a minimum of 6 minutes of sunshine in a day, is the most in the province, and one of the highest in Canada. The 29.4 days with measurable sunshine in March is the highest in the country.

These weather patterns produce an arid climate, but provide for excellent growing conditions for gardens and landscaped yards, if they remain well watered. Interior Douglas fir, ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine as well as aspen are the main trees growing in the area.

RECREATION

The area offers fabulous outdoor recreation year-round. In the summer water skiing and swimming at Tulameen’s pristine Otter Lake are popular activities. There is excellent fishing in Otter Lake, Chain Lake, Link Lake, Osprey Lakes and in the rivers throughout the area. 47 of the nearby lakes are considered good trout lakes.

The KVR/Trans Canada Trail offers miles and miles of cycling, hiking, cross-country skiing and horseback riding.

Nearby Manning Park and Cathedral Provincial Park offers excellent hiking opportunities with stunning vistas and viewpoints of the North Western Cascade Mountain Range.

In the winter, there’s plenty of snow in the surrounding mountains for snowmobiling and cross-country skiing.

Princeton Golf Course has 18 holes and a driving range a restaurant and an RV Park.

The historic towns of Coalmont, Tulameen and Hedley are located in a nearby radius of Princeton and can be explored for evidence of their coal and gold mining pasts.

HISTORY

Before European contact, the land around today’s Princeton was known among First Nations people as a source of red ochre. Beginning no later than 1846, fur traders, settlers and miners established trails connecting what was then known as Vermilion Forks to the Pacific Coast of British Columbia. In 1859 John Fall Allison became the first permanent settler of European ancestry. To this day, the site of his home functions locally as a kilometer zero, with creeks east of Princeton having names like “Five Mile” based on their distance from that location. The town he founded was renamed “Prince Town” (later corrupted to “Princeton”) to honor an 1860 visit to eastern Canada by Prince Edward (later King Edward VII).

In the years 1909-1915 the railways arrived, with the Kettle Valley Railway(later Canadian Pacific) connecting Princeton to the Great Northern.

Until 1961 Princeton was home to a brewery, the Princeton Brewing Company. Until the 1940s the brewery kept its beer cool in the Vermilion Cave. The cave, which held up to 20 railway cars at a time, was largely demolished to make way for the Hope-Princeton Highway, part of the Crowsnest Highway (British Columbia Highway 3).

Princeton joined the Canadian Board of Trade (later Chamber of Commerce) in 1913, and was incorporated as a village in 1951, and as a town in 1978. Beginning in the 1980s Princeton began to revitalize its downtown, a plan that included red brick sidewalks and new streetlights. In the 1990s they adopted a “heritage” theme, with many businesses converting their exteriors to match architectural styles from roughly a century earlier. Further landscaping of the town center continues as of 2008.

The historic Princeton Hotel on Bridge Street, which had been in operation since 1912, burned to the ground on April 8, 2006.

The name Vermilion Forks survives in the name of Vermilion Forks Indian Reserve No. 1, which is immediately adjacent to the town of Princeton to the east, and is one of the reserves of the Upper Similkameen Indian Band, whose head offices are in Hedley.

MAP REFERENCE

49°32’19.41″N and 120°31’11.09″W

INVESTMENT FEATURES