From 1918 until the 1930s, the present townsite hosted a
trading post on a grassy pasture known to the
Sekani and
Saulteaux as Little Prairie. In the 1920s, settlers from the
Peace River Country began migrating westwards across the frozen
Kiskatinaw and
Pine Rivers to lands assigned under the
Dominion Lands Act for homesteading. Little Prairie was
homesteaded in 1930 by Alexander and Lillan Windrem who cleared the land by 1935 for hay, oats and gardens. Oil and coal discoveries, west of Little Prairie, near Commotion Creek, led to the construction of area roads. As the area's
natural resource potential became more apparent, a highway was planned in the late 1940s from the
British Columbia Interior to the northern side of the
Rocky and
Omineca Mountains. The
John Hart Highway, named after
John Hart, a former
British Columbia premier, was completed in 1952; designated Highway 97S it stretches from Prince George to Dawson Creek, with an intersection at Little Prairie. This was northeastern British Columbia's first connection with the rest of the province; previously a trip through the neighbouring province of
Alberta was required. Following the opening of the highway, businesses such as restaurants and service stations were opened in Little Prairie to accommodate incoming workers and settlers. The first school was built in 1951. The railway station in Little Prairie was completed in 1959 and named after Chetwynd, who had died two years earlier. Soon afterwards the post office adopted this name.
Chetwynd became the community's official name on 1 July 1959. In 1960, the Chetwynd Waterworks District expanded its mandate to include garbage disposal, fire protection, and street lighting. Led by its Chamber of Commerce, the community incorporated as a municipality on 25 September 1962. The application for incorporation estimated Chetwynd's population as 750—inclusive of nearby work camps. Growth continued in the 1960s when the town served as the rail-to-truck
transshipment point for delivering workers and supplies to the construction site of the
W. A. C. Bennett Dam in nearby Hudson's Hope.
Canfor and
West Fraser Timber bought sawmills in 1964 and 1971, respectively, and eventually became two of the town's largest employers. The development of its forestry sector led to the town being declared the
Canadian Forest Service's 1992 Forestry Capital of Canada. The community opened a rodeo ground and curling rink in 1963, a library in 1967, a new fire hall in 1968,
an airport in 1970 and a hospital in 1971. With no more
megaprojects, Chetwynd's population remained relatively stable at about 3,000, with a peak population in 1996 at 3,113. In 1983,
Andrea Scherpf and Bernd Göricke were murdered near Chetwynd. They had been hitchhiking in
western Canada in the fourth quarter of 1983. In early October, they accepted a ride in a 1960s Chevrolet pick-up. The unidentified driver shot and killed the couple, then dumped the bodies west of the community. A Canadian was convicted of the murders in 1991 but was later exonerated by
DNA evidence and released. The case remains unsolved. On 4 December 1996, Chetwynd's boundaries were expanded to include of forested land and industrial properties. Most of this came from moving the northern border up over Ol' Baldy Ridge to create a community forest, a concept which originated from a Chetwynd Secondary School proposal in 1980 for a fitness trail. The trail became the backbone of a system of interconnected trails and greenspaces that went up the ridge. Four industrial properties—a gas plant, sulfur processing plant, coal mine, and
pulp mill—became exclaves of the district as they incorporated to receive municipal services. The coal mine, with an expected lifespan of 15 years, was approved by the province for development in 1998. It was not constructed until 2004, making it the province's first new coal mine in 20 years. It only operated for two years before closing due to poor yields, equipment failure, and lack of financial backing. ==Geography and climate==