[3] The name of the town came from Hedley Camp, which was ascribed to the original tent settlement that the prospectors on Nickel Plate Mountain used as a base, but more broadly applied to the local mining area.

[4] Robert R. Hedley, manager of the Hall Mines smelter at Nelson, was the initial owner of the Rollo claim on the mountain.

Hine & Co. established a general store,[7] and the Old Hedley Rd was extended to Princeton.

In 1913, the post office moved to Love's Drug Store, and before the mid-1930s, to the present building.

[6] Each destroyed by fire, the early hotels were the Hedley 1901–1956,[6][7] Grand Union 1902–1920,[14][15] Commercial 1903–1956,[6][16] Similkameen 1904–1916,[6][17] New Zealand 1905–1911,[6][18] and Great Northern 1905–1957.

Coupled with the three hotel fires occurring within months, the context reflected a declining population, which had peaked at 816 in 1943,[21] but plummeted after the railway withdrawal in 1954, and the end of mining in 1955.

[25] The Hedley Heritage Museum and Tea Room contains artifacts and photographs of the mining era.