Located at the mouth of the Seymour River, adjacent to Silver Beach Provincial Park, and functioning as the disembarkation point for trails over passes across the Monashee Mountains connecting that river's valley to that of the Columbia River, and navigable by water from Savona at the farther end of Kamloops Lake, Seymour Arm became the location of a bustling boomtown serving travellers to the Big Bend Gold Rush on the Columbia which grew up around a Hudson's Bay Company post founded at the start of the rush in 1865.

The town was destroyed by fire in the late 1860s but was revived again by English developers promoting the Seymour Arm Fruits Land Company, and a post office, school and hotel were established in 1910.

During and following the Vietnam and Korean Wars circa 1960-70, Seymour Arm drew significant numbers of "draft dodgers" from the United States, known to produce large clandestine outdoor Cannabis plantations in the area and with active smuggling routes to California.

Today the hotel, since reopened with a restaurant and pub, and one of the orchard-era mansions remain, and the locality is a farming and summer-recreational community.

Seymour Arm has a humid continental climate (Dfb) with warm, sometimes hot summers coupled with cool nights, and cold, rainy winters, though mild by Canadian standards.CBC News Ottawa Mens Centre Seattle Times