[3][4] The name, a locational surname from any one of the places called "Shelley", derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "scylf" meaning literally a shelf cut out of the hillside, plus "leah", an enclosure or wood.
[47] A delegate from the Lumber Workers Industrial Union, who visited that company's logging camp at Shelley the following spring, reported on the abysmal living conditions.
[49] Facing financial troubles by the summer, the mill experienced a change of ownership and name to the Shelly Lumber Co.[50][51] Legal wrangling continued regarding the debts of the former operation.
[66] The increased wartime lumber demand required upgrading the McLean mill and caused an acute housing shortage.
[75] The pulpworker strike months later put many sawmill employees on indefinite layoff, owing to a lack of burning capacity or space to store the chips.
[76] IWA members at Northwood sawmills, having accepted their latest contract, continued on the job despite the ongoing pulp mill strike.
[77] In 1977, the IWA was pressing for one province-wide set of negotiations, while employers in the north, which included the Northwood sawmills, clung to separate talks.
[79] With weakening market demand during 1980, Northwood temporarily introduced a four-day workweek at all sawmills except Shelley, whose off-shore sales again saved it.
R. Howatt (Howate alternate spelling) and his sons managed the business and was postmaster 1923–24, a role commonly performed by a storeowner in such towns.
[116] For several summers from 1947, Knox United Church brought a team to hold a Sunday afternoon/night service in various communities surrounding Prince George.
[117] In 1959, the school board rejected a petition from concerned residents who believed the ongoing admission of certain students displaying behavioral issues presented a safety hazard to fellow pupils.
The automatic readings of volume and velocity provide a preview of expected water conditions on the southern course of the river.
[126] A crew took days to fight a fire 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the east, which jumped wide fireguards and consumed about 50 acres of logged-over land.
[139] In 1927, a ferry installed to connect Salmon Valley farmers with the railway and the market opportunities of the sawmill camps on the south side of the river, also provided an alternate route from Shelley to Prince George via the Summit Lake road.
[143][144][145] A three-mile (4.8 km) road was completed southeast to today's Gleneagle neighbourhood to provide a more direct access to Prince George.
[152] During the early 1980s, the building of the Beaver Forest Service Road east from Shelley separated this heavy traffic.
In 1975, the lower section of the southern access received paving as far as the Shelley Road North intersection and ultimately became part of Highway 16.
[154] During the pre-electric period, households had battery-operated radios and propane appliances, and some residents had installed their own electrical generators, which ultimately became surplus to requirements.
[155] In 1961, with customers sharing in the capital cost, BC Hydro installed distribution lines,[156] and the community also implemented street lighting.
[163] During 1956, Westcoast Transmission built a 1,290-foot natural gas pipe crossing the Fraser, immediately west of the reserve on the north bank, and the township on the south one.
Two 150-foot towers on each bank support cables attached to steel rings that carry the 30-inch aerial pipeline, which links Fort St. John to Huntingdon on the international border.
[166] A 1996 referendum voted to establish a natural gas service for Shelley-Gleneagle residents, the capital cost recoverable over a 10-year period through property taxes.
[167][168] With the railway arrival a certainty, speculators focused especially upon the Fort George Band Reserve property and the real estate to its west.
Initially, band members lived in hastily constructed shacks and tents until the government erected some 22 homes in 1913 on the new Shelley Reserve (No.
[169] Once the GTP began burning the final shacks occupying the old site in 1914, the band, headed by Chief "Louie" (c.1838–1918), completed their relocation.
[173] Chief Barry Seymour admitted that prior poor management was the reason that almost half a million dollars designated for a water system on the north side, and seven housing units, had been spent on other matters.
[177] Chunzoolh Forest Products, a joint venture between Northwood Pulp and Timber and the band, planned to build a new sawmill on the reserve or former mill site.
[179] The plan downsized to a 16-employee shingle plant,[180] and a commitment to offer band members priority for 32 jobs at the Northwood pulp mill.