The planned Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) required two major divisional points in BC, where additional staff and facilities would be located.

[4] A prime choice was Hubert, 3.2 miles (5.1 km) east of Telkwa, initially called Bulkley by the developers,[5] who had amassed the surrounding land.

These speculators promoted a future new city,[6][7] and later a trade centre of the Bulkley Valley,[8] both fallacious claims,[9] since Smithers had already been selected as the divisional point.

The Interior News of Aldermere had earlier adopted a policy of refusing advertising from such unscrupulous promoters.

[10] The Aldermere Board of Trade was hostile to the idea of Telkwa itself being the divisional headquarters, allegedly because the rail yards would destroy the alder groves.

The speculators had not considered the swampy ground 9.2 miles (14.8 km) west of Telkwa at the foot of Hudson Bay Mountain.

[14][15] With the standard quarter portion reserved for government facilities,[16] the GTP began marketing plots that month.

[17][18] Despite ditches for draining, the subsoil was layers of quicksand and clay, requiring pile driving for building foundations.

[22] For decades, the railway remained the dominant employer, but from the 1950s, employee numbers gradually dwindled, and buildings became redundant.

[25] Professional landscape architects designed the street layout[26] to accommodate a potential 10,000 people, and the municipality largely followed this plan over subsequent decades.

In recent decades, expansion has adopted modern planning concepts, instead of the original grid pattern.

Swampy land with canvas tents and shacks became what the Omenica Miner described in October 1913 as "the best district in British Columbia.

[65] Smithers and the Bulkley Valley have often been described by non-residents as the somewhat culturally unique to the rest of Northern British Columbia.

Many factors contribute to the composition of society in Smithers, including the arts, industry smoke stacks outside of town from mills and mining.

A town bylaw requires businesses in the downtown area centred on Main Street to construct their buildings in an alpine style.

Similarly, the Smithers chamber of commerce displays an Alpine Al costume at community events and in television advertisements for the town's businesses.

In 2006, over 600 Smithereens took to the streets to voice their opposition to a proposed coalbed methane gas field near Telkwa, which they claimed would threaten local water quality, landscape integrity and wild salmon populations.

Likewise a proposal by Thompson Creek Metals to develop a molybdenum mine to extract the Davidson deposit on Hudson Bay Mountain near the town was vigorously opposed over a period of years before TCM abandoned the project.

Over the years, the Mid-Summer Music Festival has seen some famous acts like Spirit of the West and the Barenaked Ladies and has drawn audiences and participants from all across North America.

Numerous organizations including the Bulkley Valley Community Arts Council operate to keep music and other artistic activities vibrant.

Other popular activities include soccer, volleyball, hockey, baseball, downhill mountain biking, cross-country skiing, hiking, quadding and snowmobiling.

West of Smithers are Witset, New Hazelton, Kitwanga, Thornhill, Terrace, Kitimat, Port Edward and Prince Rupert, while to the east are Telkwa, Houston, Topley, Burns Lake, Fraser Lake, Fort Fraser, Vanderhoof and Prince George.