The Past
Businesses
Churches
Communities
~ Enderby
~ Grindrod
~ Hupel
~ Kingfisher/
Mabel Lake
~ Mara
~ ~ General
History
~ ~ John Andrew Mara
~ ~ Homesteaders
~ ~ Interview
Gray&Boswell
~ ~ Post Office
~ ~ Mara School
~ ~ Mara Bridge
~ ~ Mara Stores
~ ~ Relief
Camps
~ ~ Sawmills and
Logging
~ ~ Churches
~ ~ Community
Hall
~ ~ Provincial
Park
~ Population
Community Services
Entertainment
Ethnic Groups
Geography
Heritage Homes
Industries
Organizations
People
Schools
Transportation
John Andrew Mara was born in Toronto on
July 21, 1840; he was an operative pioneer in Western Canada. He settled in Kamloops, and
was elected to the Provincial Legislature in 1871, representing the Kootenays.
Mr. Mara was the first to have a fleet of steamers on the Interior Lakes and Rivers; he had a general store at Seymour Arm and one in Kamloops. In 1886, he was elected the Conservative member for the Yale-Cariboo, and served in Ottawa until his defeat in 1896.
During this time he continued running his steamers in the Kootenys. Mr. J. A. Mara was a very active man in British Columbia although not directly in Mara; however, the community was named after him. Mr. Mara died at the age of eighty in 1920, from pneumonia.
Dawn Gerlib, Niels Konge, Kurt Schubert
ALF School, 1989