Pouce Coupe, incorporated on January 13, 1932, was the first town in the Peace River Block. It had government agencies, a hospital and, most importantly, a liquor store – the only one in the Peace district.

Sketched/written in 2003: The Cree-Met Drive-Inn in Pouce Coupe is a rare survivor from the era before burger chains roamed the land, gobbling up everthing in their path, when a man with a grill, a deepfryer, a soft icecream machine and a jukebox could erect a sign saying, perhaps, "Tastee-Freez" (or indeed "Cree-Met") and the townsfolk would beat a path to his door. The triangular gable of the Cree-Met features a hand-painted sigin advertising its specialties: on the left, a warship with "Battleship Burger"; in the middle, a cactus and "Mexican"; on the right a silhouetted bison and "Buffalo."

Note from Brenda Anderson: "As far as the Cree-Met is concerned, both Jill Wonnacott (former mayor) and I recall it was run by a man named Pete, who had a top secret soft ice cream recipe that brought people from miles around. It could be purchased in cardboard pint containers as well as cones. My mom remembers stopping there each year after our big Saskatoon berry-picking excursion to buy a couple of cartons. Apparently the Cree-Met's reputation has endured to this day, though, sadly, the quality of the ice cream has not."

The Hillcrest Motel in Pouce Coupe, at the south end of town – there wasn't an angle I could paint that showed its classic auto court form, so I faked a bird's-eye view. It consists of a house (interestingly, in the Second Empire style with a mansard roof, a very retro style), a garage/storage building and 4 duplex units. The sign on the roadside advertises "Kitchenettes and Plug-ins."

Note from Brenda Anderson, with information gleaned from Everett Beaulne: "It was an RCMP outpost prior to WWII and is actually a log structure (government design) covered now by siding. The walls are apparently more than two feet thick as a result. It left a great window seat that this man remembers fondly. He also recalls rummaging around in the basement where the cells were located. Scratching at the dirt floor yielded all kinds of wonderful police artifacts, badges and so on. The upstairs floor of the house held the barracks and the main floor was, obviously, office space."

Question: The Peace River Block was federally administered from 1907-1930, a period when conceivably a house of that style could have been built and occupied by the RCMP. Subsequently, it would have been Provincial Police. Does anyone have information or other recollection about this place, including its evolution into a motel?

Note from Bitsy Knox: I am the granddaughter of Arthur Knox, a member of the BCPP posted in Pouce Coupe from 1935 to about 1939. I have spent the last several months researching my grandparent's time in Pouce, and was interested to find on your website information about the HillCrest Motel and its history as a BCPP station. Any information you may have on that time, and this building in particular, would be of great value to me.