Woodpecker was a farming settlement that was created in the early 1900s.
Mostly accessed from the Fraser River by sternwheeler, people would stop off at Woodpecker Landing, which was named by Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Down, who thought the people who were chipping away at the trees at the river landing to provide fuel to the sternwheelers sounded like woodpeckers.
The Downs built a store in 1919 and opened a post office in 1920. Soon after that, they moved to the current location of Woodpecker, located 60 km south of Prince George.
According to the book History of the Anglican Church in Prince George and Region by Anne M. Martin, Rev. Sam Pollinger held services in Woodpecker in 1926 and contacted Bishop Wells about building a church in 1939. There was $3,000 provided to build on property donated by the Down family and Pete Anderson of Prince George built St. Mark's Anglican Church.
The dedication by Bishop Adams and Rev. Pollinger took place on Sept. 7, 1939.
The first wedding took place in the church between Eugene King and Vira Widdis on Oct. 24, 1940.
In the cemetery behind the church are two graves. Mr. R. Widdis was buried there on Dec. 20, 1940 and Mr. E.J. Down who died on July 11, 1945 is also buried there.
In 1983, the Hixon Women's Institute Heritage Committee was given permission by Bishop Snowden to care for the church. A grant from the BC Heritage Trust was granted to restore and repair the vandalized church and the surrounding property. Along with donations from the community, the church was deemed sound enough to hold services in 1988 with the last one held on Christmas that year.
There is little known about the original bell that hung at St. Mark's. Records state it disappeared and the local firefighters replaced it. Some people claim the original bell has been stored in Prince George in St. Michael's when it was located in the Millar Addition and then moved to where St. Michael's stands now on Fifth Ave.
The bell from BC Rail's engine 568 was installed at St. Mark's after the restoration was complete, between 1988 and 1992.
To this day, St. Mark's remains a dedicated Anglican Church and with permission from Bishop Barbara Andrews, who was in charge of Central Interior churches before her retirement in 2019, Vicar Alexis Saunders opened St. Mark's again in 2018, with regular services starting last summer.
