128 British Columbia Women’s Institutes

East Kootenay Distruct

- The Columbia and the Kootenay Rivers both head in the East Kootenay
District. ‘The Columbia River Valley in this district is one of the oldest
settlements in the Province.

The first white man came in 1807 with David Thompson, and built a
fort, Kootenai House near Lake Windermere and spent three winters there.

In 1842, Father Pieter J. D. Smit, S.J., visited the Columbia Valley and
baptized many Indians. In the early 1880’s settlers straggled in, mostly
prospectors seeking gold.

The Canadian Pacific Railway main line was completed in 1885, and more
settlement began especially around Golden and Canal Flat.

A boat service up the Columbia River and through Lake Windermere
and Columbia Lake made steamboat history. Mining boomed in the East
Kootenay and a wagon road was completed in 1887 between Golden and
Fort Steele. Stage coaches transported passengers and mail.

By 1911, land setlement had increased and in 1914 the Kootenay Central
Railway, a branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed from
Golden to Lake Windermere. ‘The Windermere District is famed as a
resort area; with the magnificent beauty of the Rocky Mountains and the
colorful lakes and the hot springs. ‘The Kootenay National Park, the
largest of the four Federal Government parks in British Columbia, covers
approximately 350,000 acres in the Canadian Rockies. The big game,
moose, elk, and grizzly bear, and the mountain goats and sheep; the trout
in the rivers and lakes make this part of the Province a mecca for sportsmen
and tourists.

Logging and lumbering are thriving industries, and annually thousands
of Christmas trees are harvested, and exported to the United States.

Mining includes the famous coal mines in the Fernie District where
about three-quarters of the coal mined in B.C. is found, and the famed
mining centre at Kimberley, the largest silver-lead-zinc ore mine in the
world.

Small fruits and seed potatoes are grown in many parts and cattle ranch-
ing in some areas

The fertile reclaimed land of the Kootenay Valley near Creston is a
sight to behold, and produces grain and peas, and on higher ground, apples,
pears, cherries, grapes, plums, peaches as well as strawberries and raspberries
in large quantity. Creston is the town overlooking this beautiful Kootenay
Valley with its miles of dykes, large grain fields, park lands and the
Kootenay River winding its way through the centre. The mountains in
Idaho State lie to the south. The first land pre-empted in Creston was
in 1891 by Mr. Fred Little, known as the “Father of Creston,” as he named
the locality, Creston, after his dead sweetheart.

Near Creston is the little town of Wynndel which was pioneered in the
1890’s just before the railway came through, when O. J. Wigen and Fred