Kootenay Lake
Heart of the Wilderness

British Columbia

The rugged shoreline of Kootenay Lake stretches 120 km along the great gaps between the low mountains of southeastern British Columbia. The Selkirks and Purcell Mountain ranges can be seen from along Kootenay Lake's shore, as can the great Kokanee Glacier. Long, low and lying between mountains makes the lake susceptible to violent storms that come up unexpectedly.

Prior to the 1800s, the Lower Kootenay Indians were the sole inhabitants of this resource rich land, drawn to the lakeshore seasonally to collect multitudes of huckleberries and catch Kokanee trout. In the 1860s a few European settlers began to harvest the resources of the land; mining and fruit growing would become major industries, but the great British Columbia mining boom of the 1860s passed the area by.

Prospectors discovered large deposits of galena, a mix of silver, lead, and zinc, but the dangerous nature of the lake made people hesitant to regularly cross it or ship equipment. As the mines began to falter in the early 1900s, the CPR started publishing brochures touting the area as a great oasis for establishing orchards and a significant number of English settlers were lured over. Apples, strawberries, and especially cherries were the most successful crops.

Off the shores of Kootenay, the town of Nelson, made wealthy by mining and farming, attracted two major power companies that helped it to build a two-way tramcar system, the only one in a British colony town as small as Nelson. As a result of an early by-law, over 350 heritage buildings exist in the town today. Famous architect Francis Rattenbury designed many of these brick-stone structures.

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