The Goat River is a tributary of the Kootenay River in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The river meets the Kootenay near the town of Creston. The Goat River Dam, constructed in the 1930s, was an early source of electricity for the town. Before dikes were built, the river was a major source of spring flooding in the Creston valley.
85 kilometres (53 mi) in length, the Goat River rises in the central Purcell Mountains just west of Mallaindane Pass and flows largely south until meeting Kitchener Creek. From this confluence, it bends southwest towards the towns of Erickson and Creston. Its lower reaches are the route of the southern mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Crowsnest Highway. [1] The total area of the Goat River drainage is approximately 69,200 hectares (171,000 acres). [2]
In the 1860s, the lower Goat River valley became part of the route for the Dewdney Trail, connecting the gold fields of Wild Horse Creek with the coast. Surveyed and constructed by Edgar Dewdney and Walter Moberly, the trail was seen as a countermeasure to American encroachment into the southern Kootenays. [3]
The demand for electricity in the growing town of Creston led to the construction of the Goat River Dam in the early 1930s. The 20 metres (66 ft) concrete arch dam is located five kilometers east of Creston. It operated until the large power projects of the 1950s in the Kootenays reduced the need for the generating station, which suffered from ice buildup in winter and an inconstant water supply. It was decommissioned and sold in 1979. [4]
The Kettle Valley Railway was a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) that operated across southern British Columbia, west of Midway running to Rock Creek, then north to Myra Canyon, down to Penticton over to Princeton, Coalmont, Brookmere, Coquihalla and finally Hope where it connected to the main CPR line.
The Crowsnest Highway is an east-west highway in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. It stretches 1,161 km (721 mi) across the southern portions of both provinces, from Hope, British Columbia to Medicine Hat, Alberta, providing the shortest highway connection between the Lower Mainland and southeast Alberta through the Canadian Rockies. Mostly two-lane, the highway was officially designated in 1932, mainly following a mid-19th-century gold rush trail originally traced out by an engineer named Edgar Dewdney. It takes its name from the Crowsnest Pass, the location at which the highway crosses the Continental Divide between British Columbia and Alberta.
Kootenay National Park is a national park of Canada in southeastern British Columbia. The park consists of 1,406 km2 (543 sq mi) of the Canadian Rockies, including parts of the Kootenay and Park mountain ranges, the Kootenay River and the entirety of the Vermilion River. While the Vermilion River is completely contained within the park, the Kootenay River has its headwaters just outside the park boundary, flowing through the park into the Rocky Mountain Trench and eventually joining the Columbia River. The park ranges in elevation from 918 m (3,012 ft) at the southwestern park entrance to 3,424 m (11,234 ft) at Deltaform Mountain.
The Kootenay River or Kootenai River is a major river of the Northwest Plateau in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Montana and Idaho in the United States. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Kootenay River runs 781 kilometres (485 mi) from its headwaters in the Kootenay Ranges of the Canadian Rockies, flowing from British Columbia's East Kootenay region into northwestern Montana, then west into the northernmost Idaho Panhandle and returning to British Columbia in the West Kootenay region, where it joins the Columbia at Castlegar.
Kootenay Lake is a lake located in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Kootenay River. The lake has been raised by the Corra Linn Dam and has a dike system at the southern end, which, along with industry in the 1950s–70s, has changed the ecosystem in and around the water. The Kootenay Lake ferry is a year-round toll-free ferry that crosses between Kootenay Bay and Balfour. The lake is a popular summer tourist destination.
Creston is a town in the Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia, Canada.
The Columbia River Treaty is a 1961 agreement between Canada and the United States on the development and operation of dams in the upper Columbia River basin for power and flood control benefits in both countries. Four dams were constructed under this treaty: three in the Canadian province of British Columbia and one in the U.S. state of Montana.
Salmo is a village in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. It is mostly on the north side of Erie Creek at the confluence with the Salmo River. The place lies largely east of the junction of BC Highway 3, and BC Highway 6.
Lockhart Beach Provincial Park is a provincial park Located 40 km north of Creston, British Columbia, Canada, on BC Highway 3A. "This park and the adjacent Lockhart Creek Provincial Park extend 3 hectares, from the sunny shores of Kootenay Lake to the headwaters of Lockhart Creek. "This small park provides the only easy access to public camping along the south arm of Kootenay Lake. An 18-site campground and day-use area are located near a sand and fine gravel beach."
Syringa Park is a provincial park on the east shore of Lower Arrow Lake in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. At the foot of the Norns Range, Tulip Creek passes through the centre, and Syringa Creek is closer to the southeastern boundary. The park is about 19 kilometres (12 mi) west of Castlegar via Broadwater Rd.
The Dewdney Trail is a 720 km (450 mi) trail in British Columbia, Canada that served as a major thoroughfare in mid-19th century British Columbia. The trail was a critical factor in the development and strengthening of the newly established British colony of British Columbia, tying together mining camps and small towns that were springing up during the gold rush era prior to the colony's joining Canada in 1871. Establishing this route became important and urgent for the colony when many new gold finds occurred at locations near the US border that at the time were much more easily accessed from Washington Territory than from the then barely settled parts of the Lower Mainland and Cariboo. Approximately 80 percent of the trail's route has been incorporated into the Crowsnest Highway.
The Rock Creek Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Boundary Country region of the Colony of British Columbia. The rush was touched off in 1859 when two US soldiers were driven across the border to escape pursuing Indians and chanced on gold only three miles into British territory, on the banks of the Kettle River where it is met by Rock Creek, and both streams turn east to where in times since developed the city of Grand Forks. The first claim was filed by an Adam Beam in 1860, and the rush was on, composed mostly of Americans and some Chinese, all of whom had come overland from other workings, either at Colville or Oregon or all the way from California.
British Columbia Highway 3, officially named the Crowsnest Highway, is an 841-kilometre (523 mi) highway that traverses southern British Columbia, Canada. It runs from the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) at Hope to Crowsnest Pass at the Alberta border and forms the western portion of the interprovincial Crowsnest Highway that runs from Hope to Medicine Hat, Alberta. The highway is considered a Core Route of the National Highway System.
The era of steamboats on the Arrow Lakes and adjoining reaches of the Columbia River is long-gone but was an important part of the history of the West Kootenay and Columbia Country regions of British Columbia Canada. The Arrow Lakes are formed by the Columbia River in southeastern British Columbia. Steamboats were employed on both sides of the border in the upper reaches of the Columbia, linking port towns on either side of the border, and sometimes boats would be built in one country and operated in the other. Tributaries of the Columbia include the Kootenay River which rises in Canada, then flows south into the United States, then bends north again back into Canada, where it widens into Kootenay Lake. As with the Arrow Lakes, steamboats once operated on the Kootenay River and Kootenay Lake.
The Duncan River is in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. Entering the North Arm of Kootenay Lake, the river is a major tributary of the Kootenay River, which in turn flows into the Columbia River. The Selkirk Mountains lie to the west and the Purcell Mountains to the east.
Dewdney, originally named Johnson's Landing from 1884–1892, is an unincorporated community in the Central Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada, about 15 km east of the city of Mission. It was incorporated as a district municipality on April 17, 1892, including adjoining areas of Hatzic and Hatzic Island but the anticipated real estate boom on that island didn't pan out and economic damage from the Great Fraser Flood of 1894 led to the municipality's disincorporation on March 12, 1906. Another municipality eastwards, Nicomen, was incorporated in the same year but similarly later disincorporated. Though in the same school district as Mission, it and other adjoining rural areas did not join that municipality when offered. It is now represented as part of Electoral Area 'G' in the regional district government, which currently is the Fraser Valley Regional District.
From 1886 to 1920, steamboats ran on the upper reaches of the Columbia and Kootenay in the Rocky Mountain Trench, in western North America. The circumstances of the rivers in the area, and the construction of transcontinental railways across the trench from east to west made steamboat navigation possible.
Trail is a city in the West Kootenay region of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It was named after the Dewdney Trail, which passed through the area. The town was first called Trail Creek or Trail Creek Landing, and the name was shortened to Trail in 1897.
Crawford Bay is a community of approximately 350 people, situated in the Purcell mountain range on the eastern shore of Kootenay Lake in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. This location on Highyway 3A is 76 kilometres (47 mi) by road north of Creston and 48 kilometres (29.8 mi) by road and ferry northeast across Kootenay Lake from Nelson.
The Ecstall River is a tributary of the Skeena River in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It originates in the Kitimat Ranges, and flows about 110 km (68 mi) to the lower tidal reach of the Skeena River at Port Essington, about 30 km (19 mi) southeast of Prince Rupert, 95 km (59 mi) southwest of Terrace, and 85 km (53 mi) northwest of Kitimat. Its drainage basin covers about 1,485 km2 (573 sq mi) and contains the largest blocks of unlogged land on the north coast of British Columbia, although large-scale industrial logging operations, both active and proposed, have been occurring in the watershed since the 1980s.