Tribute to a River
Above all else, life in our valley was shaped by the Columbia River. Provider of a dependable food supply, highway for early exploration, facilitator for transport on the one hand and barrier to it on the other, source of clean water for agriculture and industry, fountainhead of cheap energy, threatening giant: the river has influenced human activities along its shores from the first tentative explorations of the native people thousands of years ago to our attempts to harness its awesome power today. The solitude was first broken by the light tread of humanity which left very little impression on the land. Explorers opened the way for the first attempts in massive extraction of wealth from the countryside through the fur trade. Mineral riches were discovered and the land was silent no more, the throb of the steam engine competed with the squeal of the iron rail. Permanent impressions were left on the landscape. In the blink of an eye, our valley filled with humanity and industrial development started to shape the direction of our growth.
It is intriguing to consider this parade of human traffic along this majestic and strategic waterway. There are so many echoes tumbling amongst the waves. Well known passers-by like Thompson, Simpson, Douglas, de Smet, and Kane mingle with ghosts of voyageurs and miners unknown. The Castlegar Millennium Walkway is a tribute to the river which in so many ways influenced our history and shaped the development and growth of Castlegar.
April 20, 1827: "
Slight frost in the morning. . . . Passed, about a mile above our camp, McGillivray's or Cootanie River, also a stream of some magnitude, rapid, and very clear water. This is said to be a good route across the mountains, but from the hostile disposition manifested by the natives inhabiting the higher parts of the Saskatchewan, the Athabasca portage is preferred, being free from such visitors. Five miles above it, the Columbia gradually widens to a lake . . . . Intended to have arranged a few words of the Chinook language, but was molested out of my life by the men singing their boat songs."
David Douglas, botanist, accompanying the Columbia Express back out to civilization via Boat Encampment and Athabasca Pass.
Fall, 1886: The Hall brothers stumble on the rich silver ore deposits which were to become the Silver King mine. Their discovery led to a stampede of miners, merchants, and speculators to the West Kootenay. To accommodate the traffic generated by all the activity, commercial steamboats started service on the navigable waterways and the Kootenay and Columbia Railway was built along the unnavigable lower Kootenay River.
Artist
Paul Kane traveled through the vast Hudson's Bay Company territories and documented a way of life which was disappearing as he was recording it. He passed the Castlegar setting twice: on November 19, 1846, and on September 25, 1847, during his return upstream. He was fascinated by the treacherous whirlpool at Little Dalles, a bit south of the new border. (Stark Foundation)
1909: the
Doukhobors migrated to the Kootenays from Saskatchewan and became a major influence on local culture. The community operated a ferry across the Columbia at Waterloo; it provided the crossing for the provincial highway until the new government ferry started operating in 1919 between Castlegar and Robson.
1952: Canadian Celanese Corporation acquires the William Waldie and Sons sawmill, along with other sawmills upstream. Within a few years the company completes a pulp mill and a new sawmill and the Waldie site ceases operation. The Columbia River makes it possible to utilize the raw resources from a vast area in the central location at Castlegar.
1961: The Columbia River Treaty is signed. The river was forever changed when the Hugh Keenleyside and Mica dams impounded its waters into huge reservoirs. The river's energy is now harnessed and flooding is under control. Boat Encampment now rests under as much as 525 feet of water.
From the sign