Rossland is named
Rossland because there was already a "Thompson". I'll explain:
After gold and other minerals were discovered on Red Mountain in the 1880s, a man by the name of
Ross Thompson arrived in the area about April of 1891 and, after trying his luck at gold mining for a year, decided that landowners might well strike it rich if a town were to spring up on the mountain. He took out a preemption on 160 acres and later, with John R. Cook, J.F. Ritchie and William M. Newton formed a townsite company and began to sell lots in his new town of
Thompson. At this time he also built the Clifton Hotel.
By the time the town reached a population of 3,000, postal authorities were experiencing the problem of two "Thompsons" extant in BC. Willing to give Thompson his due as founder of the town, the authorities used the name "
Rossland" for the community on Red Mountain when its local post office opened on March 1st, 1895. The name stuck and so it remains today.