While traveling north from Creston to Wynndel we noticed a BC historic marker and decided to park and have a look. Highlights are the beautiful Kootenay Valley with large farms and the Selkirk Mountains west of the valley provides a scenic backdrop.
Creston Lions Club provided a large covered viewing shelter for visitors to enjoy the valley below and the scenic mountain vistas to the west. This shelter also provides protection during those rain or snow days.
In 1941, Creston Lions Club held their first carnival and continues 75 years later and is now known as the Creston Valley Blossom Festival. The festival is a week long annual event each May. The Lions Club is still very active in organizing and members are willing participants.
The Creston Lions Club is active year around with funding raising activities and sales to help support and assist families in the area.
The BC Historic Marker reads as follows:
A Dream Fulfilled
It was the dream in the 1880's of W.A. Baillie-Grohman, British sportsman and financier, to reclaim these fertile flats from the annual river floods. His canal at Canal Flats diverted part of the Kootenay into the Columbia but was abandoned. The first successful reclamation was in 1893. Now 25,110 acres lie secure behind 53 miles of dykes