Fort Steele & Wild Horse Creek in British Columbia
July 6, 2007.
We are staying in Radium Valley Vacation Resort-Resort, in Radium
Hot Springs. $51.00 FHU including cable but NO wifi, paved
interior roads, large sites with covered picnic tables. The negative
with this park is the price and NO wifi. We would much rather stay
in the Canyon RV-Park
but they were full. We will stay in another park when we return to
Radium
Hot Springs just because of the price and no wifi. However,
if you like resorts with pools and such this would be the place for
you.
Huge lumber mill near Canal Flats, British
Columbia
We are on PH 93/95 somewhere near Canal Flats a small community north
of Fort Steele. This is one of several large lumbermills in the area.
This is lumber country now but back in the 1860's this was a a gold
mining area.
The Wild
Horse Trail led into the gold fields of Canada
from Hope,
Idaho. There was a large movement of men and pack animals
along the Wild
Horse Trail until the gold rush ceased around 1880.
The Wild
Horse Trail originated around Hope,
Idaho east of Sandpoint
passing through Bonner's
Ferry and on into the Gold Mines around Wild Horse Creek in
Canada. Fort Steele is
the town that remains after the goldmines around Wild Horse Creek
played out.
In 1864 the Kootenay Gold Rush began. Gold was discovered on Wild
Horse Creek, a small stream which flows into the Kootenay
River just south of present-day Fort Steele. The creek quickly
became the centre of the Kootenay Gold Rush. The makeshift town of
Fisherville was started on the west bank, and by the end of the season
it boasted six general stores, four saloons, a brewery, two butcher
shops, a blacksmith’s shop, and a large number of miners’
cabins. John Galbraith began a ferry service across the Kootenay
River just north of the confluence of Wild Horse Creek and
the Kootenay River,
on the site of the current town of Fort Steele.
By 1865 the Kootenay Gold Rush had reached its peak, the decline of
the diggings soon became apparent. At Wild Horse Creek, the Victoria
Ditch was completed and supplied water to placer claims located high
off the creek bed (this ditch can still be seen today). Hydraulic
mining was introduced in an attempt to recover deeply buried
deposits more efficiently. Peter O’Reilly replaced Haynes as
the Gold Commissioner and the Dewdney Trail, extending from Hope
to Wild Horse Creek, in Canada
was completed, providing a direct link with the colonial capital at
New Westminster. Fisherville was demolished because it sat on some
of the richest claims, and the community of Wild Horse was established
further up the bank. In case you are trying to where the Dewdney Tail
was located think of it stretching across southern British
Columbia along what is now the Crows
Nest Highway. Hope was Fort Hope located east of Vancouver
and Wildhorse Creek was in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in
southeastern British
Columbia a bit south of Radium
Hot Springs.
Large hay operation around Fort Steele in southeastern British
Columbia
This is a large hay operation but there are not nearly as many hay
operations along this route.
