While this is obviously not a photo of my home, this is a photo of my neighbourhood. I live in Columbia Heights, just out of this shot to the right. Most of the homes on the hillside have a beautiful view of the once-mighty Columbia River at the bottom of the valley and downtown, and many also have a view of Teck Metals, formerly Cominco.

When you talk about the community of Trail to people from outside the community, three things always come to mind — Italian heritage, sports, and the smelter that looms above everything. The layout of Columbia Heights is very reflective of the Italian heritage of the area. When I was growing up here in the 1970s and 80s, West Trail, as it was then known, was overflowing with Italian immigrants and little corner stores sprinkled all over the neighbourhood selling imported parmesan, delicious salami and little licorice candies. I can remember coming to the store nearest to where I live now to get these imported Italian delicacies for my Nonna before we made a trip to see her in Christina Lake, 45 minutes away. When I moved into my home 20 years ago, I had elderly Italian neighbours on all four sides. It was such a treat. They spoiled my small children and kept my cookie jar full of beautiful baking and my fridge full of delicious homegrown produce. I moved to this neighbourhood for the sense of community it held and in some regards still holds — and because it was what I could afford, as many do not want to look at the smelter that made this town and continues to support its residents in direct and indirect ways.

Before the arrival of European settlers in the area, the area was home to the Salish and Sinixt people. The Columbia River was a vital resource providing year-round food and transportation. With the resources of the Columbia River close at hand, the Salish people lived a stationary lifestyle closer to that of Pacific Northwest First Nations than those of the Okanagan first peoples (canadaehx.com).

The first Europeans to the area arrived, as those before them had, to take advantage of the abundant food and transportation resources provided by the Columbia River and established a trading post, Fort Shepherd, near the site where the Columbia and the Pend Oreille rivers converge. Constructed in 1858, the fort began as a link between the Dewdney Trail and the Hudson’s Bay Company. Acting as an HBC fort, it quickly became a stopping place on route for those drawn to the area by the Kootenay Gold Rush that took place from 1890 to 1929 (historicplaces.ca). Today nothing remains of Fort Shepherd other than a marker to remember the site. Teaming with wildlife, Fort Shepherd is an official land conservancy area and location of sensitive habitats providing a home for several endangered plants and animals (conservancy.bc.ca).

The demise of Fort Shephard and the discovery of gold and copper on Red Mountain gave rise to the settlement of Trail Creek, named for the Dewdney Trail, a European trade route that passed through the area along the banks of the Columbia River (conservancy.bc.ca; canadaehx.com). The City of Trail was incorporated on June 14, 1901, followed in 1906 by the merger of the War Eagle, Centre Star, and St. Eugene mines, along with the Rossland Power Company, into the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited (CM&S) (trailhistory.com) which would later become Cominco and is now Teck Metals.

In the 1960s, the Columbia River Treaty between Canada, specifically the Province of British Columbia, and the United States saw the building of a system of dams that changed the face of the area. Towns and homesteads were flooded, creating lakes where none had previously been. The project generated income for the Province through the sale of electricity to the United States. In the early 1990s, the Columbia Basin Trust was established by a proactive group of local residents, officials, and tribal council members. Working together, this group successfully negotiated with the Province for a share in Treaty revenues to benefit the people of the Basin. The Columbia Basin Trust Act was passed into BC legislation in July 1995 (ourtrust.org). Since that time, the Trust has contributed in immeasurable ways to the growth and prosperity of the communities of the Columbia Basin, from its headwaters at Columbia Lake near Canal Flats to Washington State.

Bibliography

Craig Baird. “The History of Trail.” Canadian History Ehx. Last modified January 17, 2022. https://canadaehx.com/2022/01/17/the-history-of-trail/.

Eric Brighton and Greg Nesteroff, Lost Kootenays: A History in Pictures (Nova Scotia: Macintyre Purcell, 2021), 5.

Canada’s Historic Places. “Red Mountain Mining Site.” Accessed May 21, 2022, https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=20520&pid=0

Columbia Basin Trust. “Our Story.” Accessed on May 21, 2022, https://ourtrust.org/about/our-story/ 

The Land Conservancy of British Columbia. “Fort Shepherd Conservancy Area.” Accessed May 21, 2020, http://conservancy.bc.ca/featured-projects/fort-shepherd/

Trail Historical Society. “History of Trail.”  Accessed May 21, 2022, http://www.trailhistory.com/history/