Railway Centennial

Railway Centennial. The Crowsnest Railway Route of the C.P.R. — 1898. The Canadian Pacific Railway helped open up south-east British Columbia with a strategic line through the Rocky Mountain Crowsnest Pass. It also helped maintain Canadian sovereignty over Kootenay mineral wealth which had been flowing south to the "Inland Empire” centered in Spokane, Washington., Connecting with eastern routes, it began at Lethbridge, Alberta, and was completed October 6th, at Kootenay Landing at the south end of Kootenay Lake. There C.P.R.-owned steamers provided connections westward: the line not being completed around the lake until 1930., Later extensions included the Spokane International route to the USA through Kingsgate south of Cranbrook in 1906, and the Kootenay Central route connecting to the C.P.R mainline north of Cranbrook at Golden in 1915. Vancouver was finally reached directly via the Kettle Valley route in 1916., Cranbrook was the divisional Headquarters and several original railway buildings are preserved here. Favoured Fort Stele was by-passed, and Cranbrook has become the largest city in the Kootenays due largely to the impact of the railway. This route is still vital with rail traffic flowing.