Kootenay Rockies Things To Do

Fort Steele

While once-booming Fort Steel went bust when the railway bypassed it, today the town is a restored and thriving 1890s pioneer town with over 60 restored or reconstructed heritage shops and display buildings. Remember to tip your hat as colourful 19th-century citizens pass you on the streets or provide assistance in the Kershaw General Store. Listen to the anvil ring in the blacksmith's shop and savour the smell of fresh-baked loaves at the bakery.

Visitors can ride a steam train, drive in a horse-drawn wagon or watch musical comedy at the Wild Horse Theatre from May to October. There are also lively street dramas and memorable interpretations of domestic life.

The Annual Heritage Showcase -held every August- is a popular event featuring horse farming demonstrations, period trades, crafts demonstrations, musical entertainment and living-history dramas.

Fort Steel Heritage Town is located 10 minutes northeast of Cranbrook , on Highway 93/95.

A word or two on your visit:

• Admission fee in effect
• Approximate time required: 4 hours

> Fort Steele website

Le Roi Gold Mine and Rossland Historical Museum

Follow in the footsteps of the turn-of-the-century, hard-rock miners who drilled, blasted and hand-mucked the 128 km (80 mi) of underground workings of the Le Roi Gold Mine. From the spacious main haulage way, a guide will take you deep into Red Mountain to its intersection with the Le Roi shaft. You'll pass through an underground hoist room and follow the twists and turns of narrow exploration drifts. Once outdoors, visit a display of period drills and mining tools or head to the geology building to try your luck at panning for gold!

The gold mine and museum are located in Rossland on Highways 22 and 3B, at the site of the Black Bear Mine.

A word or two on your visit:

• Admission fee in effect
• Approximate time required: 1 hour

> Rossland Historical Museum website

Burgess Shale Fossils

Get a glimpse of what life was like on Earth 505 million years ago. Discovered in 1909 by Charles D. Walcott, the Burgess Shale site is widely believed to contain the world's finest Cambrian-aged fossils of soft-bodied marine organisms. Designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the Burgess Shale represents a complete ecosystem of diverse and sometimes bizarre animals preserved in the shales, such as the five-eyed Opabinia, which sported an elephant-like trunk with a fierce claw at its end. The ecosystem existed for only a very short time after the first explosion of multi-cellular life on earth.

Visitors can only view the fossils with a guide. Tours go out once a day with a limited number of hikers. The hike to the Mount Stephen Fossil Beds is a short but steep 6-km (3.6 mi), six-hour return trip. The hike to Walcott's Quarry is a moderately challenging 20-km (12.4-mi), 10-hour return trip with an elevation gain of 760 m (2,888 ft).

The Burgess Shale is located in Yoho National Park, which borders Banff and Kootenay National Parks along the Trans Canada Highway.

A word or two on your visit:

• Admission fee in effect
• Approximate time required: 6-10 hours

> Burgess Shale website

Zuckerberg Island Heritage Park

At Zuckerberg Island Heritage Park you'll travel at least 3,500 years back to when the Lakes Band of Interior Salish peoples first fished and built their winter pit houses. You can visit a reconstructed pit house on the island.

In more recent times, the explorer David Thompson canoed down the Columbia River past this island nearly 200 years ago. About 140 years later, Alexander Zuckerberg arrived from Russia to build his unique Russian Orthodox Chapel House. You can walk through the wonderfully restored chapel house today. Flora and fauna also surround you on the beautifully groomed trails with splendid views of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers.

Cross the 144-m (473-ft) suspension bridge that connects the island to the mainland to visit the Hiroshima Memorial, a peace garden built in 1985.

The park is located near downtown Castlegar .

A word or two on your visit:

• Admission by donation
• Approximate time required: 1-2 hours

> Zuckerberg Island website

Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre

Over 20,000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly relocated from the BC coast to remote internment camps during World War II. This memorial centre is dedicated to preserving their personal memories and ensuring their stories survive.

The centre is located on the site of one of the original ten internment camps. The only one of its kind in Canada, the centre contains original internment shacks and a large hand-carved Buddhist shrine that was built by a temple carpenter during the war. The site is also home to a beautiful Japanese garden designed by Mr. Roy Sumi of Vancouver. Mr. Sumi contributed rare plants from his own garden for this very special project.

The daily lives of Japanese Canadian internees are interpreted through a display of furnishings, stoves and other items used by camp occupants. The harrowing journey of Japanese families to the camps is also explored in the large central hall through text, images and displays of items carried on their travels to the camp.

The memorial centre is located in New Denver .

A word or two on your visit:

• Admission fee in effect
• Approximate time required: 1-2 hours

> Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre website

Craigellachie

On a cold November day in 1885, Canadian Pacific Railway director Donald Smith raised his hammer to perform the greatest symbolic act of Canada's first century: with a final blow he struck the "Last Spike," forging Canada's first transcontinental railway. On that day, east met west and Canada was at long last united.

The railway tracks head west across the top of Lake Superior, through the Canadian Shield, traversing the Rockies and the Continental Divide. It was one of the most challenging engineering feats of the century. Today you can visit the site of the Last Spike at Craigellachie in Eagle Pass.

This heritage site includes the re-creation of a period train station with caboose. There are also three monuments, a picnic area and a park, and freight trains pass by this area.

Craigellachie is located south of Revelstoke on the Trans Canada Highway.

A word or two on your visit:

• No admission fee in effect
• Approximate time required: 30 minutes - 1 hour

Sandon

After rich deposits of galena (silver-lead) ore were discovered in 1891, Sandon became the boomtown at the centre of it all. Hundreds of prospectors and miners flooded this remote valley in southeastern BC, and before year's end over 191 claims had been staked. By 1897, Sandon's population reached 5,000.

But when the silver ran out, so did the town's luck. Sandon was quickly abandoned. In the decades that followed, fires and flash floods ravaged the town's downtown core. Today the Sandon Museum, located in the beautifully restored Slocan Mercantile General Store, recounts the story of this ghost town's fascinating history with displays including a collection of artifacts and heritage photographs. Notable sights include the Silversmith Generating Station. During the city's boom years, Sandon was the first city in BC to be entirely electrified. The station, now the one remaining hydroelectric plant in the area, is a unique, operating relic of Canadian industrial heritage.

Sandon is located on highway 31A, a 15-minute drive east from New Denver .

A word or two on your visit:

• Admission fee in effect for the museum
• Approximate time required: 2-3 hours

> Sandon website