Valley of the Lost Souls
The West Kootenay region was once a thriving & colourful area of British Columbia until the invasion from the East and South.
Table of Contents
Natives 1800 - 1930
Mines 1920 - 1960
Vietnam 1964 - 1970
Ontario 1970 - present
  
Kootenay Lake & area in Southeastern British Columbia was dubbed the Valley of the Lost Souls by the local indians that would frequent the region to hunt, fish & gather, but mostly to heal themselves in the natural hotsprings of Ainsworth.


Kutenai Indians in a Sturgeon-nosed canoe near Ainsworth British Columbia early 1900s
 

Ainsworth

Before Ainsworth became a mining town in the interior of British Columbia, the area was first inhabited by the Kootenay Indians. The name Kootenay is derived from the people who lived in the area, as their name translates to "water people" .

In 1883, George J. Ainsworth, a wealthy mining and railway man from California, arrived in the Kootenay region. (Stainer, Mavis Fletcher. History of Ainsworth). He had been granted one hundred and sixty-six acres of land that surrounded the hot springs. In the same year as his arrival, he plotted out the townsite on his property, naming it Ainsworth, in honour of his father, Captian J.C. Ainsworth. And in the following year, George Ainsworth staked the first mineral claim in the region.
Around the same time, A.D. Wheeler and Harry Tobias were traveling in the area, in hopes of finding the mineral deposits in the Kootenay country.They were outfitted by H. Giegrich and White of Walkerville. Henry Giegrich would later follow his friends in their journey to the Kootenay region. And in the mid-1880's he opened the only General Store in Ainsworth, that supplied all goods to the mining community. This building is now called the J.B. Fletcher Store.