"Stops of interest along th ..." a Kootenay Lake Travel Page by Darby2

Just north of Creston, the first hamlet you encounter is the sleepy village of Sirdar, across from which is Duck Lake, home to some fine Bass and perch fishing and a large wiaterfowl sanctuary.

Not too much of note in Sirdar except for a couple of old fashioned pubs.

Next in line, an artificial harbour was created at Kookanook to provide safe anchorage for small boats on this huge lake. The prevailing winds can sometimes create very large waves. There is also a memorial here to those who have lost their lives on the lake, including those who drowned when the SS Ainsworth sank in the early part of the 20th century.

The Wreck of the City of Ainsworth
Recreational scuba divers may wish to read the 2 informational plaques that mark the site of Kootenay Lake’s greatest marine disaster, but the shipwreck itself lies far beyond their 40-metre depth limit. The S.S. City of Ainsworth, wrecked on November 29, 1898, is a provincially-designated Underwater Heritage Site.

The 25 metre-long sternwheeler was en route from Nelson to Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, when it went down during a vicious storm near Cape Horn, at the mouth of Crawford Bay on the eastern side of Kootenay Lake. Nine people – 7 crew members and 2 passengers – lost their lives. Cargo overloading, crew inexperienced, and poor judgment on the part of the captain were all cited as reasons for the sinking, but no wrongdoing was ever clearly identified.

In 1990, the City of Ainsworth was located by means of sonar and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) inspection. In 1997, during a 6-day diving expedition organized by the Archeological Society of British Columbia, the West Kootenay Dambusters Scuba Club and CAN-DIVE services, 2 divers descended to a maximum depth of 120 metres to shoot video footage of the wreck. The divers were able to demonstrate that the vessel sits upright on the lake bottom, and that her hull and paddlewheel are intact. Several artifacts, including the ship’s wheel and port side navigation light, were identified. Their footage shows that the entire wreck is covered in a thick blanket of silt.

(Information courtesy of Great Canadian Lakes)

Created by mortician David Brown from about 500,000 embalming fluid bottles collected over a period of 35 years, this unusual structure sits on a bluff overlooking the lake near Boswell. The house is designed like a small castle and is open to the public for viewing during the summer.

On the west side of the lake, after you've crossed by ferry, and a short 20 miniute drive north brings you to Ainsworth Hotsprings resort. There's a great hotel and the pool is a great way to relax after a day's tour of the area. Admission to the pool is about $6.00, or an all day pass for $10.00.

The spring has cascaded down the cliffs below the hotel to create this colourful mineral deposit.

A former silver mining town which once had a population of more than 3000 in it's heyday, it's now about 1050. Lots of old historic buildings, and of course the restored SS Moyie, paddlewheel steamer which plied the lake for many decades before there were any roads in the area. It's the oldest ship of its kind in the world. It was built in pieces in North Vancouver, then shipped by rail to Nelson on the Lake where it was assembled.

The S.S. Moyie served as a transportation link on the lake for nearly 60 years, from 1898 to 1957 when it was retired from service. It's the oldest ship of its kind in the world and it travelled millions of miles diring her career carrying freight and passengers up and down the lake...a real "Chore Girl"

It now resides on display in Kaslo.

Many other ships worked the lake, among them the S.S's. Ainsworth, Argenta, Alberta, Kaslo, Kooskanook, Kokanee, Spokane, Nasookin (the largest)

The ghost town of Sandon sits in a narrow valley north of Kaslo and was home to one of the greatest lead-silver-zinc rushes in the world. Some of the buildings have been restored.