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158-587: Thrums is an unincorporated community on the northwest shore of the Kootenay River in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia . The location, on BC Highway 3A , is by road about 11 kilometres (7 mi) northeast of Castlegar , and 33 kilometres (21 mi) southwest of Nelson . J.M. Barrie , Peter Pan author, also wrote Auld Licht Idylls, A Window in Thrums, and The Little Minister, set in

316-766: A Spiritual Christian ethnoreligious group of Russian origin. They are known for their pacifism and tradition of oral history , hymn-singing, and verse . They reject the Russian Orthodox priesthood and associated rituals, believing that personal revelation is more important than the Bible. Facing persecution by the Russian government for their nonorthodox beliefs, many migrated to Canada between 1899 and 1938, where most currently reside. In Russia, Dukhobortsy were variously portrayed as " folk-Protestants ", Spiritual Christians , sectarians , and heretics . Among their core beliefs

474-546: A slur made by the Russian Orthodox Church that was subsequently embraced by the group. Before 1886, the Doukhobors had a series of leaders. The origin of the Doukhobors is uncertain; they first appear in first written records from 1701. The Doukhobors traditionally ate bread and borsch . Some of their food-related religious symbols are bread, salt, and water. In the 17th-and-18th-century Russian Empire ,

632-597: A brick factory at the present-day site of Grand Forks , from where they made bricks to be used mostly in the Brilliant settlement. Brilliant was one of the first cities in the area to have running water; a reservoir was constructed to hold water from the Kootenay River and a local spring , and by 1912, each household had running water. In 1913, Verigin converted an abandoned factory in Nelson , about 35 kilometres (22 mi) up

790-542: A broader valley floor. The sediments probably originated through heavy glaciation during the previous Ice Age . About 15,000 years ago, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced southwards into present-day BC, Montana, and Idaho, blocking the Kootenay River at the outlet of Kootenay Lake, which did not yet exist. Glaciers covered most of the northern Kootenay River watershed and heavily shaped the peaks and valleys one sees today. The glacier that formed Kootenay Lake caused

948-399: A decree intending to force the assimilation of the Doukhobors through military conscription, prohibiting their meetings, and encouraging conversions to the established church. On October 20, 1830, another decree followed, specifying all able-bodied members of dissenting religious groups engaged in propaganda against the established church should be conscripted and sent to the Russian army in

1106-727: A generic name for the area that stretches north to Glade, the boundary with Tarrys is unclear. Joe Irving (1911–2015), author, ironworker activist, graduated high school in his 90s, and centenarian, was the first baby born in Thrums. Kootenay River The river is known as the "Kootenay" in Canada and by the Ktunaxa Nation , and as the "Kootenai" in the United States and by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and Kootenai Tribe of Idaho . Fed mainly by glaciers and snowmelt,

1264-708: A marshy valley in Kootenay National Park . The river becomes significantly larger at its confluence with the Vermilion River , which is actually the larger of the two where they meet near Kootenay Crossing. The Kootenay continues southeast, receiving the Palliser River from the left, and flows south into a gorge at the confluence with the White River. At the small town of Canal Flats the Kootenay River passes within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of Columbia Lake ,

1422-514: A northwest–southeast axis. The only large areas of flat land are in the Kootenay River valley from Bonners Ferry, Idaho to Kootenay Lake, and in parts of the Rocky Mountain Trench from Canal Flats to Lake Koocanusa. Of the Kootenay's many tributaries, the 206-kilometre (128 mi)-long Duncan River is the largest. Hundreds of other tributaries join the river in its winding course, including

1580-509: A residential school in New Denver, British Columbia . Abuse of the interned children was later alleged. In less than fifty years, the Sons of Freedom committed 1,112 separate acts of violence and arson, costing over $ 20 million in damages; these acts include bombing and arson attacks on public schools, bombings of Canadian railway bridges and tracks, the bombing of a courthouse at Nelson , and

1738-545: A sect of people that were excused from military service. This difference in perspective produced much political prejudice towards the Doukhobours. Tumultuous political posturing and years of polarized social disagreements eventually brought some Doukhobours to the point of protests aimed at maintaining their simple, non-materialistic, and autonomous communal living. The Doukhobor faction known as Sons of Freedom conducted nude marches and carried out night-time arson attacks, which

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1896-718: A shorter form Doukhobory (Russian: духоборы , dukhobory ), implying they are fighting alongside rather than against the Holy Spirit. The first known use of the spelling Doukhobor is in a 1799 government edict exiling 90 of the group to Finland; presumably the Vyborg area, which was part of the Russian Empire at the time, for producing anti-war propaganda. The early Doukhobors were pacifists who rejected military institutions and war and were thus oppressed in Imperial Russia . Both

2054-483: A third "party", was about 5,000 miles (8,000 km) east in Amur Oblast . At the same time, the Russian government applied greater pressure to enforce the Doukhobors' compliance with its laws and regulations. The Doukhobors had resisted registering marriages and births, contributing grain to state emergency funds, and swearing oaths of allegiance. In 1887, Russia extended universal military conscription, which applied to

2212-841: A three-way split of the Doukhobor immigrants in Canada: Of these groupings, the Independents integrated the most readily into Canadian capitalist society. They had no problem registering their land groups and largely remained in Saskatchewan. In 1939, they definitely rejected the authority of Peter Verigin's great-grandson John J. Verigin, Sr. In 1908, to remove his followers from the corrupting influence of non-Doukhobors and edinolichniki (individual owners) Doukhobors, and to find better conditions for agriculture, Verigin bought large tracts of land in south-eastern British Columbia . His first purchase

2370-505: A tributary of the Kootenay, and the fourth Libby , on the Kootenai in Montana. However, operation of the dams has led to environmental problems in both rivers because they have caused unnatural flow fluctuations, blocked fish migration, flooded fertile agricultural land, and forced over 2,000 people to relocate. Solely built for the purpose of regulating water flow into Kootenay Lake, Duncan Dam,

2528-746: Is a tributary of the Clark Fork River - Pend Oreille River system which borders the Kootenay watershed on the southwest. The upper Columbia River basin forms the boundary on the north, and the Kicking Horse River watershed also borders the north side of the Kootenay basin. To the southwest is the Priest River , a Pend Oreille tributary. On the east side, over the Continental Divide, the Bow River and Oldman River take rise. Both are tributaries of

2686-564: Is formally defined; the name indirectly refers to the territory of the Kootenay indigenous people spanning from the Rockies on the east and the, Selkirks and Purcells (Percells in the U.S.) on the west in southeastern British Columbia (BC), and is used to mean more the area drained by the Kootenay River, namely including the lower Canadian stretches of the Columbia from Revelstoke to the US border, and also

2844-401: Is generally stable and contains more outcroppings of metamorphic and igneous rock as one progresses westwards. Formations of Cambrian and Devonian rock also appear in small amounts in the U.S. portion of the Kootenay. Bedrock composes much of the streambed in the upper and lower reaches of the Kootenay, but in the middle portion, alluvial sediments allow the river to meander over

3002-896: Is in Idaho. The Kootenay is one of only a few rivers that cross the US–Canada border multiple times: the others are the Milk River , a tributary of the Missouri River ; the Souris River , a tributary of the Assiniboine River ; and the Kettle River , a tributary of the Columbia River. The Kootenay River watershed is defined by rugged parallel mountain ranges of the Rockies, which direct drainage along

3160-438: Is mostly found along the lower two-thirds of the Kootenay and many of the tributaries that join within the United States. The other sections of the river flow through far more rugged terrain and are characterized by braiding , low nutrient content, shifting channels and coarse sediments, making it difficult for riparian zones to be established, as is with most of its upper and lower tributaries. Wetlands are found primarily where

3318-534: Is noted for its spring floods, major flood years were 1876, 1894, 1948 and 1964. As recently as the mid-1960s, the upper Columbia and Kootenay rivers in British Columbia were still free-flowing and unaffected by dams and reservoirs, resulting in the 1948 Vanport Oregon flood . The uncontrolled discharge past the Canada-U.S. border created problems for electricity generation in the US, and Canada also wanted to utilize

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3476-508: Is now called the Columbia was the Kootenay, and he thought that he had not yet found the real Kootenay. Thence he applied the name "McGillivray's River" to the real Kootenay in honor of his trading partners William and Duncan McGillivray . In his writings, the Columbia from Columbia Lake to the Big Bend was called the Kootenae . The name "Kootenai" was also used by French Canadians to refer to

3634-441: Is now impounded in small lakes. All except Corra Linn, which was built to raise and regulate the level of Kootenay Lake. The Kootenay Canal Generating Station, completed in 1976 by BC Hydro , has its inlet at Kootenay Lake next to Corra Linn. The canal travels several kilometers, parallel to and above the river to utilize the roughly 84-metre (276 ft) high water drop in elevation between Kootenay Lake and South Slocan, bypassing

3792-629: Is one of the largest sub-basins of the Columbia River system . The watershed stretches almost 400 kilometres (250 mi) from north to south and 250 kilometres (160 mi) from east to west, roughly defining a region of the Pacific Northwest known as the Kootenays . In Canada, the term "Kootenays" is loosely defined although the Kootenay Land District , which includes the whole region,

3950-484: Is still unknown who was responsible for the bombing. While the Doukhobors were initially welcomed by the Canadian government, this assassination, as well as Doukhobors' beliefs regarding communal living, their intolerance for schooling, and other beliefs considered offensive or unacceptable, created a decades-long mistrust between government authorities and Doukhobors. Peter V. Verigin's son Peter P. Verigin, who arrived from

4108-696: Is the primary resource extracted from underground. Conventional coal deposits underlie much of the East Kootenay, especially in the Elk River valley which is home to the Elk Valley Coalfield, and the Crowsnest Coalfield in the Purcell Mountains . The East Kootenay is the most important coal-producing area of British Columbia, has since 1898 produced over 500 million tons, and about 25 percent of

4266-510: Is the rejection of materialism . They also reject the Russian Orthodox priesthood , the use of icons , and all associated church rituals. Doukhobors believe the Bible alone is not enough to reach divine revelation and that doctrinal conflicts can interfere with their faith. Biblical teachings are evident in some published Doukhobor psalms , hymns, and beliefs. Since arriving in Canada, parts of

4424-529: Is thought to have been first used in 1785 or 1786 by Ambrosius the Archbishop of Yekaterinoslav or his predecessor Nikifor ( Nikephoros Theotokis ). The archbishop's intent was to mock the Doukhobors as heretics fighting against the Holy Spirit (Russian: Святой Дух , Svyatoy Dukh ) but around the beginning of the 19th century, according to SA Inikova, the dissenters adopted the name "Doukhobors" usually in

4582-471: The Big Bend of the Columbia and the bulk of the mining population moved there en masse . Fisherville, which had a Hudson's Bay post and other businesses, continued on with a few hundred residents for a few years (most of them Chinese by the end, as was the case with many other BC gold towns also) but was eclipsed as a supply centre with the creation of nearby Fort Steele . The Chinese miners continued to work

4740-601: The Blackfeet in the 16th century. The Ktunaxa are considered quite isolated from other Pacific Northwest and Great Plains tribes. Their language is an "isolate", which is only distantly related (if at all) to the Salishan languages spoken by tribes of the Lake Pend d'-Oreille area. They were semi-nomadic people and inhabited a large area of the Kootenay valley from the headwaters to Kootenay Lake. Four villages provided their shelter in

4898-788: The Caucasus while those not capable of military service, and their women and children, should be resettled in Russia's recently acquired Transcaucasian provinces. With other dissenters, around 5,000 Doukhobors were resettled in Georgia between 1841 and 1845. Akhalkalaki uyezd (district) in the Tiflis Governorate was chosen as the main place of their settlement. Doukhobor villages with Russian names appeared there; Gorelovka, Rodionovka, Yefremovka, Orlovka, Spasskoye (Dubovka), Troitskoye, and Bogdanovka . Later, other groups of Doukhobors were resettled by

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5056-463: The Freedomites : 1930: Attempted arson of community hall and damage by explosives to school. 1932: Parading in nude prompted 118 arrests and three-year sentences. 1938: Church burned. 1946: Doukhobor hall destroyed by fire. 1947: Barns burned. 1958: Nearby gas pipeline dynamited. 1959: Three feet of CP track dynamited. A market/deli and small businesses operate. Since Thrums can be used as

5214-694: The Hutterites . Also, by passing Section 21 of the Dominion Military Act in late 1898, the Canadian Government exempted the Doukhobors from military service. The land for the Doukhobor immigrants, in total 773,400 acres (3,130 km ) within what was to soon become the Province of Saskatchewan , came in three block settlement areas or "reserves", and an annex: North and South Colonies, and Good Spirit Lake Annex, were located around Yorkton near

5372-464: The Interior of British Columbia in order to provide flood control for a low-lying area south of Kootenay Lake, called Kootenay Flats, European adventurer William Adolf Baillie-Grohman proposed the creation of a canal between the Kootenay River and Columbia Lake. Construction of the 2-kilometre (1.2 mi)-long, 14-metre (46 ft)-broad channel was finished in 1889. The Baillie-Grohman Canal , as it

5530-633: The Old Testament , but more profoundly the New Testament , were at the core of most Doukhobor beliefs. There continue to be spiritually progressive thinkers who, through introspection and debate, search for divine revelation to improve the faith. The Doukhobors have a history dating back to at least 1701 (though some scholars suspect the group has earlier origins). Doukhobors traditionally lived in their own villages and practiced communal living . The name Doukhobors , meaning "Spirit-wrestlers", derives from

5688-528: The Oregon Boundary Dispute was settled with the stroke of a pen and a straight line which ignored the topography. John Palliser crossed the Rockies through a pass in 1858 that led to the headwaters of the Palliser River , a tributary of the Kootenay River now named in his honor. (However, at first, his party referred to it as Palliser's River .) His expedition made it downstream to Columbia Lake but had some trouble making their way back to Alberta;

5846-600: The Parliament of Canada responded by criminalizing public nudity . Over 300 radical Doukhobor men and women were arrested for this offence, which typically carried a three-year prison sentence. Doukhobors could not vote in British Columbia until 1952. They were the last ethnic or religious community to be granted suffrage in the province. The Sons of Freedom, a break away protest sect identifying as svodoniki (sovereign, free people) in 1902, used nudism and arson as visible methods of protest. They protested against materialism,

6004-619: The South Saskatchewan River , which is part of the Hudson Bay drainage basin. The geologic story of the Kootenay is strongly connected to the geology of the Columbia, Selkirk, and Rocky Mountains. The mountains in much of the Kootenay River catchment are composed of Precambrian sedimentary rock of the Belt Supergroup , in turn, stratified into several subgroups with slightly different characteristics and ages. However, most of

6162-557: The Treaty of San Stefano of 1878, some Doukhobors from Tiflis and Elisabethpol Governorates moved to the Zarushat and Shuragel uyezds of the newly created Kars Oblast to the north-east of Kars in the modern-day Republic of Turkey . The leader of the main group of Doukhobors, who arrived in Transcaucasia from Ukraine in 1841, was Illarion Kalmykov ( Russian : Илларион Калмыков ). He died in

6320-704: The Vermilion , Cross , Palliser , White , Wild Horse , St. Mary , Elk , Fisher , Yaak , Moyie , Goat , and Slocan rivers. Many river basins border the Kootenay—some are part of the Columbia Basin, while others drain to distant shores of the North American continent. On the south and southeast, the divide formed by the Cabinet and Whitefish ranges separate the Kootenay and Flathead River watersheds. The Flathead

6478-421: The tsarist state and church authorities were involved in the persecution and deprivation of the dissidents' normal freedoms. In 1802, Tsar Alexander I encouraged the resettlement of religious minorities to the "Milky Waters" ( Molochnye Vody ) region around the Molochnaya River around Melitopol in modern-day southern Ukraine . This was motivated by the desire to quickly populate the rich steppe lands on

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6636-459: The "Big Bend" around the southern end of the Purcell Mountains and Libby . About 15 km (9.3 mi) below Libby it drops over Kootenai Falls . The Kootenai turns northwest at Troy, Montana , before the Yaak River joins from the north as the river crosses into idaho. The Moyie River enters near Moyie Springs before the river enters the gentle terrain of the Kootenai Valley and turns north, flowing past Bonners Ferry and back towards

6794-803: The "Book of Life" (Russian: Zhivotnaya kniga ), de facto replaced the written Bible. Their teaching is founded on this tradition. The Book of Life of the Doukhobors (1909) is the first printed hymnal containing songs in the Southern Russian dialect , which were composed to be sung aloud. Their prayer meetings and gatherings are dominated by the singing of a cappella psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In 2001, an estimated 20,000–40,000 people of Doukhobor heritage lived in Canada, 3,800 of whom claimed "Doukhobor" as their religious affiliation. An estimated 30,000 people of Doukhobor heritage live in Russia and neighbouring countries. In 2011, there were 2,290 persons in Canada who identified their religious affiliation as "Doukhobor"; in Russia there were 50 such persons by

6952-408: The "Kootanie" or "Flat Bow River". Kootenay Lake was called "Flat Bow Lake". Palliser was told by Ktunaxa tribal members that a trail already existed along the Kootenay River, terminating at Columbia Lake, but was in decrepit condition (having been out of use for many years) and "entirely impracticable for horses". They re-blazed the trail for many miles and returned to Kootenay Lake by mid-October of

7110-432: The "played-out" claims abandoned by American and Canadian miners, taking what little gold was left. Fisherville eventually was abandoned, its buildings left to ruin, and little remains of the settlement today. Other gold rushes on the Moyie and Goat Rivers, tributaries of the Kootenay, were followed by the discovery of silver and galena mines in the Kootenay Lake and Slocan Valley areas (Silvery Slocan), leading rapidly to

7268-567: The 1910s. Becoming predominantly a Doukhobor community, the Thrums Cemetery opened in 1912. Operated by the Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ (USCC) from 1940 until the 1970s, the site is now disused and overgrown. Several stores operated by the 1940s. The Chalmers ran a small store and tea room called The Window from the early 1940s. The population was about 150 by 1928, 250 by 1934, 174 by 1939, 387 by 1943, 250 by 1946, and 218 by 1951. The post office, which opened in 1906, did not reopen after burning down in 1978. Various incidents linked to

7426-410: The 19th century as a result of white emigration to the Kootenay region, and remains one of the primary industries of the area. In fact, much of the economy of the Pacific Northwest and Columbia Basin has historically been, and continues to be, to this day, dependent on the lumber industry. Lumber was required for the construction of buildings, forts, railroad tracks, and boats, and today is exported from

7584-423: The British North American Exploring Expedition, which, although involved some travel west of the Rockies, was mostly limited to the east side of the Continental Divide . Palliser's earlier travels were credited for being a "vital forerunner to the European settlement of the Prairies [of central Canada], providing volumes of information on the resources of this vast region." In September 1859, Palliser traveled into

7742-594: The Canadian government. Their leader, Peter Verigin , decided to move them to British Columbia in 1909, seeking land and improved life. He chose a townsite on the north bank of the Kootenay, where it joins the Columbia, across the big river from where the present-day town of Castlegar now stands. In 1909, he purchased about 14,000 acres (57 km ) adjoining the mouth of the Kootenay River partly using funds raised by sale of farm equipment in Saskatchewan, and added to other lands acquired throughout BC, Doukhobor-owned lands ultimately totaled 19,000 acres (77 km ). There

7900-465: The Canadian plains. Religious a cappella singing, pacifism, and passive resistance were markers of the sect. One subgroup occasionally demonstrated naked, typically as a protest against compulsory military service. Their policies made them controversial. The modern descendants of the first wave of Doukhobor emigrants continue to live in southeastern British Columbia communities such as Krestova , and in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan . As of 1999 ,

8058-424: The Columbia Glaciated ecoregion which encompasses much of northeastern Washington, northern Idaho, northwestern Montana and southern British Columbia. Fish fauna in the region are largely shared with those of the Columbia Unglaciated ecoregion to the south, which has about fifty species of fish and only one endemic species. There are no endemic fish within the Columbia Glaciated region itself. Riparian vegetation

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8216-481: The Columbia River. Kootenay basin reservoirs provide nearly 8.6 cubic kilometres (7,000,000 acre⋅ft) of storage which constitutes almost half of the 19.1 cubic kilometres (15,500,000 acre⋅ft) stored in Columbia River Treaty reservoirs. Doukhobor The Doukhobors ( Canadian spelling ) or Dukhobors ( Russian : духоборы, духоборцы , romanized :  dukhobory, dukhobortsy ; lit.   ' Spirit-warriors, Spirit-wrestlers ' ) are

8374-435: The Columbia and Kootenay rivers to process the logs into lumber. After more settlers began arriving, they built larger buildings that housed multiple families instead of the small cabins then typical of the region. Each larger house or dom , holding 70-100 persons each, was constructed on roughly 41-hectare (100-acre) plots of land that Verigin had divided the entire community into back in 1911. The Doukhobors then constructed

8532-413: The Columbia river for the production of hydroelectric power. Negotiated in 1961 between the governments of the two countries, the Columbia River Treaty attempted to ratify these problems. Construction of the first three of the four dams authorized by the treaty— Mica , Keenleyside and Duncan —was implemented in 1964. Of the four dams, the first two are on the Columbia, the third is on the Duncan River ,

8690-475: The Community Doukhobors left Saskatchewan, the reserves there were closed by 1918. On October 29, 1924, Peter V. Verigin was killed in a bomb explosion on a scheduled passenger train en route to British Columbia. The government had initially stated the bombing was perpetrated by people within the Doukhobor community, although no arrests were made because of the Doukhobors' customary refusal to cooperate with Canadian authorities due to fear of intersect violence. It

8848-441: The Doukhobor commune and Verigin's house. The highly publicized acts by the Sons of Freedom were repeatedly mislabeled with the word "Doukhobor", confusing the different groups and anguishing many law biding assimilated descendants of Canadian Doukhobors. During 1947 and 1948, Sullivan's Royal Commission investigated acts of arson and bombing attacks in British Columbia and recommended several measures intended to integrate

9006-457: The Doukhobor way of life. Industrious Doukhobors made their collective farms prosperous, often specializing in cheesemaking . Of the Doukhobor communities in the Soviet Union, those in South Georgia were the most sheltered from outside influence because of their geographic isolation in mountainous terrain, their location near the international border, and concomitant travel restrictions for outsiders. Doukhobor oral holy hymns, which they call

9164-421: The Doukhobors gained international attention and the Russian Empire was criticized for its treatment of this religious minority. In 1897, the Russian government agreed to let the Doukhobors leave the country, subject to conditions: Emigrants initially attempted to settle in Cyprus . Cyprus was, at the time, recognized as a possession of the Ottoman Empire , but in the wake of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) ,

9322-439: The Doukhobors into Canadian society, notably through the education of their children in public schools. Around that time, the provincial government entered into direct negotiations with the Freedomite leadership. W. A. C. Bennett 's Social Credit government, which came to power in 1952, took a harder stance against the "Doukhobor problem." In 1953, 174 children of the Sons of Freedom were forcibly interned by government agents in

9480-399: The Doukhobors' communitarian tradition but a "Hamlet Clause" within the Act had been adopted 15 years earlier to accommodate other communitarian groups such as Mennonites . The clause allowed beneficiaries of the Act to live in a hamlet within 3 miles (4.8 km) from their land rather than on the land itself. This allowed the Doukhobors to establish a communal lifestyle similar to that of

9638-468: The Dukhobortsy in the Caucasus into two major groups, which disputed their next leader. Lukerya wanted leadership to pass to her assistant Peter Vasilevich Verigin . Although most of the community—"the Large Party" Russian : Большая сторона , romanized :  Bolshaya Storona —accepted him as the leader, a minority faction known as "the Small Party" (Малая сторона Malaya Storona ) rejected Verigin, and sided with Lukerya's brother Michael Gubanov and

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9796-447: The Golden-Jennings run, was her builder and when she was about three-quarters completed, Armstrong decided to take her to Golden to complete the job. Gwendoline sailed up to the canal, which unfortunately was unusable because the gates of the lock had been dynamited due to a Kootenay flood. Armstrong was forced to portage the vessel and eventually made it to Golden. Gwendoline eventually sailed back south to Jennings to haul iron ore on

9954-476: The Kootenai River from Bonners Ferry, Idaho to Nelson and to the Lardeau or "Lardo" district at the north end of Kootenay Lake, and also on the upper Kootenay River between the Cranbrook-Fort Steele area and points in Montana. When the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) finished its transcontinental line across southern British Columbia, steamboats began to ply the upper Columbia and Kootenay Rivers, carrying passengers, produce, ore, and other trade items through

10112-652: The Kootenay Flats were formed. The First Peoples of the Kootenay River valley (the residents at the time of European contact) were the Ktunaxa people (often referred to as Kootenai ) from whom the river's name derives. Ktunaxa creation myths state that their people were created by the Quilxka Nupika ( supreme being ) and have always lived in the region; one reads "I have created you Kootenai people to look after this beautiful land, to honor and guard and celebrate my Creation here." However, linguistic and other evidence suggests that they are descended from Great Plains tribes that were driven out of their historic territory by

10270-414: The Kootenay River northwards the following spring. Through the early 19th century, Thompson continued to trade furs throughout the Kootenay region for the North West Company , and for the few years when he had a total monopoly over the Canadian fur trade west of the Rockies, he outlawed alcoholic drinks altogether. He was known to have written, "I had made it a law to myself that no alcohol should pass

10428-407: The Kootenay River valley to find a suitable path for a trade route and possibly a railroad. Instead of crossing the Rockies, as Thompson did, Palliser set out from Fort Colville , a Hudson's Bay Company trading post near Kettle Falls on the Columbia River. He then proceeded up the Pend Oreille River (noted as 'Pendoreilles') and crossed into the Kootenay River valley, which in his records was either

10586-430: The Kootenay from Brilliant, to produce jam and marmalade. The Doukhobors then established a ferry across the Columbia River, and a suspension bridge serving the same purpose was completed in 1913. For many years, Brilliant continued to be a major center in the region's lumber industry. However, Doukhobor views on education and the extremist actions of a Doukhobor group called the Sons of Freedom eventually spelled

10744-402: The Kootenay in the 20th century to generate electricity and protect against floods and droughts. Water levels of Kootenay Lake are artificially regulated, and numerous hydroelectric dams block the river between Kootenay Lake and the Columbia River. Upstream of Kootenay Lake, most of the river is free-flowing with the exception of the Libby Dam in Montana, which forms Lake Koocanusa . The river

10902-447: The Kootenay less and less profitable as the mines in the region played out, as the CPR established its Kootenay Central Railway branch, and for a variety of other reasons. In June of that year, Armstrong took North Star to the Baillie-Grohman Canal, which was in decrepit condition. The lock was also too small to accommodate the vessel. Armstrong had two makeshift dams built to create a temporary lock 40 metres (130 ft) long, and then

11060-418: The Kootenay upstream of the big bend. Steamboats also operated briefly on the lower river and Kootenay Lake to service silver mines in the nearby mountains. In modern times, boats continue to ply Kootenay Lake and limited reaches of the Kootenay River. Mining is also an important economic sector of the Kootenay River area. Although originally valuable minerals such as gold and silver were unearthed, today coal

11218-429: The Kootenay widens into the Lake Koocanusa reservoir. The Elk River , the Kootenay's longest tributary, enters Lake Koocanusa south of Elko, British Columbia . Stretching 130 kilometres (81 mi) south and crossing the US-Canada Border, Lake Koocanusa is formed by Libby Dam east of Libby, Montana . The Kootenai (as it is now named) receives the Fisher River just downstream of the dam and turns west, forming

11376-611: The Kootenay would rise each spring and early summers with "enormous freshets that every summer flood the Kootenay River valley",. Such extreme variations are no longer common on the river below Libby Dam. As early as 1898, without building a dam, the original Lower Bonnington Power Plant was generating hydroelectricity from Bonnington Falls in the Kootenay River near the confluence of the Slocan River in order to supply water to mines in Rossland, British Columbia . For Upper Bonnington ,

11534-503: The Kootenay. She was also the only ship to ever travel through the canal by proper means and made two of the only three steamboat trips through the canal. The last ship ever to pass through the canal and one of the last on the Kootenay was the North Star , also piloted by Captain Armstrong. In 1902, Armstrong decided to take North Star to sail on the Columbia instead, finding business on

11692-460: The Ktunaxa in the 19th century. "Kootenai" is thought to be a word meaning "water people" in an Algonquian language. The river is still referred to as Kootenai in the United States, while in Canada it is spelled Kootenay . Comparisons of various U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps from the 20th century show many misinterpretations or alternative names being applied to the segment of

11850-666: The Ktunaxa were sometimes called the Flatbows ( Arcs plats ) and the river called the Flatbow River. Other inhabitants of the area included the Montana Salish (in the south), and Shuswap (in the north), but these tribes were mostly not on the main river. In 1806, explorer David Thompson set out from Saskatchewan to find the source of the Columbia. He crossed over the Canadian Rockies through Howse Pass and eventually arrived on

12008-627: The Minister of the Interior, wanted the Doukhobors in Canada; he arranged financial subsidies to allow them to migrate. Due to the community's aversion to private ownership of land, Verigin had the land registered in the name of the community. By 1906, the Canadian Government's new Minister of the Interior Frank Oliver started requiring the registration of land in the name of individual owners. Many Doukhobors refused to comply, resulting in 1907 in

12166-846: The Ottoman Empire had granted the United Kingdom the right to administer the island in exchange for support in its continuing conflict with the Russian Empire . This fact made the potential settlement of the Russian Doukhobors a politically-sensitive question among some in the British government, but after Quaker supporters both made assurances of the Doukhobors' political inoffensiveness and provided financial guarantees against their potential indigency, officials permitted over 1,000 Doukhobors to establish farming settlements in several locations on

12324-755: The Pend Oreille basin via the Purcell Trench formed a natural corridor through which natives of the area could interact. The barrier formed by the Rocky Mountains to the east, however, meant that tribes of the area, especially the Ktunaxa, were economically and linguistically isolated from the Great Plains tribes (with the exception of the Shoshone , whose territory spanned both sides of the Rockies). Logging began in

12482-434: The Sons of Freedom, or as some historians put it, by the lover of one of Verigin's handmaidens. Over 7,000 people attended Verigin's funeral. The Doukhobor leader was buried in an elaborate tomb on a headland overlooking the city of Brilliant and the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers. Verigin was succeeded by his son, Peter P. Verigin, who arrived from Russia in 1927. Despite the economic reforms he created in response to debt to

12640-640: The Soviet Union in 1928, succeeded his father as leader of the Community Doukhobors. He became known as "Peter the Purger" ( Chistiakov ) and worked to smooth relations between the Community Doukhobors and wider Canadian society. The governments in Ottawa and the western provinces concluded he was the closet leader of the Sons of Freedom and was perhaps a dangerous Bolshevik . The governments decided to deport him, use

12798-408: The U.S. Dams, power plants and diversions of the Kootenay River, of which there are many, have been built for a variety of reasons throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The seven dams on the Kootenay serve many purposes, ranging from generation of local electricity to regulation of Columbia River flow between Canada and the United States. None provide for navigation or fish passage. In former times,

12956-573: The US-Canada Border. The river re-enters Canada south of Creston, British Columbia , and flows through a marshy area called the Kootenay Flats before emptying into the 100-kilometre (62 mi)-long Kootenay Lake . The lake is also joined by the Duncan River , the river's highest-volume tributary. Near Balfour an arm of the lake branches westward to Nelson , where the Kootenay River exits

13114-473: The US. To a limited extent, the Kootenay River has also been used for navigation. Commercial navigation began with steamboats in the 19th century to transport ores, lumber, passengers and other imported and exported products between the Kootenay River valley and the Canadian Pacific Railway station at Golden, British Columbia . Boat travel on the upper river ceased when a rail line was built along

13272-461: The area and the gold rush town of Fisherville was built; it had to be moved when it was discovered the town sat atop some of the richest deposits. Originally, the river (and the area) were known as "Stud Horse" by the early miners, but government officials changed it to Wild Horse . The new town's site was officially named Kootenai (though still known as Fisherville), also spelled Kootenay and Koutenais and also known as Wild Horse. Galbraith's Ferry

13430-493: The banks of the Kootenay, which he thought to be the Columbia. Thompson traveled down the river ways but turned back when he was attacked by Native Americans. The following year, Thompson, his family, and several men made another attempt at finding the Columbia. They crossed over the Rockies at a more northerly spot and traveled down the Blaeberry River to the Columbia, eventually discovering Columbia Lake and establishing there

13588-590: The beginning of World War I and April 1, 1917, 16 had Doukhobor defendants, none of whom hailed from the Transcaucasian provinces. Between 1921 and 1923, Verigin's son Peter P. Verigin arranged the resettlement of 4,000 Doukhobors from the Ninotsminda (Bogdanovka) district in south Georgia to Rostov Oblast in southern Russia, and another 500 into Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine. The Soviet reforms greatly affected

13746-612: The climate was not as suitable for growing fruits and vegetables. Women greatly outnumbered the men; many women worked on the farms tilling the land while many men took non-farm jobs, especially in railway construction. The earliest arrivals came from three backgrounds, had varying commitments to communal life, and lacked leadership. Verigin arrived in December 1902, was recognized as the leader, and reimposed communalism and self-sufficiency. The railway arrived in 1904 and hopes of isolation from Canadian society ended. Canadians, politicians, and

13904-562: The close of the Elisabethpol Governorate in the Caucasus Viceroyalty (now Azerbaijan ), the former Doukhobor villages became mostly repopulated by Baptists . Elsewhere, some Doukhobors joined nearby Spiritual Christian groups. Those who remained Doukhobors were required to submit to the state. Few protested against military service; of 837 Russian court-martial cases against conscientious objectors recorded between

14062-504: The community who had to complete their sentences before being allowed to emigrate. By 1930, about 8,780 Doukhobors had migrated from Russia to Canada. The Quakers and Tolstoyan movement covered most of the costs of passage for the emigrants; writer Leo Tolstoy arranged for the royalties from his novel Resurrection , his story Father Sergei , and some others to go to the emigration fund. Tolstoy also raised money from wealthy friends; his efforts provided about 30,000 rubles , half of

14220-479: The construction of any dams on the Columbia (Columbia River dams now block salmon from reaching any of the salmon run streams above Chief Joseph Dam ) which overflowed into Columbia Lake. It was with the creation of this temporary body of water that salmon somehow managed to swim over the submerged Canal Flats and into the Kootenay, where they became trapped. Populations of large land mammals such as caribou, moose, deer, elk, have been declining dramatically since

14378-451: The destruction of a power transmission tower servicing East Kootenay district, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs. Many of the independent and community Doukhobors believed the Sons of Freedom's arson and bombings violated the Doukhobor central principle of nonviolence, and that they did not deserve to be called Doukhobors. After the departure of the more zealous and uncompromising Doukhobors, and many community leaders, to Canada at

14536-479: The emigration fund. The anarchist Peter Kropotkin and professor of political economy at the University of Toronto James Mavor also helped the emigrants. The emigrants adapted to life in agricultural communes; they were mostly of peasant origin and had low regard for advanced education. Many worked as loggers, lumbermen, and carpenters. Eventually, many left the communal dormitories and became private farmers on

14694-482: The end of their settlement. In the 1920s, unknown arsonists destroyed several public schools in Brilliant as an act against British Columbia law. Then in 1924, on a routine rail trip to Grand Forks, Peter Verigin and seven other people were killed by a dynamite explosion that completely destroyed the coach that he was traveling in. Pieces of battery and alarm clock indicated that this was the work of people who intentionally wanted to kill Verigin, most likely members of

14852-533: The estimated population of Doukhobor descent in North America was 40,000 in Canada and about 5,000 in the United States. In accordance with the Dominion Lands Act of 1872, for a nominal fee of CA$ 10 , the Canadian government would grant 160 acres (0.65 km ) of land to any male homesteader who was able to establish a working farm on that land within three years. Single-family homesteads would not fit

15010-408: The falls instead of below them— and Upper Bonnington Dam, when completed in 1906, only generated hydroelectric power, and has served that purpose ever since. Commercial demand led to two more dams at the falls, these were South Slocan Dam in 1928, and Corra Linn Dam , at the rapids above Bonnington in 1932. Three of the dams are of the run-of-the-river type, the 4.5 km length of the falls

15168-451: The federal government, his arrival coincided with a terrible depression and bankruptcy which caused the Doukhobors to lose most of their lands. Verigin Jr. died in 1939 and by 1963, almost all Doukhobor lands were sold to the government. Today, little remains of the former settlement at Brilliant except for Verigin's tomb. The Doukhobor suspension bridge spanning the Kootenay River still stands, and

15326-402: The fertile riverside lands have been flooded by the construction of dams (most notably Libby Dam in Montana, which backs water into Canada). Only about two percent of the entire Kootenay basin (1,005 square kilometres (388 sq mi) is used for agriculture, and much of that is for pasture and foraging). Crops such as oats, barley and wheat account for 62 percent of the agricultural output of

15484-416: The fictional Scottish village of Thrums. In 1900, the second book in the trilogy gave Thrums, BC, a railway switch , its name. The suggested proponent/s are Robert W. and Janie A.S. Chalmers (a farming couple who settled around this time), an unknown female train passenger, or the daughter of an unspecified Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) director. CP's adding of this Columbia and Kootenay Railway siding to

15642-434: The first dam built for the treaty, was raised in 1967 and increased the 25-kilometre (16 mi) long size of Duncan Lake to a reservoir 45 kilometres (28 mi) long. Because of its purpose, it has no power generation facilities. Libby Dam, the fourth and last dam built under the treaty, was completed in 1975 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . The other two dams built for the treaty, Keenleyside and Mica, are both on

15800-422: The first dam built on the river, the original goal was to improve navigation between Kootenay Lake and the Kootenay's mouth on the Columbia by drowning the dangerous Bonnington Falls rapids that also blocked fish migration, and hopefully introducing fish to the upper river by constructing a fish ladder. None of these amenities for steamboats or salmon were ever constructed — in fact, the dam ended up being built above

15958-537: The first half of 1899, settling on land granted to them by the government in modern-day Manitoba , Saskatchewan , and Alberta . The Cyprus colony and others joined them, and around 7,500 Russian Doukhobor emigrants—about a third of their number in Russia—arrived in Canada by the end of the year. Several smaller groups joined the main body of emigrants in later years, coming directly from Transcaucasia and other places of exile. Among these latecomers were 110 leaders of

16116-469: The first recorded Doukhobors concluded clergy and formal rituals are unnecessary, believing in God's presence in every human being. They rejected the secular government, the Russian Orthodox priests, icons, all church rituals, and the belief the Bible is a supreme source of divine revelation. The Doukhobors believed in the divinity of Jesus ; their practices, emphasis on individual interpretation, and opposition to

16274-710: The first steamers, the Duchess and the Cline , sank when transporting miners to the Wild Horse gold rush on the Kootenay. Both ships had not even reached Canal Flats when they hit rocks in the Columbia. The first steamboat to run the Kootenay was the Annerly in 1893. Later vessels, such as the Gwendoline , had mixed success. Captain Frank P. Armstrong , who had piloted several earlier steamboats on

16432-519: The forward dam was blown up so the ship could ride the surge of water ahead into Columbia Lake. The transit of North Star to Columbia Lake was the last time the canal was ever used by a steamboat and marked the end of the steamboat era on the Kootenay. In the 20th century, members of a Russian religious sect called the Doukhobors living in the plains of Saskatchewan in central Canada were facing persecution, internal problems, and land confiscation by

16590-405: The government and church provoked antagonism from the government and the established Russian Eastern Orthodox Church . In 1734, the Russian government issued an edict against ikonobortsy (those who reject icons), condemning them as iconoclasts . The first-known Doukhobor leader was Siluan (Silvan) Kolesnikov ( Russian : Силуан Колесников ), who was active from 1755 to 1775. Kolesnikov lived in

16748-703: The government or migrated to Transcaucasia of their own accord. They also settled in neighbouring areas, including the Borchaly uyezd of Tiflis Governorate and the Kedabek uyezd of Elisabethpol Governorate . In 1844, Doukhobors who were being exiled from their home near Melitopol to the village of Bogdanovka carved the Doukhobor Memorial Stone , which is now held in the collection of the Melitopol Museum of Local History . After Russia's conquest of Kars and

16906-634: The headwaters of the Columbia River, as it merges into the Rocky Mountain Trench along the eastern foothills of the Purcell Mountains . It receives the Lussier River near Skookumchuck Station of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the St. Mary and Wild Horse rivers at the historic mining town of Fort Steele , then receives the Bull River at the settlement of the same name. At Wardner, British Columbia ,

17064-508: The island beginning in the second half of 1898. However, the Cyprus experiment soon proved to be disastrous: beset by disease (made worse by insufficient food that met the Doukhobors' religious requirements) as well as internal disagreements over community organization, nearly ten percent of the colony died by early 1899. Canada offered more land, transportation, and aid to resettle in the Saskatchewan area. Around 6,000 Doukhobors emigrated there in

17222-457: The justice system to impose conformity to Canadian values on the Doukhobors, and force them to abide by Canadian law and repudiate unacceptable practices. With a legal defence managed by Peter Makaroff , the deportation effort failed in 1933. The Sons of Freedom repudiated Verigin's policies as ungodly and assimilationist, and escalated their protests. The Sons of Freedom burnt Community Doukhobors' property and organized more nude parades. In 1932,

17380-427: The lake below Corra Linn Dam . The final westbound stretch of the river flows through a deep canyon, forming several waterfalls including Bonnington Falls , where four run-of-the river hydroelectric dams impound the river. Near Brilliant the Kootenay forms a small inland delta then enters the Columbia River near Castlegar . At 50,298 square kilometres (19,420 sq mi), the Kootenay river's watershed

17538-552: The land seizure by the government, compulsory education in government schools, and Verigin's assassination in 1924. This led to many confrontations with the Canadian government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police , which continued into the 1970s. Nudism was first used after the Doukhobors' arrival in Canada. They used violence to fight modernity, and destroyed threshing machines and other signs of modernity. The group conducted night-time arson attacks on schools built by

17696-446: The lives of the Doukhobors, both in their old villages in Georgia and in the new settlement areas in southern Russian and Ukraine. State anti-religious campaigns resulted in the suppression of Doukhobor religious tradition, and the loss of books and archival records. Many religious leaders were arrested or exiled; for example, 18 people were exiled from Gorelovka in 1930. Communists' imposition of collective farming did not contradict

17854-432: The lower Kootenay forms Kootenay Lake , one of the largest natural lakes in British Columbia. The Ktunaxa (Kootenai) were the first people to live along the Kootenay River. For hundreds of years, they hunted and fished on the river, quite isolated from neighboring tribes. In the 19th century, Canadian explorer David Thompson became the first recorded European to reach the Kootenay and established trading posts throughout

18012-633: The media were deeply suspicious of the Doukhobors. Their communal lifestyle seemed suspicious, their refusal to send children to school was considered deeply troubling, while pacifism caused anger during the First World War . The oppression of the Russian Tsarist regime had entrenched its resulting pacifist beliefs into the Doukhobour tenets and they did not waver with the onset of either World War. Some Canadians who were willing to go to war did not respect

18170-417: The members of the community, and resolved to adhere to the practice of pacifism and non-violence. They refused to swear the oath of allegiance required in 1894 by the newly ascended Tsar Nicholas II . Under further instructions from Verigin, about 7,000 of the most zealous Doukhobors—about one-third of all Doukhobors—of the three Governorates of Transcaucasia destroyed their weapons and refused to serve in

18328-1088: The mid-2000s. CCUB, the Orthodox Doukhobors organization or Community Doukhobors, was succeeded by the Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ (USCC) formed by Peter P. Verigin, Peter V. Verigin's son, in 1938. The largest and most active formal Doukhobor organization, it is headquartered in Grand Forks, British Columbia . During the Canada 2011 Census , 2,290 persons in Canada—of whom 1,860 in British Columbia , 200 in Alberta , 185 in Saskatchewan , and 25 in Ontario —identified their religious affiliation as "Doukhobor". The proportion of older people among these self-identified Doukhobors

18486-503: The military. As the Doukhobors gathered to burn their guns on the night of June 28/29 (July 10/11, Gregorian calendar ) 1895, while singing psalms and spiritual songs, government Cossacks arrested and beat them. Shortly after, the government billeted Cossacks in many of the Large Party's villages; around 4,000 Doukhobors were forced to disperse to villages in other parts of Georgia. Many died of starvation and exposure. The resistance of

18644-475: The modern-day border with Manitoba; the Saskatchewan (Rosthern) Colony was located north-west of Saskatoon, a significant distance from the other three reserves. In 1899, all four reserves formed part of the Northwest Territories : Saskatchewan (Rosthern) Colony in the territories' provisional District of Saskatchewan. North Reserve straddled the boundary of Saskatchewan and Assiniboia districts, and

18802-470: The mountains in my company". When two of Thompson's trading partners tried to make him take two barrels of rum to Kootanae House, Thompson "placed the two kegs on a vicious horse and by noon the kegs were empty and in pieces, the horse rubbing his load against the rocks to get rid of it ... I told them what I had done, and that I would do the same to every keg of alcohol." Of course, wine, beer, rum, and other intoxicating drinks were imported in time. In 1846,

18960-471: The mountains. Because of the steep rapids and falls between Kootenay Lake and the river's mouth, the Kootenay (with the exception of its tributary, the Slocan River ) has never been a significant stream for the annual runs of Columbia River salmon. However, landlocked salmon inhabit the upper reaches of the river above and in Kootenay Lake. This is attributed to a Kootenay River flood a long time ago, before

19118-601: The north shore of the Black and Azov Seas , and to prevent the "heretics" from contaminating the population of the heartland with their ideas. Many Doukhobors, as well as Mennonites from Prussia , accepted the Emperor's offer and travelled to the Molochnaya from other provinces of the Empire over the next 20 years. When Nicholas I succeeded Alexander as Tsar, on February 6, 1826, he issued

19276-502: The old dams. The canal is used to generate hydroelectricity , as are the four dams. After the falls and the junction with the Slocan River the last 18 kilometres (11 mi) of the river is a gradual slope to the merger with the Columbia. In 1944 the last privately owned development Brilliant Dam was built, just 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) before the Kootenay river flows into the Columbia River at Castlegar . The Columbia Basin

19434-863: The other reserves were entirely in Assiniboia. After the establishment of the Province of Saskatchewan in 1905, all reserves were located within that province. Verigin persuaded his followers to free their animals, and pull their wagons and plows themselves. On the lands granted to them in the prairies, the settlers established Russian-style villages, some of which received Russian names after settlers' home villages in Transcaucasia; for example Spasovka, Large and Small Gorelovka, and Slavianka; while others gained more abstract "spiritual" names not common in Russia, such as Uspeniye ( Dormition ), Terpeniye (Patience), Bogomdannoye (Given by God), and Osvobozhdeniye (Liberation). The settlers found Saskatchewan winters much harsher than those in Transcaucasia, and expressed disappointment

19592-427: The provincial authorities, who had to cooperate with the Doukhobors. At the time of her death in 1886, there were around 20,000 Doukhobors in Transcaucasia. By that time, the region's Doukhobors had become vegetarian and were aware of Leo Tolstoy 's philosophy, which they found quite similar to their own traditional teachings. The death of Lukerya, who had no children, was followed by a leadership crisis that divided

19750-462: The reaches of the upper Columbia north from Canal Flats at least as far as Golden (the Boundary Country is sometimes referred to as being part of the West Kootenay ). The Kootenay is the third largest tributary of the Columbia by both watershed size and discharge. Over 70 percent of the Kootenay's watershed is in British Columbia, while 23 percent is in Montana and 6 percent

19908-415: The region in great amounts providing jobs and income for inhabitants of the area. Even in relatively uninhabited regions of the watershed, logging roads criss-cross the hills and mountainsides. Over 90 percent of the Kootenay basin is forested, but only about 10 percent of the area is not affected by some kind of lumber-industry development, now defined as about twenty "roadless areas" or "blocks", with 18 in

20066-515: The region to be distributed via the CPR's line at Golden . The total run was about 500 kilometres (310 mi) long, ranging from Golden to the north to Jennings, Montana in the south, with a portage at Canal Flats. Kootenay's steamboat era was short and lasted for only about 28 years. In 1882, as part of an incentive to help navigation on the Golden-Jennings run and possibly divert water northwards to

20224-575: The region, much of which is used locally or exported by rail. The primary agricultural region is the Kootenai Valley of northern Idaho south of Kootenay Lake. The West Kootenay, however, is transitioning from a coal-mining to a tourism-based economy, and the rest of the Kootenay region is also starting to do so. The economy of southeastern British Columbia is becoming increasingly reliant on tourism, and several Canadian national and state parks have already been established, and several national forests in

20382-508: The region. A gold rush followed by silver and galena strikes in the late 19th century drew thousands of miners and settlers to the region, bringing developments such as railroads and steamboat navigation. The Doukhobors , a Russian religious sect, established a short-lived colony, Brilliant , at the Kootenay's mouth; subsequently dispersing into many settlements, they contributed to the region's timber and agricultural industries. As with many Pacific Northwest rivers, many dams were built on

20540-403: The reintroduction of wolves. Species almost entirely gone that were once common in the area include the white-tailed jackrabbit , pygmy short-horned lizard , band-tailed pigeon and passenger pigeon . After exploitation of the Kootenay basin by fur trappers, the beaver population was nearly exterminated as well. Even before non-aboriginal people came to the region, the Kootenay River valley

20698-460: The rest of the empire, to the Transcaucasian provinces. While the Small Party cooperated with the state, the Large Party, reacting to the arrest of their leaders and inspired by their letters from exile, felt strengthened in their desire to abide by the righteousness of their faith. Under instructions from Verigin, the Large Party stopped using tobacco and alcohol, divided their property equally among

20856-532: The return route they had chosen proved too dangerous to negotiate. After trading for some horses and new supplies from a band of Ktunaxa, they made it back over the Rockies later that year through North Kootenay Pass near Lower and Upper Kananaskis Lakes , after traveling up the Elk River . The series of expeditions he would later lead through 1859 were to be known as the Palliser Expeditions , or officially,

21014-675: The reverting of more than a third (258,880 acres (1,047.7 km )) of Doukhobor lands back to the Crown. The loss of legal title to their land became a major grievance. Ten years after the Russian conscription crisis, another political issue arose because the Doukhobors would have to become naturalized British citizens and swear an Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown—something that had always been against their principles. They did not know that they could have submitted an " affirmation " instead of an " oath ". The "oath" issue resulted in

21172-405: The river broadens into a series of sloughs, side-channels, marshes and small lakes before entering Kootenay Lake. This biologically diverse area, the Kootenay Flats, once supported over 1 million migratory birds every year, before the river was diked and many of the wetlands converted to agriculture. Naturally, the Kootenay has a high sediment content because of high erosion of glacial sediments in

21330-500: The river drains a rugged, sparsely populated region of more than 50,000 km (19,000 sq mi), of which over 70 percent is in Canada. From its headwaters to its confluence with the Columbia River, the Kootenay descends more than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). At their confluence, the Columbia and Kootenay are similar in length, drainage area, and volume, but less of the Kootenay is impounded in reservoirs and thus it has more free-flowing stretches with rapids and falls. Part of

21488-504: The river to back up into an enormous body of water that stretched to Libby, Montana , near where the Libby Dam now stands, and possibly even connected to Lake Pend Oreille , which also was much enlarged at the time. Glacially deposited sediments buried the old streambed of the Kootenay River and created a natural dam where the Kootenay turns west out of Kootenay Lake. After the glaciers retreated, Kootenay Lake receded to its present level, and

21646-546: The river within the United States. These include "Kootanie", "Kootenie", and "Kootienay". The Geographic Names Information System of the USGS lists "Swan River" as an alternate name, although the origin of this name is uncertain. (There is, however, a Swan River further southeast in Montana.) The Kootenay rises on the northeast side of the Beaverfoot Range of southeastern British Columbia and flows initially southeast through

21804-598: The river, especially in the Lake Koocanusa area and the Montana-Idaho portion of the watershed. In the Canada portion of the watershed, an alpine meadow ecozone occupies most of the high ridges and valleys of the mountains. In the Canadian portion of the Columbia Basin , almost half of which is part of the Kootenay River basin, there are 447 species of terrestrial vertebrates. Most of the Kootenay basin lies within

21962-458: The rocks have one thing in common; the rocks are generally hard and erosion-resistant. The Rocky Mountain Trench is thought to be a partial graben , or a long narrow strip of land that has dropped in elevation over time because of parallel faults on both sides. Faults in the Kootenay River watershed trend north-northwest to south-southeast as is common in much of British Columbia. The underlying rock

22120-458: The same year and was succeeded as the community leader by his son Peter Kalmykov (?–1864). After Peter Kalmykov's death in 1864, his widow Lukerya Vasilyevna Gubanova (? – December 15, 1886; (Russian: Лукерья Васильевна Губанова ); also known as Kalmykova) took his leadership position. The Kalmykov dynasty lived in the village of Gorelovka, a Doukhobor community in Georgia. Lukerya was respected by

22278-662: The same year. The expedition's findings were later to become important transportation routes through the Rockies to the Kootenays area, and the trail that they followed later became the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway . In 1863, a gold strike at the confluence of the Wild Horse and Kootenay Rivers in the East Kootenay region resulted in the Wild Horse Gold Rush in which between three and ten thousand men descended upon

22436-428: The settlement of the region and the creation of various "silver city" boomtowns, notably Nelson , at the outlet of Kootenay Lake, Kaslo , midway up its north arm, New Denver , Silverton , Slocan City and Sandon in the 1880s and 1890s. By 1889, a smelter had been constructed close to the mouth of the Kootenay, near Revelstoke , to process ore from the mines. Serving the mines and settlers, steamer companies plied

22594-408: The standing arrow". It is thought that French-Canadian fur trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company and other companies in the early 19th century were the first to refer to them as Kootenai , which means "water people" in an Algonquian language. It may also mean "deer robes," referring to their excellent skill for hunting deer. In some written records from the early 19th century, also by the French,

22752-441: The timetable in 1900 may have been merely as a designated siding. The flag stop, which appeared around 1905 was 5.8 kilometres (3.6 mi) northeast of Brilliant , and 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) southwest of Tarry's . Passenger service ended in 1964. Fruit growing was initially the main industry, which transformed to farming over time. The Chalmers, longtime residents from Scotland, also raised poultry. A general store opened in

22910-459: The trading post Kootenae House . In the spring of 1808, he set off down the Kootenay River, this time reaching present-day Montana and Idaho, where he established Kullyspell House and Saleesh House , trading posts on Lake Pend Oreille and the Clark Fork , respectively. After spending a winter in Montana, he tried to reach the Columbia by traveling down the Pend Oreille River but failed in this attempt, eventually returning to Kootenae House via

23068-412: The village Nikolskoye, Yekaterinoslav Governorate , in modern-day south-central Ukraine . Kolesnikov was familiar with the works of Western mystics such as Karl von Eckartshausen and Louis Claude de Saint-Martin . The early Doukhobors called themselves "God's People" or "Christians." Their modern name, first in the form Doukhobortsy (Russian: духоборцы , dukhobortsy ("Spirit wrestlers") )

23226-599: The village elder Aleksei Zubkov. While the Large Party was a majority, the Small Party had the support of the older members of the community and the local authorities. On January 26, 1887, at a community service at which the new leader was to be acclaimed, police arrived and arrested Verigin. He, along with some of his associates, was sent into internal exile in Siberia . Large Party Doukhobors continued to consider Verigin their spiritual leader and to communicate with him, by mail and via delegates who travelled to see him in Obdorsk . An isolated population of exiled Doukhobors,

23384-457: The winter, while in the rest of the year, they traveled between fishing, hunting and berry-picking areas. The northern Ktunaxa hunted buffalo , while the southerners mainly fished. Notably, the Ktunaxa were the first tribe west of the Rockies to capture and use feral European-introduced horses for their own use. The origin and meaning of the name "Kootenai" are uncertain. Before their discovery by Europeans, they were known as Ksanka , "people of

23542-426: The world's steel-making coal comes from the region. Most of the coal from the East Kootenay coalfields is exported to Japan and Korea . Lead, zinc, copper and silver are still mined at some places in the Kootenay River basin, notably at the giant Sullivan Mine near Kimberley, British Columbia , which is the largest in the Kootenay watershed. Agriculture , however, is a much less important industry, and many of

23700-561: Was already a small settlement on the site, called Waterloo, but Verigin renamed it Brilliant , for the "sparkling waters" of the river. The whole area was known by the name, Dolina Ooteschenie , meaning "valley of consolation". By 1913, there were already more than 5,000 Doukhobors living in the region. When they first arrived in British Columbia, the Doukhobors began felling trees in the Kootenay River valley to build their first homesteads . They also cleared areas of level ground in order to plant orchards and fields and constructed sawmills on

23858-404: Was an important path of trade and transport between the tribes of the Canadian Rockies and the Idaho Panhandle, mostly between the Ktunaxa (who practiced agriculture and aquaculture ) and the Salish, Blackfeet and Pend d'Oreilles of the south and east, and with the Shuswap in the north. The physiographic continuation of the Kootenai Valley southwards from present-day Bonners Ferry, Idaho into

24016-455: Was around Grand Forks near the US border. He later acquired large tracts of land further east in the Slocan Valley around Castlegar . Between 1908 and 1912, about 8,000 people moved from Saskatchewan to these British Columbia lands to continue their communal way of living. In the milder climate of British Columbia, the settlers were able to plant fruit trees and within a few years became renowned orchardists and producers of fruit preserves. As

24174-421: Was called, had one lock which was 30 metres (98 ft) long and 9 metres (30 ft) wide. Because of the rugged terrain and rough waters on the two rivers, especially on the glacier-fed Kootenay, steamboat operation was extremely difficult and proved to be anything but cost-effective. The roughest water was in Jennings Canyon, now mostly submerged in the Lake Koocanusa reservoir behind Libby Dam . Two of

24332-422: Was considered unacceptable and offensive. Canadian magazines showed strong curiosity, giving special attention to women's bodies and clothing. Magazines and newspapers carried stories and photographs of Doukhobor women engaging in hard farm labour, doing "women's work", wearing the traditional ethnic dress, and in partial or total states of undress. Doukhobors received financial help from Quakers. Clifford Sifton ,

24490-436: Was described with slightly different names by two groups of the local Ktunaxa (Kootenai) Indian tribes. These indigenous people who lived along the upper river knew it as aqkinmiluk , simply meaning "river". The people along the lower river called it aqkoktlaqatl , a name whose meaning is not certain. The name "Flatbow River" comes from the name the Blackfeet used to call the Ktunaxa, for their "powerful, stylish bows", and

24648-433: Was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1995. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council divides the Kootenay River watershed into six biomes: aquatic (rivers and lakes), riparian zones , wetlands, grassland/shrubs, moderately wet forest, and dry forest. The forested zones extend through the alpine and subalpine reaches of the watershed, while grasslands dominate the low terraces and plateaus surrounding

24806-408: Was established across the Kootenay near Fort Steele to facilitate crossing by the incoming rush of prospectors and merchants. Most of the gold was mined out by 1864, in June of which one American prospector wrote that some 200 miners were arriving each day. By 1865 the peak of the rush was over, and the diggings had been found not as rich as previously believed when news arrived in 1865 of the strikes in

24964-419: Was later recorded by French-Canadian fur traders. While searching for the ultimate source of the Columbia River, explorer David Thompson encountered Columbia Lake , where the Columbia River starts north as a small stream and the Kootenay rushes south, already a powerful river. Already knowing from earlier maps that the region included two rivers called the Columbia and the Kootenay, Thompson thought that what

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