The area was first traveled north and south along the Columbia and Kootenay rivers by a nomadic group who fished and hunted sheep and went over the mountains to hunt bison in the lowlands of Alberta.

The first Europeans in this valley were looking for new worlds to explore and exploit but found an old world where cultures were robust and the people settled in their own traditions. In 1806, David Thompson, journeyed into the Rockies, engaging some natives to guide him across the portage from the Columbia River to the Kootenay River at Canal Flats and down to the mouth of the St. Mary’s River. Thompson continued to trade, explore and survey from 1807 to 1811, covering all trade sources in the southeastern part of British Columbia.

Prospecting and mineral exploration later brought more white men to this area. Gold was discovered on Skoo Kum Chuck Creek (about 1864), and more mining developments started up and people converged on this corner of BC. The wagon road from Galbraith’s Ferry at Fort Steele to Canal Flats was made in 1886, and in 1887 a bridge was built over the Kootenay River at Canal Flats.

The large expanse of land known as the Skookumchuck prairies was settled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. People came to homestead and ranch; they were given grants of land to settle and grow wheat crops and other produce to supply and feed the country. In the immediate area, mining, horse trading, logging and ranching were the beginning of the influx of people. Mining camps were followed by squatters settling and land was granted for homesteads. This was the way of life for the early settlers in the Wasa Lake, TaTa Creek, Skookumchuck and Canal Flats area.

This information was taken from “Kootenay Ripples” a publication of the Wasa & District Historical Association. For more information, or to purchase a copy please call Brenda Rauch (250) 422-3335