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Canal Flats
Monday, May 26th, 2008 by GetawayBC.com
Canal Flats was originally called McGillivray’s Portage, so named in 1808 by mapmaker David Thompson. In 1883, an English sportsman named William Adolphe Baillie-Grohman dreamed of building a canal across McGillivray’s Portage from Columbia Lake to the Kootenay River. He envisioned being able to connect the Columbia River system with the Kootenay, allowing water traffic from the valley to access the Creston area.
Columbia Lake was at the time only 11 feet lower than the Kootenay River, so the engineering problems surrounding the plan were not insurmountable. Baillie-Grohman planned his canal to be 45 feet wide and 6,700 feet long to connect the two rivers across the gravel flat that lay between them. The outcome of the feat would drain the sloughs in the Creston Valley.
After a lengthy process, the B.C. government finally allowed the canal to be built, with a lock. At 100 ft. long by 30 ft. wide, the lock was completed around 1888, but by this time Baillie-Grohman had given up his dream and retired to England, while a year later the government voted to close the canal.
Only two boats ever went through the canal: the Gwendoline in 1894, going from Columbia Lake to the Kootenay River, and the North Star in 1902, headed to Golden from Montana.
But the North Star was too large, and the captain of the steamer, Francis Armstrong, had to blast the side of the canal to get his boat through.
The remains of the canal can still be seen today.
During all of this a small community had sprung up: Grohman. It consisted of four dwellings, a sawmill, warehouse, post office and a licensed hotel.
Eventually the community grew and was called Canal Flat, with the ’s’ added several years later, apparently, according to locals, because it was mistakenly added to a highway sign and it “just stuck.”
Today, Canal Flats (population 700) is one of the newest municipalities in British Columbia, having gained incorporation on June 29, 2004.
Primarily supported by the local mill, which is owned by Tembec Inc., Canal Flats is a bustling and growing centre.
Affordable land and housing prices make it a popular location for those seeking a residence or summer cottage in the Columbia Valley.
The community features restaurants, a pub, hardware store, post office, various stores and a great nine-hole golf course (th’ Flats). The ‘Flats, as locals call it, also boasts a community-run park which serves as the perfect setting for an afternoon travelling break, with swimming, a boat launch and picnic area.
Canal Flats is a gateway to several world-class backcountry parks, including Whiteswan, Top of the World and Premier Lake provincial parks.
It is also the entrance to the Kootenay River Road, which leads explorers into a vast Rocky Mountain wilderness, renowned for whitewater paddling, hunting, fishing and camping; and the gateway to Purcell Mountain wilderness areas, with Whitetail Lake and Blue Lake short drives from the town.;