FORT STEELE
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FORT STEELE |
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NAME: Fort Steele COUNTY: N/a ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Fort Steele summers are hot and dry. Autumn is generally delightful with moderate temperatures, dry weather and wonderful natural colours. Winter is decidedly cool and dry, with minimal snow. BEST TIME TO VISIT: Open year-round |
COMMENTS:
Declared a heritage park in 1961. Fort Steele is just 16 km. (10 miles) northeast of Cranbrook, B.C., on Highways 93/95. It is very easy to reach from the Crowsnest Hwy 3, which follows the historic Dewdney Trail. REMAINS: More than 60 restored buildings |
| More than a century ago, Fort Steele was the hub of commerce and gold prospecting in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia.By 1960, the town — located on the east bank of the Kootenay River in the shadow of nearby Rocky Mountain peaks — had witnessed tens of thousands of prospectors pass through its streets. But by then, Fort Steele was a virtual ghost town given over to violent seasonal dust storms, with only a half dozen residents living amidst mountain phantoms and scores of boarded up buildings. But by the following year, the British Columbia government purchased the Fort Steele site and declared it a historical site. Today it is known as Fort Steele Heritage Town, and has more than 60 meticulously restored buildings that honor the region’s glorious past, including its gold rush days dating back to 1864.According to Fort Steele’s current archive records, among the several thousand prospectors who stampeded to the area in 1864 was "Uncle" Dan Drumheller, a U.S. prospector who later wrote: "When we finally reached our destination, Wild Horse Creek, June 15, 1864, northeast of where Cranbrook now stands, we found about 1,500 miners already on the ground and about 200 straggling miners arriving daily." The heritage town’s research further records that another miner, David Griffith, who arrived late in 1864 recalled that: "The money taken out in 1864 brought in about 5,000 people in 1865, and that was the year that millions were taken out. I knew lots of men that cleaned up from forty to sixty thousand dollars that year. I had two partners that year, and my dividends ran over one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars a week, and I would go to town every Saturday night and spend the whole thing. The next year the gold was pretty well cleaned up and the excitement died out and that was the last of the rush to Wild Horse. No one will ever know how many millions were taken out...." Fort Steele is open year-round to visitors, and boasts many shops, displays and educational program opportunities. A few kilometres northeast is the the Wild Horse Creek trail, a two-hour self-guiding tour where visitors can walk through historic sites — including a historic cemetery and remains of old mines from the gold rush days. In 1995 Wild Horse Creek Historic Site came under the jurisdiction of Fort Steele Heritage Town, with all of the legal protection afforded a provincial historic site. Fort Steele Heritage Park policy allows visitors to pan for gold at the historic site of the gold rush — using a pan and shovel only. However, use of other placer mining equipment, including metal detectors, is not permitted. Officials ask visitors to leave historic artifacts for others to discover. Collecting is prohibited. Submitted by Johnnie Bachusky. Submitted by: Johnnie Bachusky |
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