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authority records
Trail United Church
Corporate body · 1987-2018

In 1984, Kootenay Presbytery approved the joint application of Knox United Church, Trail, B.C. and East Trail United Church to become a single two-point Trail Pastoral Charge. In January of 1985 the two congregations became one Pastoral Charge functioning with one Official Board. The two congregations were fully amalgamated in 1987, when Knox United Church became Trail United Church, and the East Trail property was sold. Trail United came together with congregations at Rossland, Salmo, and Fruitvale in 2003 to form a four-point charge, Communities in Faith. In 2016, the congregation at Salmo disbanded and the new Beaver Valley Pastoral Charge was formed, leaving Trail and Rossland congregations in Communities of Faith Pastoral Charge. The two congregations amalgamated in December, 2018, to form a single congregation (Communities in Faith) overseeing two properties.

Corporate body · 1960-1962

The Rossland-Trail Olympic Promotion Committee was founded in 1961 with the goal of hosting the 1968 Winter Olympics. Whistler, Fernie, and Rossland-Trail all bid to be Canada’s entry for the games, but Calgary was selected. The committee wrote letters back and forth with Canada’s Olympics Committee, as well as compiled maps and research about the area and snow fall history. In the end, the 1968 Olympics were held in Grenoble, France.

Corporate body · 1896-2002

West Kootenay Power & Light (WKPL) was founded by Sir Charles Ross, who was a Scottish noble. Ross arrived in Rossland between 1895 and 1896 and was involved in the Centre Star Mine. He formed West Kootenay Power & light to supply power to the Centre Star Mine, and in doing so he received a charter to supply electricity to the entire West Kootenay region. WKPL was incorporated in 1897. The first plant built was the Lower Bonnington Plant (plant No.1), which was built between 1897 and 1898 on the Kootenay River.

West Kootenay Power & Light first supplied light in Rossland in 1898 on the south side of Columbia Avenue. To do this, 51.5 kilometres of powerline was built between Rossland and Bonnington. The No.2 plant was built to keep up with energy demands between 1905-1906, above the Kootenay River on the Upper Bonnington Falls. This dam was expanded in 1914 and in 1916. Later, WKPL bought the charter of the South Kootenay Power Company and then expanded into the Boundary County and supplied their mines with power. In 1907, the Cascade Power Company sold its assets to WKPL and gave them ownership of the Cascade Dam on the Kettle River. In 1916 the Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company was anticipating the growing energy demands from the First World War bringing large zinc contracts, so they acquired WKPL as a wholly-owned subsidiary. To keep up with the greater electrolytic zinc operations at CM&S, a third dam, the South Slocan Dam, was built in 1928. A fourth dam, the Corra Linn was built 14.5 kilometres downstream from Nelson on the Kootenay River. In 1944 to meet CM&S’s power needs, a fifth power plant was built at the mouth of the Kootenay River, named the Brilliant Dam.

After WWII, CM&S wanted to connect their new Sullivan Mine operations in Kimberly to the electricity produced at the South Slocan Dam. The connecting powerline needed to cross Kootenay Lake, so WKPL completed the longest powerline span in the world at that time, measuring 3.4 km. CM&S hired a private contractor to build a dam on the Pend Oreille River, named the Waneta Dam. Construction was supposed to begin in the 1930s, but the Great Depression led to the project being abandoned until the 1950s.

Ownership of WKPL changed to the private, U.S.-based company Utilicorp in 1987. Ownership changed again in 2004, with FortisBC buying the business. Fortis has remained as the operation of the former WKPL dams ever since.

Notable personnel who worked at WKPL are Sir Charles Ross (1872-1942), the founder, Lorne Argyle Campbell (1871-1947), the General Manager, and J.D. McDonald (1874-1944), the General Superintendent.

Trail-Rossland Ski Club
A2024.000.007 · 1929-1942

Near the end of 1929 Trygve (Trig) Nora, Geoff Colls, Bert Both, Robert Lapse and Ole Nyhus formed the Trail-Rossland Ski Club, which attracted a number of skiers from Trail and Rossland. The cabin at the Rossland Golf Course acted as their headquarters for the next is to seven years. By 1933, the club had built two hills for ski jumping, the Nels Nelson Hills, and one north of the Rossland reservoir. The club hosted the 1934 Western Canada Ski Association tournament, where the jumping took place on the hill north of the reservoir. The club dropped "Rossland" from its name at the request of the Rossland Ski Club (Harold Fox, Trig Nora, Ivor Men, Fred Hackney, and Harry O'Reiley in 1934, and became the Trail Ski Club.