Gerrard, British Columbia
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Gerrard is a ghost town in the
West Kootenay The Kootenays or Kootenay ( ) is a region of southeastern British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Kutenai First Nations people. Boundaries The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay ...
region of southeastern
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
. The settlement was at the south end of Trout Lake, east of
Upper Arrow Lake The Arrow Lakes in British Columbia, Canada, divided into Upper Arrow Lake and Lower Arrow Lake, are widenings of the Columbia River. The lakes are situated between the Selkirk Mountains to the east and the Monashee Mountains to the west. Bea ...
. Honouring banker George Bentley Gerrard, prior names were Selkirk and Twin Falls. The
Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
's (CPR) Kootenay and Arrowhead Railway from
Lardeau Lardeau is an unincorporated community, and former mining town and steamboat landing. The settlement is on the west shore near the head of Kootenay Lake in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. Lardo and Lardeau were used int ...
northwest to the terminus at Gerrard opened in 1902, where it connected with vessels on Trout Lake. At the time, the Great Northern Railway commenced a parallel line, but soon abandoned the project, and CPR never extended its line farther northwest in the direction of
Arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...
. The company abandoned the Lardeau–Gerrard line in 1942. Although comprising several scattered residences, the old settlement has disappeared with time. A campground exists about a kilometre to the northwest.


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References

*{{cite thesis , url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0104134 , last=Meyer , first=Ronald Howard , title=The Evolution of Railways in the Kootenays , year=1967 , website=www.open.library.ubc.ca, doi=10.14288/1.0104134 Ghost towns in British Columbia