Kinnaird ( gd, An Ceann Àrd, "high headland") is a neighbourhood comprising the southern part of

Castlegar, British Columbia Castlegar is the second-largest community in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. In the Selkirk Mountains, at the confluence of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, it is a regional trade and transportation centre, with a local ...

Name origin

Formerly named West Waterloo, it was an original station on the

Columbia and Western Railway The Columbia and Western Railway (C&W) was a historic, and initially narrow gauge, railway in southern British Columbia. Heinze ownership Proposal & planning Fritz Augustus Heinze, who opened a smelter at Butte, Montana in 1893, was seeking invest ...

opened in 1897. Called Kinnaird by 1912, a popular theory indicates this to be

Arthur Kinnaird, 11th Lord Kinnaird Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird, 11th Lord Kinnaird (16 February 1847 – 30 January 1923) was a British principal of The Football Association and a leading footballer, considered by some journalists as the first football star. He played in nine F ...

, the first superstar of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

and President of

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

. This could align with a suggestion that a

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 ...

(CP) official provided the name in honour of a place in Scotland. An alternative theory proposes the name was that of an early settler, perhaps a variation of the person's actual name. One possibility is a CP employee with a name such as Kinney, whose yard bordered the railway siding, giving rise to a "Kinney yard" that developed into Kinnaird. Alfred Joseph Kinney and Frank Kinert were early CP employees listed in the Castegar directory. Furthermore, Kinert is a spelling variant of Kinnaird and the Kinert clan lived in the barony of Kinnaird. Being an obscure railway point at the time, no theory of the name origin appears more plausible than another.

Community

By the 1940s, it was a bedroom community of both

Trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

and Castlegar. It was incorporated as a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

on August 6, 1948, and town in 1967, amalgamating with the Town of Castlegar on January 1, 1974 to form the City of Castlegar. It is the location of Kinnaird Elementary School, the community complex (home to the

Castlegar Rebels The Castlegar Rebels are a junior 'B' ice hockey team based in Castlegar, British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Neil Murdoch Division of the Kootenay Conference of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL). The Rebels ...

of the

KIJHL The Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) is a Junior ice hockey, Junior "B" Ice Hockey league in British Columbia, Canada sanctioned by Hockey Canada. The winner of the Teck Resources, Teck Cup competes with the champions of the ...

), and Kinnaird Park.

References

{{authority control Former municipalities in British Columbia Populated places in the West Kootenay British Columbia populated places on the Columbia River Populated places disestablished in 1974