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 Kootena ...
region of southeastern
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
. The settlement was at the south end of Trout Lake, east of
Upper Arrow Lake.
Honouring banker George Bentley Gerrard, prior names were Selkirk and Twin Falls.
The
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway () , 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 Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
's (CPR) Kootenay and Arrowhead Railway from
Lardeau 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, or sometimes for special purposes such as signaling.
...
. 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.
Footnotes
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