Kinnaird (, "high headland") is a neighbourhood comprising the southern part of

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

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 and planning Fritz Augustus Heinze, who opened a smelter at Butte, Montana, in 1893, was seeking in ...

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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and President of

the Football Association The Football Association (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 oldest footb ...

. This could align with a suggestion that a

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 ...

(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 a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Ho ...

and Castlegar. It was incorporated as a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

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 'A' 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). They play th ...

of the KIJHL), 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