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Description

Unrecorded promotional map, promoting the Kootenay Mining District.

On the verso, there are promotional tracts for Golden Cariboo and West Kootenay, with single panel map of the Cariboo mining region. The map promotes land which were accessible "only by the Canadian Pacific Railway', and was distributed among prospectors to encourage them to travel to the gold fields of western Canada. The reverse has a map of Cariboo and descriptions of how to get to some of the more remote mining towns from the nearest railway stop.

The first gold strike in the Kootenay region occurred in 1863, at the confluence of the Wild Horse and Kootenay Rivers in the East Kootenay region, which resulted in the Wild Horse Gold Rush and the founding of the region's first gold rush town, Fisherville, B.C. When it was discovered that the original town site was on a rich deposit, it was moved and the new town's site was officially named Kootenai (though still known as Fisherville). Galbraith's Ferry was established across the Kootenay near Fort Steele to facilitate crossing by the incoming rush of prospectors and merchants. Most of the gold was mined out by 1864.

Other gold rushes on the Moyie and Goat Rivers, tributaries of the Kootenay, were followed by the discovery of silver and galena mines in the Kootenay Lake and Slocan Valley areas (Silvery Slocan), leading rapidly to the settlement of the region and the creation of various "silver city" boomtowns, notably Nelson, at the outlet of Kootenay Lake, Kaslo, midway up its north arm, New Denver, Silverton, Slocan City and Sandon in the 1880s and 1890s. By 1889, a smelter had been constructed close to the mouth of the Kootenay, near Revelstoke, to process ore from the mines. Serving the mines and settlers, steamer companies plied the Kootenai River from Bonner's Ferry, Idaho to Nelson and to the Lardeau or "Lardo" district at the north end of Kootenay Lake, and also on the upper Kootenay River between the Cranbrook-Fort Steele area and points in Montana.

Rarity

OCLC lists no copies of the map.