British Columbia - Radium Hot Springs

Radium Hot Springs is at the gateway to thecommunities and has become a four season resort
Kootenay National Park (KNP) which has long been antown.Not counted among the village's 750 residents
east-west travel route. It is believed that the areaare some 200 members of a Rocky Mountain bighorn
encompassed by the park, some 1406 sq. km., wassheep band. Few other communities can match
traveled on a seasonal basis by First Nations. TheRadium for the numbers of sheep. Built on part of
Ktunaxa regularly crossed the Rockies via Whitemanthe band's winter range, Radium and valley residents
Pass, Simpson Pass and Vermilion Pass to hunthave learned to live and work side-by-side with the
buffalo on the plains.The first non-native people in thesheep and appreciate the blue-listed species. The
area were trappers and fur traders with the firstsheep are commonly seen in the village only from
recorded visit by Sir George Simpson in 1841. Hard onlate autumn to mid-spring.Like most valley
Simpson's heels was James Sinclair who came overcommunities, Radium has an interesting past. Human
Whiteman Pass leading a cavalcade of Red Riverbeings have been making the most of the healing
settlers en route to Walla Walla, Washington. In 1858waters for hundreds of years, beginning with the
geologist James Hector led a branch of the PalliserFirst Nations people who used Sinclair Pass for access
expedition into the north end of the Kootenaybetween the Columbia and Kootenay valleys. In 1920,
area.By the early 1900s local businessmen werewhen its population consisted of a handful of
lobbying for a road linking Windermere to Banff.construction workers and lumberjacks,
Eventually the road was completed by the federalaccommodations neither so plentiful nor civilized as
government in exchange for title to a strip of land onthey are today. Two dollars a week bought you
either side of the route. In 1920, this land was setspace shared with strangers in a tent with a bed
aside as Kootenay National Park.The best known builtmade of clean hay, illuminated by candles stuck in
up area in the region is Radium Hot Springs which isempty whisky bottles. Use of the hot pool cost 50
just at the south entrance to the park through thecents or $1 a day for as many soaks as you
narrow gorge of the Sinclair Canyon. Although it haswanted.In 1923 an analyst from the Canadian
a reputation for being perhaps the petunia andgovernment did some tests that showed the waters
bighorn sheep capital of BC, Radium is most famouswere radioactive, hence the name Radium. It is
for which it was named, the healing, hot waterbelieved that the water is therapeutic, particularly for
springing from the earth and captured in a hugearthritis sufferers. Even for completely healthy
soaking pool.Known internationally as a resort town, itpeople, the water is certainly relaxing and soothing
has more than 30 motels and hotels, all geared toand the view provided from the pools of the red
providing accommodation for the thousands ofwalls of Sinclair Canyon is sheer beauty. Geographical
visitors who pass through every year. They arrive onformations are the order of the area, as witnessed
one of three highways, Hwy 95 south from Golden,by the redrock wall and the dramatic crack which
Hwy 93 southwest of the TransCanada Highwayyou pass through upon entering Radium.The village of
between Lake Louise and Banff, or north on 93/95Radium is also now synonymous with golf as it
coming in from Montana and Idaho. The Village ofboasts two top-rated 18-hole golf courses; the
Radium Hot Springs with a current population of 750Springs at Radium and the Radium Resort. Radium is
year round residents, was incorporated in 1992. Italso the gateway to a will Purcell Mountain
remains one of the province's fastest growingbackcountry rife with recreational opportunities.