| Radium Hot Springs is at the gateway to the | | | | communities and has become a four season resort |
| Kootenay National Park (KNP) which has long been an | | | | town.Not counted among the village's 750 residents |
| east-west travel route. It is believed that the area | | | | are some 200 members of a Rocky Mountain bighorn |
| encompassed by the park, some 1406 sq. km., was | | | | sheep band. Few other communities can match |
| traveled on a seasonal basis by First Nations. The | | | | Radium for the numbers of sheep. Built on part of |
| Ktunaxa regularly crossed the Rockies via Whiteman | | | | the band's winter range, Radium and valley residents |
| Pass, Simpson Pass and Vermilion Pass to hunt | | | | have learned to live and work side-by-side with the |
| buffalo on the plains.The first non-native people in the | | | | sheep and appreciate the blue-listed species. The |
| area were trappers and fur traders with the first | | | | sheep are commonly seen in the village only from |
| recorded visit by Sir George Simpson in 1841. Hard on | | | | late autumn to mid-spring.Like most valley |
| Simpson's heels was James Sinclair who came over | | | | communities, Radium has an interesting past. Human |
| Whiteman Pass leading a cavalcade of Red River | | | | beings have been making the most of the healing |
| settlers en route to Walla Walla, Washington. In 1858 | | | | waters for hundreds of years, beginning with the |
| geologist James Hector led a branch of the Palliser | | | | First Nations people who used Sinclair Pass for access |
| expedition into the north end of the Kootenay | | | | between the Columbia and Kootenay valleys. In 1920, |
| area.By the early 1900s local businessmen were | | | | when 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 federal | | | | accommodations neither so plentiful nor civilized as |
| government in exchange for title to a strip of land on | | | | they are today. Two dollars a week bought you |
| either side of the route. In 1920, this land was set | | | | space shared with strangers in a tent with a bed |
| aside as Kootenay National Park.The best known built | | | | made of clean hay, illuminated by candles stuck in |
| up area in the region is Radium Hot Springs which is | | | | empty whisky bottles. Use of the hot pool cost 50 |
| just at the south entrance to the park through the | | | | cents or $1 a day for as many soaks as you |
| narrow gorge of the Sinclair Canyon. Although it has | | | | wanted.In 1923 an analyst from the Canadian |
| a reputation for being perhaps the petunia and | | | | government did some tests that showed the waters |
| bighorn sheep capital of BC, Radium is most famous | | | | were radioactive, hence the name Radium. It is |
| for which it was named, the healing, hot water | | | | believed that the water is therapeutic, particularly for |
| springing from the earth and captured in a huge | | | | arthritis sufferers. Even for completely healthy |
| soaking pool.Known internationally as a resort town, it | | | | people, the water is certainly relaxing and soothing |
| has more than 30 motels and hotels, all geared to | | | | and the view provided from the pools of the red |
| providing accommodation for the thousands of | | | | walls of Sinclair Canyon is sheer beauty. Geographical |
| visitors who pass through every year. They arrive on | | | | formations 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 Highway | | | | you pass through upon entering Radium.The village of |
| between Lake Louise and Banff, or north on 93/95 | | | | Radium is also now synonymous with golf as it |
| coming in from Montana and Idaho. The Village of | | | | boasts two top-rated 18-hole golf courses; the |
| Radium Hot Springs with a current population of 750 | | | | Springs at Radium and the Radium Resort. Radium is |
| year round residents, was incorporated in 1992. It | | | | also the gateway to a will Purcell Mountain |
| remains one of the province's fastest growing | | | | backcountry rife with recreational opportunities. |