28 Facts About Kootenay River

Above its confluence with the Columbia, the Kootenay River is comparable in length, drainage area, and volume but has a steeper gradient and is characterized by larger falls and rapids.

Kootenay River was described with slightly different names by two groups of the local Ktunaxa Indian tribes.

The name "Flatbow Kootenay River" comes from the name the Blackfeet used to call the Ktunaxa, for their "powerful, stylish bows", and was later recorded by French-Canadian fur traders.

The Kootenay continues southeast, receiving the Palliser River from the left, and flows south into a gorge at the confluence with the White River.

In Idaho the Moyie Kootenay River enters near Moyie Springs before the river enters the gentle terrain of the Kootenai Valley and turns north, flowing past Bonners Ferry back towards the US-Canada Border.

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The Kootenay is one of the few major rivers in North America that begin in one country, cross into another, and return to the first—others include the Milk River, a tributary of the Missouri River; the Souris River, a tributary of the Assiniboine River; and the Kettle River, a tributary of the Columbia River.

Kootenay River is defined by rocky uplands and steep mountains, and there is relatively little flat land in the watershed.

Geologic story of the Kootenay River is strongly connected to the geology of the Columbia, Selkirk, and Rocky Mountains.

The mountains in much of the Kootenay River catchment are composed of Precambrian sedimentary rock of the Belt Supergroup, in turn, stratified into several subgroups with slightly different characteristics and ages.

Faults in the Kootenay River watershed trend north-northwest to south-southeast as is common in much of British Columbia.

Glaciers covered most of the northern Kootenay River watershed and heavily shaped the peaks and valleys one sees today.

The glacier that formed Kootenay Lake caused the river to back up into an enormous body of water that stretched to Libby, Montana, near where the Libby Dam now stands, and possibly even connected to Lake Pend Oreille, which was much enlarged at the time.

Glacially deposited sediments buried the old streambed of the Kootenay River and created a natural dam where the Kootenay turns west out of Kootenay Lake.

Kootenay River crossed over the Canadian Rockies through Howse Pass and eventually arrived on the banks of the Kootenay, which he thought to be the Columbia.

Kootenay River was known to have written, "I had made it a law to myself that no alcohol should pass the mountains in my company".

Kootenay River then proceeded up the Pend Oreille River and crossed into the Kootenay River valley, which in his records was either the "Kootanie" or "Flat Bow River".

Palliser was told by Ktunaxa tribal members that a trail already existed along the Kootenay River, terminating at Columbia Lake, but was in decrepit condition and "entirely impracticable for horses".

Kootenay River's was the only ship to ever travel through the canal by proper means and made two of the only three steamboat trips through the canal.

Kootenay River chose a townsite on the north bank of the Kootenay, where it joins the Columbia, across the big river from where the present-day town of Castlegar now stands.

The Doukhobor suspension bridge spanning the Kootenay River still stands, and was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1995.

Naturally, the Kootenay River has a high sediment content because of high erosion of glacial sediments in the mountains.

Over 90 percent of the Kootenay River basin is forested, but only about 10 percent of the area is not affected by some kind of lumber-industry development, now defined as about twenty "roadless areas" or "blocks", with 18 in the US.

The East Kootenay River is the most important coal-producing area of British Columbia, has since 1898 produced over 500 million tons, and about 25 percent of the world's steel-making coal comes from the region.

West Kootenay River is transitioning from a coal-mining to a tourism-based economy, and the rest of the Kootenay River region is starting to do so.

The seven dams on the Kootenay serve many purposes, ranging from generation of local electricity to regulation of Columbia River flow between Canada and the United States.

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The Kootenay River Canal Generating Station, completed in 1976 by BC Hydro, has its inlet at Kootenay River Lake next to Corra Linn.

The economy of southeastern British Columbia is strongly dependent on tourism, with the Columbia Kootenay River, including Columbia Lake and Windermere Lake, being very popular for summer swimming and boating activities.

Diversion of the glacier-fed Kootenay River would have resulted in the Columbia River becoming much deeper and colder, flooding riverside communities and damaging tourism.