1

The City of Trail is located on the Columbia River in Southeast British Columbia, 11 miles north of the Canada-US border. The town was established in the early 1890s as a supply point to serve the burgeoning mining camp of Rossland, six miles to the west.

2

Trail Creek Landing
August 1895
Trail Creek Landing, Trail, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
Trail City Archives

3

Downtown Rossland, British Columbia. The Red Mountain Mines are visible in the background.
1900
Columbia Avenue, Rossland, British Columbia, Canada

Credits:
Trail City Archives

4

It was in 1890 that two prospectors, Joe Moris and Joe Bourgeois, discovered gold/copper ore on the face of Red Mountain in Rossland. This discovery was the single most important event in the history of Trail and indeed the Trail/Rossland area.

5

Rossland Mines. From left: Josie, Black Bear, LeRoi, Centre Star. War Eagle on skyline.
1900
Rossland, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
Trail City Archives

6

Under British Columbia law, only four of the five claims staked by Moris and Bourgeois could be recorded at the Nelson Mine Recorder's Office. The deputy mining recorder, Eugene Sayre Topping, agreed to pay the recording fees for the claims in return for ownership of the fifth claim.

7

Eugene Sayre Topping, taken in Spokane, WA, about the time of pre-emption
Circa 1892
Spokane, Washington, United States of America

Credits:
Trail City Archives

8

Cane whittled by Joe Morris, View 1
1890s
Trail Museum, Trail, British Columbia
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
Trail Musuem

9

Cane whittled by Joe Morris, View 2
1890s
Trail Museum, Trail, British Columbia

Credits:
City of Trail

10

Topping, an American born in the state of New York, and his friend Frank Hanna, also an American, then purchased 343 acres at the mouth of Trail Creek on the Columbia River, hoping the claims on neighbouring Red Mountain would be developed into paying mines and make them wealthy through the sale of town lots.

11

Frank Hanna in the early 1890s
1890s
Trail, British Columbia, Canada

Credits:
Trail City Archives
Teck Cominco

12

Their hopes became reality in 1895, as these mines proved to be rich in gold/copper ore. As a result, the lots in the Trail Creek townsite sold briskly and people began to arrive.

13

Trail Townsite Co. Receipt
5 February 1896
Trail, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
Trail City Archives

14

Given Trail's remote location in the interior of British Columbia and its close, often tumultuous proximity to the wild Columbia River, transportation to Trail Creek Landing relied heavily on the water. Sternwheelers regularly docked at Trail Creek Landing, unloading passengers heading for the mines in Rossland and reloading with ore bound for smelters in the United States.