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The New PlayersIn 1898, the CPR negotiated with Heinze to purchase his Trail Creek smelter and the Columbia and Western Railways. In 1906, the CPR brought together its mining and smelting operations as the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (COMINCO).15,16
James J. Hill, founder of the Great Northern Railway (GNR), was not to be outdone by his main rival: the CPR. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Hill had embarked on a campaign to acquire or build spur lines into southern Canada from his mainline across the extreme northern United States. In 1898, he purchased Corbins Spokane Falls and Northern Railways, including his spur lines to Trail and Nelson.17 He had also purchased a narrow gauge railway connecting Kootenay Lake and the Slocan Valley as well as the rich mineral deposits around Sandon. Hill also built a spur from Bonners Ferry, Idaho to Kuskanook, and launched sternwheelers on the lake to transport passengers and freight, including ore from Sandon, Riondel and Pilot Bay.18
Hill soon sought another connection to Canada: a rail line from Jennings, Montana to the Crowsnest coalfields.19 This spur would enable him to transport coke produced in the Elk Valley to smelters in Trail, Northport and elsewhere along his rail, lake and river network. The BC government granted him a charter to build the Crows Nest Southern Railway in 1901.20 In 1904, he purchased over fifty percent of the Crows Nest Pass Coal Companys shares, giving him further control over the transportation of coke produced in the Elk Valley. For over twenty years, Hill's GNR provided the only all-rail network connecting the Elk Valley and the ore mines and smelters west of Kootenay Lake.
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Introduction | Elk Valley | The Kootenay Smelter | The Missing Link | Heat and Electricity | Pacific Steamships | The Strikebreakers on Vancouver Island
© MM Fernie & District Historical Society.