Trail, British Columbia

Trail has an area of 34.78 km² (13.43 sq mi). The city is located on both banks of the Columbia River, approximately 10 km (6.2 mi) north of the United States border. This section of the Columbia River valley is located between the Monashee Mountains to the west and the Selkirk Mountains to the east. The Columbia flows directly north-south from Castlegar, turns east near downtown Trail, and then meets the Canada–United States border at Waneta and the Pend d'Oreille River.

Summer climate in Trail is generally hot and dry with moderately cool nights. Temperatures often exceed 35 °C (95 °F) during summer afternoons, average 29 °C (84 °F). Thunderstorms are common during the late-Spring and Summer season, often moving into the valley from the south. The fall months bring dense river fog, especially overnight and in the morning, as a cold air inversion lingers above the relatively warm river surface. Winters are mild to cold with periods of moderate snowfall. Nearby villages such as Warfield and Fruitvale often receive greater amounts of snow due to higher elevation.

The Monashee Mountains are the first major mountain range east of the Coastal Mountains to intercept moisture laden westerly flow from the Pacific Ocean. As a result, areas west of Trail, including the Christina Range, Rossland Range, the city of Rossland, and the Blueberry-Paulson section of the Crowsnest Highway (Highway 3) receive greater amounts of winter precipitation, mostly in the form of heavy snow. Vegetation in the Trail area, although fairly lush, is noticeably drier than other areas with a more westerly aspect.

According to Statistics Canada, Trail's population was 7,709 during the Canada 2016 Census.[2]

The city is also noted for its large Italian community. There are 1,320 people in Trail with Italian ancestry (17.8%).[5]

The entrance of J. Lloyd Crowe Secondary School

Trail is the location of the head office of the Kootenay Boundary Regional District, which is one of the city's employers.

Trail is part of School District 20 Kootenay-Columbia and schools in the town include:

• Glenmerry Elementary School (Public elementary school K-7)
• J. Lloyd Crowe Secondary School (Public secondary school 8-12)
• James L Webster Elementary School (Public elementary school K-7.)
• St. Micheals Catholic School (Independent elementary school K-7)
• Kootenay-Columbia Learning Centre (Public school 6-12)

Employing approximately 1,800 people, Teck Resources (formerly Cominco) is the region’s largest employer. The average age of an employee at Teck Resources' Trail operation is 47. It is anticipated that within 15 years Teck Resources' Trail operation will have a completely new and different labour force. A younger and perhaps more technical labour force will most likely replace those that are retiring. The big picture for the area is one of an aging population which brings about ongoing employment opportunities in the area.

Trail Regional Airport

The City of Trail is also home to the largest hospital in the West Kootenay region.

Trail Smelter in 1929

In February 1896, Fritz Augustus Heinze opened his British Columbia Smelting and Refining Company smelter at Trail to process ore brought from Rossland on his Columbia and Western Railway. The concentrate from the smelter was transported to Butte, Montana, for refining. The plant capacity was soon increased from about 150 to 400 tons per day. However, with the supply of Rossland ore largely going south to Northport, the plant was unprofitable. The output was 50 per cent pure copper at best, and the yellow clouds of sulfur dioxide became health hazards for the region.

When the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) expressed interest in buying the Columbia and Western Railway (C&W), Heinze insisted the package include the Trail smelter. In February 1898, CP bought the C&W for $600,000, and the smelter for $200,00. Heinze retained several other holdings. CP created the Canadian Smelting Works to run the plant. CP's new Crowsnest Pass branch supplied cheap coal, and the new Bonnington Falls dam provided electricity. That August, new blast furnaces increased efficiency and tall chimneys lifted the toxic smoke farther above Trail.

Since lead was the most common ore in the region, the company built two lead furnaces, which were operational by the end of 1901. The next year, the federal government offered a subsidy of five dollars for each ton of lead smelted in Canada. However, the concentrate still required refining at the American Smelting and Refining Company's plant in Tacoma, Washington. To address this problem, by the end of 1902, Trail opened the first commercial electrolytic refining process in the world, producing pure lead, pure copper, fine silver and gold. In 1906, the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (CM&S), a consortium comprising the smelter and certain Red Mountain mines at Rossland, was formed. CP had a 54 per cent holding. After the Northport smelter closed in 1921, Trail remained the sole operator in the region.

By 1925, the 250-acre plant employed 2,100 men and comprised a lead plant, an electrolytic zinc plant, a copper smelter, a copper refinery, a silver and gold refinery, plants for making bluestone, hydrofluosillicic acid and sulfuric acid, a foundry, a machine shop and round-house, and a copper rod mill. That year, CM&S processed 380,000 tons of ores and concentrates at Trail to recover 21,352 ounces of gold, nearly 4.5 million ounces of silver, 9,500 tons of copper, 117,500 tons of lead and almost 50,000 tons of zinc.[6]

By the end of World War I, the smoke pollution had devastated the surrounding district. During the following decades, this triggered the Trail Smelter dispute, which resulted in decades of legal action. This case, known commonly as the "Trail smelter arbitration", is a landmark in environmental law,[7] as it helped to establish the "polluter pays" principle for transnational pollution issues.[8]

In 1966, the company name changed to Cominco. Over the following decades, the smelter spent millions on pollution control.[6] In 1975, the soils in some parts of Trail were found to be contaminated with lead and certain other heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, zinc) to levels above regulatory limits.[9] The monitored lead levels in the blood of local school children fell from high that year to insignificant 30 years later.[6]

In 2007, a free testing program was instituted, with removal of above-limit topsoils in residential yards (with a priority focus on families with young children).[10] Teck provides funding for this ongoing operation. Because of improvements in smelting processes and emissions controls over the years, the existing contamination is attributed to smelting activities that pre-date the 1997 adoption of newer technologies.[11]

As its contribution to the Manhattan Project's P-9 Project, Cominco built and operated a 1000 to 1200 pound per month (design capacity) electrolytic heavy water plant at Trail, which operated from 1943 to 1956. Lt-Col Nichols noted environmental damage from emissions to the "beautiful valley and mountain slopes" in the first half of 1943.[12][13][14][15]

The Greater Trail Area is known as the Home of Champions, in recognition of those who reside in the area, or are from the area, and have excelled in their chosen field of endeavour.

In 1995, Kootenay Savings Credit Union was seeking a project that would represent their commitment and appreciation to the Greater Trail community. The Credit Union decided to sponsor the construction of a monument which was constructed in the summer of 1996 outside their offices in Trail's downtown that would honour the "Champions" of the Greater Trail area in Sports, Industry and Lifestyle.

A society was formed to establish criteria for selection of the persons to be honoured on the monument. The monument was constructed in the summer of 1996 and forty-three champions were selected to be honoured at the inaugural dedication ceremony which took place on September 28, 1996. To date, eighty-nine individuals and organizations have been honoured with a place on the Home of Champions monument.[17]

The Home of Champions monument project is an ongoing one, managed by the City of Trail. Additional persons will be honoured regularly for their special contribution to the social, cultural, economic and educational fabric of the community.

• John Rogers Anderson, Chief of the Defence Staff
• Jason Bay, former MLB player
• Lauren Bay, Canadian National Softball Team and National Pro Fastpitch pitcher
• Ed Cristofoli, former NHL player
• Craig Cunningham, former NHL Player
• Adam Deadmarsh, former NHL player, won Stanley cup in 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche
• Dallas Drake, former NHL player, won Stanley Cup in 2008 with the Detroit Red Wings
• Landon Ferraro, current NHL player for the Minnesota Wild
• Ray Ferraro, former NHL player and current TSN analyst
• Bruno Freschi, architect for Expo 86
• Ken Georgetti, former President of the Canadian Labour Congress
• Robert Hampton Gray, one of the last Canadians to die in WWII and the last Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross
• Tom Harrison, former MLB pitcher for the Kansas City A's, now known as the Oakland Athletics
• Shawn Hook,singer
• Shawn Horcoff former NHL player, most notably a former captain of the Edmonton Oilers
• Barret Jackman, former NHL player
• Mike Kobluk of the Chad Mitchell Trio
• Richard Kromm, former NHL player
• Kerrin Lee-Gartner, Canadian Olympic Women's Ski Team, Downhill Olympic Gold Medal 1992

• Gary Lunn, former Canadian MP and Cabinet Minister

• Cesare Maniago, former NHL player

• Seth Martin, former NHL player
• Mike Matteucci, former NHL player
• Steve McCarthy, current AHL player with Springfield Falcons, former NHL player
• Tom McVie, former professional hockey player and NHL Coach and current Scout for Boston Bruins
• Ben McPeek, composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist
• Bill McEwan, President and CEO of Sobeys
• Faron Moller, President of the British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science
• Martin Popoff, heavy metal music journalist
• Garth Rizzuto, former NHL player
• David Sylvester (academic)- Principal of King's University College (University of Western Ontario)
• Steve Tambellini, former NHL player & former GM of the Edmonton Oilers

• Trail Airport
• Trail Daily Times

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Trail.

Media related to Trail, British Columbia at Wikimedia Commons

• City of Trail Official Site