Kootenay Pass Highway celebrates 50th anniversary October 6

It’s the highest all-weather pass in Canada. It was the final link in the southern highway across British Columbia, and an important connection between the economies of the East and West Kootenays. It changed bus routes and eliminated tolls on the Kootenay Lake ferries and on the Big Orange Bridge at Nelson. It led to the development of one of the best highways maintenance programs on the planet. It is known officially as the Kootenay Pass, and unofficially as the Salmo-Creston highway or the Skyway.

And it will be 50 years old in October.

The first public traffic was allowed over the Kootenay Pass following a ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 13, 1963. There was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2,700 cars lined up, waiting for the go-ahead. After a long history of use by First Nations people, fur traders and explorers, miners and loggers and a ten-year-long effort to actually complete construction, the highest all-weather pass in Canada was finally a reality.

We think that’s worth celebrating, don’t you?

The Creston Museum, along with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, YRB Kootenay, and a host of other groups, are hosting a celebration of the Kootenay Pass’s 50th Anniversary on Sunday, October 6, 2013. The highways maintenance yard at the 1,774-m summit will be the scene of a cavalcade of cars, welcome and commemorative speeches, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony. There will be exhibits on a wide range of activities connected to the highway and surrounding areas, including an historical exhibit by the Creston Museum, information on the world’s southernmost caribou population, and a video showing the drama of avalanche control.

We’ve heard rumours that the highways maintenance crews will have some of their equipment on display, too — it’ll be a rare chance to see those huge machines up close.

Activities at the summit open to the public at 12 PM (PDT). Cavalcades will leave surrounding communities in time to arrive at the summit by 1:00, when the ceremony itself will begin. The ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 1:30.

Yes, we are really going to stop traffic (briefly), stretch a ribbon across the highway, and cut it.

The final details are being confirmed right now, and posted, as they become available, on the Creston Museum’s website. There will also be updates on Facebook and the Ministry of Highways social media sites soon.

The Creston Museum would like to thank all of its partner groups for their support, and Columbia Basin Trust for their sponsorship of this event.