Cranbrook, lying in the valley between the Purcell Mountains and the Rockies, is the largest town in the south-east of British Columbia. Sheltered from the rains by the Purcell Mountains Cranbrook enjoys a dry climate with plenty of sunshine and there are some excellent excursions to be made into the charming countryside surrounding it.
In
addition to tourism, the town's economy is nowadays based mainly on the timber industry, mining, cattle-rearing and service industries for the region's 70,000 or so inhabitants.
In the mid-1880s, a time of great tension between the settlers who streamed here across the Rockies when the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed and the native Kootenay Indians who feared for their traditional way of life. Colonel James Baker built a ranch here on Joseph's Prairie and fenced in grazing land. From this modest beginning the township of Cranbrook gradually grew. Later Colonel Baker became a partner in the Crowsnest Coal and Mineral Company, which won the contract to build a railway line for the CPR from Lethbridge in Alberta over Crowsnest Pass to Kootenay Lake, thus running across Baker's land. The line was completed in 1898, Baker's ranch had a link to the main line and he was able to set up a small township here.
Fort Steele 16 km (10 mi.) away, at the time a booming mining town and provision center for the region, was by-passed by this rail route and gradually surrendered its importance to the new town.
In the old town center, at 10th-13th Ave. and 1st-4th St. South, a number of stately buildings from the turn of the century have been preserved; these include the City Hall, Fire Hall, Mount Baker Hotel, Tudor House Hotel (1900), the old Freemasons' Lodge and the 1902 Imperial Bank Building.
A few miles beyond Cranbrook Highway 95A turns off to Kimberley; Fort Steele and Highway 3 can be reached by means of a detour of some 70 km (43 mi.).
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