Pilot Bay, British Columbia
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CanadaPilot Bay | |
|---|---|
  Pilot Bay Location of Pilot Bay in British Columbia | |
| Coordinates: 49°38′45″N 116°52′45″W / 49.64583°N 116.87917°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province |  British Columbia |
| Region | West Kootenay |
| Regional district | Central Kootenay |
| Area codes | 250, 778, 236, & 672 |
Pilot Bay is a on the east shore of Kootenay Lake in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The locality is about 6 kilometres (4 mi) south of Kootenay Bay on Pilot Bay Rd, immediately southwest of the entrance to Pilot Bay Provincial Park.[1]
The name derived from the bay being the most protected on the lake. During bad weather a pilot would steer his ship to shelter in the harbour. The landing, known as Galena (after its supply vessel), was to be the name of the townsite surveyed in 1892, but that name had already been registered for a different location. A belief that the adopted name was a later corruption of a First Nations word that meant Pirates Bay is baseless, but outsiders used the expression as a derogatory nickname.[2]
Initial development
The Davies-Sayward Mill and Land Company operated a sawmill on a 300-acre site 1890–1903. The mill primarily supplied the Blue Bell lead-silver mine at Riondel. In 1884, Robert Evan (Bob) Sproule sold an interest in the mine to Dr. Wilbur A. Hendryx. On Sproule's 1887 hanging for murder, the mine ownership passed wholly to Hendryx's Kootenay Mining and Smelting Company (KM&S). After a further $100,000 investment in mine development, by 1890, the Galena transported the ore south for refining, returning north with coal to power the operation. With the water route often impassable during the year, the exercise proved uneconomical.