Trout Lake

I was hired to do a subdivision at Trout Lake, north of Kootenay Lake. The land had been set

aside for a mine, but no major mine emerged, and the land had not been subdivided. But there

was a small townsite called Trout Lake City. It certainly was no city. There were probably half a

dozen buildings in the area. I remember we stayed in an old hotel that I worried would burn

down. We did surveys and recreated a plan for the townsite that allowed people to buy lots.

I was hired to locate and review the existing plan and bring it up to date. Finding out where this

old townsite was located was a real chore. We never did find any real survey posts. I had to

juggle things around based on sites of occupation. We finally came up with the best solution. We

set the boundary lines and showed they did not conflict with anything that was established. To

this day, I have never heard anybody disagree with what I did. But we had flown by the seat of

our pants to come up with a workable solution.

I came across another similar situation in Kaslo. People needed a place to build houses. They

wanted to go build on the shore close to the Kaslo River. The hillside had broken loose, and this

low-lying land had flooded. The subdivision was cancelled, but then it was decided to develop a

rip rap pile from big rocks along the edge of Kaslo river to stop the river from breaking through

and flooding the area again. I was hired to do a survey and to identify an appropriate strip of land

for the rip rap to go.