Arrowhead

Arrowhead is a true ghost town.

This once-bustling community of several hundred people now has no permanent residents.

When the valley was being cleared prior to the opening of the Hugh Keenleyside Dam, even those whose homes would not be affected by reservoir flooding were bought out and forced to leave. The government of B.C. did not want to provide roads, bridges, or ferry transportation to the former community.

Only the cemetery remains, leaving behind the pioneer residents who died there.

A grey-scale photo of a row of derelict buildings sitting to the right of a dirt road. Railway tracks can be seen on the left.

Main Street Arrowhead on November 20, 1967. The building on the right was burned two days later. RMA photo 12444. Photographer: Estelle Dickey.

Arrowhead was established by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1895, when they completed their branch line from Revelstoke to the point 24 miles south where the Columbia River widened into the Upper Arrow Lake, on the east shore. It was a transportation hub for miners and loggers heading into the Lardeau area.

By 1905, Arrowhead was the centre of the lumber industry in the North Kootenay, with two massive sawmills operating there, and logging taking place throughout the valley to supply the mills.

The community had a thriving Main Street with two large hotels, general stores, a drug store, and even a cigar store and an ice-cream parlour. It had two churches, and a two-roomed schoolhouse, and briefly had its own hospital.

This black-and-white photograph captures a town by the water. The street has store buildings and homes. In front of the buildings is a rail line with train cars on the track. A dock is in front of the train tracks. Part of a mountain and trees are in the background.

Arrowhead Main Street, ca. 1910. RMA photo 4556.

Nancy Martin Interview – Arrowhead (Captions available in both English and French). Enjoy this video with an English transcript.

Several families still lived there in the 1960s, and the last children of Arrowhead still speak with regret about the loss of their challenging but interesting lives living close to the land.

Anyone wishing to visit their loved ones in the cemetery has to find private boat access. There is no other way to access Arrowhead now.

Nancy Martin Interview – Leaving Arrowhead (Captions available in both English and French). Enjoy this video with an English transcript.

Coming to the Valley Beaton