CHAPTER IV.
GOLDEN AND THE COUNTRY OF THE UPPER COLUMBIA.
GOLDEN.
Golden, originally the "Golden City," is a little town of nearly 1,000 inhabitant.s well laid out among the trees at the mouth of the Kicking Horse Valley, 1½ miles from the junction of its river with the great Columbia. It is thus at the frontier of the Upper Columbia Valley. Its altitude is 2,560 feet, the highway of the railway having, since leaving the summit at Stephen (5,329 feet) 45 miles east, dropped 2,769 feet. The chief industry is lumbering, the Columbia River uumber Company operating large mills there and employing mostly Asiatic labour. There are five churches, two public schools, a high school, a court house, and a weekly paper; also several good stores, a large business being conduted by the member of the B.C. Legislature who carries supplies for sportsmen. Tourists may like to know that camera and kodak supplies are sold by J. A. Buckham. There are several hotels, the best being the "Columbia"' ($3 to $4 a day) and the "Queen's" ($2 to $4 a day.)
Golden has the only hospital on the railway between Banff and Kevelstoke. Supported by a provincial grant and private beneficence, it is a well equipped and attractive looking institution set in a tenacre park. The future of the town is bound up with the progress of the Upper Columbia and with the mining developments in the mineralized mountains surrounding it. The completed railway from the Crow's Nest Pass to Golden will mean the beginning of a large and prosperous town. A bridge across the Columbia is greatly needed to connect with the western side of the Columbia Valley and with the numerous trails penetrating the valleys and passes of the Dogtooth and Spillimacheen Mountains. Excellent roads and trails run in all directions, and up the mountains. Ponies may be taken up the nearer mountains for some distance, and the old Indian foot-paths can be follow-ed to the summits. There are no high mountains near the town.
Golden has an asset in its pure dry air and the steady cold of its winters, and is recommended as a place of healing for incipient tuberculosis. Cures have, been effected after a few years residence there.
Places of Interest near Golden and Beyond:
Excursions on foot; Hospital Creek Falls, 2 miles; Kicking Horse Canyon, 1 mile: Phantom Lake, ½ mile: Race-Course, 14 mile; Junction of the Kicking Horse and Columbia Rivers, 1 mile.
Points reached by saddle-trail in one day: On the first "bench" of the Rockies. Hospital Falls and trail above Kicking Horse Canyon; Mt. Moberly; Canyon Creek in the Selkirks across the Columbia, 8 miles by trail.
Short Drives:' to Moberly 8 miles north; to Hadden's "Roadhouse," 13 miles south.
Long excursions on the stage road by carriage or motor; to Cranbrook, 180 miles south. "Stopping places" and distances from Golden: Hadden's, 13 miles; Johnson's, 18 miles; McKeeman's, 29 miles; Spillimacheen, 41 miles: Dolan's, 54 miles: Windermere, 82 miles;
