* Prerecorded - For millenia the Ktunaxa (Kootenay) native tribes call the Kootenay-Columbia
region of southeastern British Columbia home after being gifted the land near
Columbia Lake, in around 12000 BC, by the Creator
* 1500 - Horses started arriving to the Kootenay tribes through trade with and escape from
tribes to the south, making hunting, warfare, and transportation easier
* 1608 - Samuel de Champlain arrives in the “New World” at present-day Quebec
* 1610 - Henry Hudson explores Hudson Bay in Northern Canada
* 1670 - Hudson’s Bay Company chartered in London, England
* 1754 - Anthony Henday travels west from Hudson Bay onto Canadian plains, meets natives on horseback, and sees the Rocky Mountains
* 1779 - Captain James Cook is killed by Hawaiian natives before he could complete his search for the Northwest Passage
* 1783 - North West Fur Company established in Montreal
* 1787 - David Thompson, explorer for Hudson’s Bay Company, winters with Peigan natives at base of Rocky Mountains
* 1789 - David Thompson learns surveying near Hudson Bay from Philip Turnor
* 1792 - Robert Gray, American captain, discovers mouth of Columbia River William Broughton, British Captain George Vancouver’s Lieutenant, explores mouth of Columbia River, 100 miles upriver
* 1793 - Alexander Mackenzie crosses Rocky Mountains and reaches Pacific Ocean at Bella Coola, British Columbia
* 1797 - David Thompson leaves Hudson’s Bay Company for surveying/mapmaking position with the North West Company in order to discover trade route across Rockies and out to Pacific along the Columbia River
* 1799 - David Thompson attempts to cross Rocky Mountains in central Alberta
* 1800 - David Thompson meets his first group of Kootenay natives in Rockies and escorts them back to Rocky Mountain House for trade, where he asks questions about geography of the west side of the mountains and their trails
* 1807 - David Thompson crosses Rockies and establishes the “Kootenae House” trading post on the Columbia River (not knowing he was on the long-sought Columbia), near today’s Invermere, to trade with Kootenays and their allies
* 1808 - David Thompson explores the Kootenay River
* 1811 - John Jacob Astor establishes post at mouth of the Columbia River for his new Pacific Fur Company
David Thompson follows the Columbia to the Pacific and finishes charting the entire length of the river from the Rockies to the Ocean – the long-sought “Great River of the West”
* 1821 - Father Pierre-Jean de Smet, Belgian Jesuit missionary, arrives in North America and resides with the Flathead and Lower Kootenay natives. The North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company amalgamate to form one large monopoly
* 1824 - George Simpson, Governor of Hudson’s Bay Company, crosses Rockies over Athabasca Pass and up the Columbia River to reorganize his Columbia Department since departure of David Thompson
* 1841 - Sir George Simpson travels over Simpson Pass and follows Kootenay, and Columbia Rivers on first recorded trip through Rockies for pleasure James Sinclair travels over White Man Pass and follows Cross, Kootenay, and Columbia Rivers to stake claim in Oregon Territory
* 1845 - Father de Smet travels along Kootenay and Cross Rivers over White Man Pass on a peace mission to Blackfoot tribe Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour cross Rockies over White Man Pass and travel along Cross, Kootenay, and Columbia Rivers on a secret and undercover mission to scout for British-troop routes to the Oregon Territory
* 1846 - Paul Kane, Canadian artist, travels across Rockies to sketch the landscape and native people of the Columbia District along the Columbia River
* 1854 - James Sinclair leads more settlers across Rockies to Oregon Territory over North Kananaskis Pass and along Palliser and Kootenay Rivers
* 1858 - Captain John Palliser begins expedition throughout Canadian Rockies to compile report on possible road and railway routes to Pacific Captain Palliser explores Elk Pass and the Elk River down to Kootenay River Dr. James Hector, botanist of the Palliser expedition, crosses over Vermillion Pass, along the Vermillion and Kootenay Rivers to the source of the Kootenay, and north to another river and pass, where his horse kicks him in the chest – henceforward known as at the Kicking Horse River and Pass
* 1864 - The Kootenay Gold Rush begins as gold is discovered in Wild Horse Creek near the Kootenay River; thousands of new people settle into the region
* 1867 British North America Act passed creating the Dominion of Canada
* 1871 - British Columbia joins Canada on condition of a railroad built to the Pacific
* 1880 - John McKay stakes a homestead along the Columbia River, near modern-day Radium Hot Springs
* 1885 - Canada’s transcontinental railway is completed, running through the Rockies at Dr. James Hector’s Kicking Horse Pass near the Kicking Horse River
* 1890 - Roland Stuart, British squire, buys land around the Radium hot springs
* 1911 - First road built around Radium hot springs Charles Crook claims a homestead in Kootenay Valley just over Sinclair Pass from the hot springs
* 1913 - Researchers at McGill University prove there is indeed radium in the hot springs
* 1914 - Original bathing pool and bathhouse constructed at Radium Hot Springs
* 1920 - Kootenay National Park established, and commemorating the long history of the Kootenay natives in the area
* 1923 - Banff-Windermere road along the Kootenay River is officially opened and becomes the first road through the Rocky Mountains Townsite of Radium Hot Springs is surveyed
* 1933 - Chinook salmon make their final run up the Columbia River to Columbia Lake with the construction of Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State
* 1946 - New boundaries for Kootenay National Park and area are established
* 1948 - Bathhouse at Radium Hot Springs destroyed by fire Final campgrounds in Kootenay National Park built
* 1951 - New aquacourt and pool finished at Radium Hot Springs
* 1965 - Reconstruction and upgrading of Banff-Windermere highway completed along with the installation of the Iron Gates Tunnel near Sinclair Canyon
* 1976 - Kootenay River Runners rafting company, one of the first in the Rockies, established in Radium Hot Springs to guide rafting and canoe trips along the Kootenay, Columbia, and Kicking Horse Rivers
