is Mt. Hammond many miles away, and the largest of the two lakes was once known locally as Toby Lake.
Windermere is a scattered village built on the eastern terraces of the Lake, and was once the only settlement between Golden and Cranbrook. It is the centre of a considerable ranching district running along the foothills of the Rockies. About four miles back, two miles of road and two of trail, stands Mt. Swansea, said to rise 3,000 ft. above the valley, commanding a wide view including 30 miles of the Columbia River. The village is half a mile from the steamboat landing. Where there is irrigation on the natural terrace, fruit trees are flourishing and the grass grows as radiantly green as in the humid atmosphere of the coast. One little nest of a place in the hollow of the terrace shows what wonders water will do in that arid-looking land. A small ditch makes a ribbon of green across the common. The water is taken from Windermere Creek, a stream supplying the little canals in various ranches on that side of the lake.
The village has two churches, a hotel, a livery and a store which keeps a stock of campers' supplies. The population is about 100, and if the ranching district of 10 miles extent is included, it reaches considerably over 300 (1911). Windermere Lake was named Kootenae Lake by David Thompson who discovered it in 1807. The origin of its present name is obvious. Windermere, in the geography of the English Lakes, is the Lake as the root of the word implies (mere: a lake, a sea); but in the nomenclature of the Upper Columbia, the added "Lake" is not considered a redundancy. Therefore, we follow the custom of the country.
An expansion of the Columbia 80 miles from Golden, Windermere is a lovely low-lying lake about 8 miles long and of irregular width—in places one and a half miles. Its greatest depth is 16 feet, and its average not more than 8 feet. The water is limped and the bottom sandy. In winter the ice is clear and hard and easily swept for curling, making a curler's paradise in the open. To be alive on Lake Windermere in the winter is a curler's very heaven—or a skater's. When the hundred persons living in the village were dependent in winter up.;n the stage coach for communication with the outside world reachable by railway north at Golden or south at Cranbrook, much was made of the lake during the frost-bound months. Skiing. too, is a sport in the vicinity. The place has all the natural resources of winter sports for a fashionable resort, including winter-climbing, snowshoeing and tobogganing. But this is to look into the future.
Invermere: Old Canterbury point, surveyed for a townsite in 1899, has been acquired by the Columbia Valley Irrigation Fruit Lands Company and renamed Invermere. A hotel has been built with ample accommodation for the tourist travel, and is now open to the public. The whole point which runs southward into the lake on the Selkirks side, has been divided into spacious lots to be sold directly to persons proposing to erect country residences. The lots vary in size from a ¼ to 1½ acres. The British Columbia Club of New York has purchased land near by for a club house.
