line from the main contractor. The route followed today's Lower Wynndel Rd (low road). In July 1900, the B&N began limited services and that November, a daily service to Kuskonook. That August, B&N's operations north of the junction (Wynndel) were suspended. Soon, there was little activity north of Creston. Certainly by February 1904, the three times weekly mixed train ran no farther north than Creston. In December 1914, the final twice weekly mixed train ran north to Creston, and the Wynndel–Porthill track was lifted in 1916. In 1949, CP replaced the former station with a single level flat-roofed one. Passenger service on the route ended in 1964. In 1982, the station closed. In 1990, track removal left only one siding, and the brewery spur. Early community Little and the CP created separate subdivisions, which sold quickly. In late 1898, Robt. J. Long built the first hotel. By 1900, a settlement was growing around Long's Creston and John Munroe's Queen's hotels on the portion of Little's subdivision below the tracks. To meet demand, Little further subdivided above the tracks, to where William Crawford and Charles Faas moved their general stores, now the downtown. In 1907, a Canadian Bank of Commerce branch opened. The next year, The Creston Review began publication. Creston was incorporated as a village in 1924. The next year, exchanges of gunfire occurred during a bank robbery. One outlaw was captured the following afternoon. His unidentified partner disappeared with $4,000. In 1930, Dr. Olivier opened an eleven-bed hospital, and the Creston Hotel (1898) burned to the ground. In 1949, the Kootenay Hotel opened. In 1960, Interior Breweries began production at a new brewery. Creston was incorporated as a town in 1966. In 1974, the Labatt Brewing Company acquired 84 per cent of Columbia Brewing Company (the 1972 rename of Interior Breweries). Agriculture About 1884, likely associated with the Baillie-Grohman reclamation plan, the first settlers arrived, cleared the slopes around today's Creston, and planted orchards, but obtained no preemptions. In the early 1890s, William Rodger and Jane Huscroft, with their large family and cattle, squatted on the flats. During 1893, crews dyked the river, but the exceptional flooding during the following spring destroyed much of the work. In partnership with the Kootenay Valley Power and Development Co., settlers completed reconstruction that year, reclaiming . Later deterioration of the dykes resumed annual flooding, leaving the land suitable only for hay harvests.