Ymir is an unincorporated community in the Selkirk Mountains in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. Ymir is located where the Salmo River meets Quartz Creek, and Ymir Creek. The locality, on BC Highway 6, is by road about northeast of Salmo and south of Nelson. First Nations and trail blazers Ymir is in the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa. In the 1860's Richard Fry from Marcus Washington, along with his Sinixt wife Justine Soqu’stik’en and their children followed an ancient Indian trail between the mouth of the Salmon (Salmo) River where it joins the Pend d-Oreille River, through present day Ymir, to the source of the Salmon River. Here they crossed the height of land and came to Cottonwood Lake (which Richard named after a trapper he met there named "Cottonwood Smith"). They followed Cottonwood Creek to the present site of Nelson BC, where Dick Fry discovered and mined for gold 16 km (10 miles) miles to the west at 49 Creek. Mining Around 1886, prospectors ventured up the Salmon River (Salmo River) and its tributaries in search of gold and silver. Gold was discovered at the mouth of Quartz Creek. The Hall brothers (Osner and Winslow Hall), from Colville, Washington arrived in the early 1890s and observed evidence of what became the Ymir Mine, before moving on. Named for them are the community of Hall, Hall Creek, and Hall Mines Road in Nelson. They discovered what became the Hall Mine and the Silver King Mine. The latter, on Toad Mountain, birthed the city of Nelson. The claims staked by Jerome Pitre, Joseph Pitre and Oliver Blair in 1895 became the Ymir Gold Mine. This property developed into the largest producer in the British Empire for a period. Although the Kootenay region was in the midst of a silver rush, Ymir was known for gold, and the silver and lead recoveries were relatively minor. By 1905, with the surrounding ore largely extracted and a drop in the gold price, mining activity slowed. The Ymir Mine closed in 1907. Mining briefly revived again during World War I and when the US Gold Reserve Act of 1934 significantly increased the statutory price of gold, but labour shortages during World War II hampered production. Mining never recovered, but exploration continues in the area. Name origin By 1896, a settlement was springing up. The next year, newspapers were calling the new