Canal Flats is a village municipality in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. This Columbia Valley community lies between the southern end of Columbia Lake and the northwest shore of the Kootenay River. The locality, on Highway 93/95, is by road about north of Cranbrook and southeast of Golden. First Nations The Ktunaxa Nation has occupied the region around Canal Flats for thousands of years. On a bluff just to the south, remnants of shelter pits evidence a former Ktunaxa salmon fishing camp. Differing versions exist of the missionary endeavours of Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet of the Jesuits. According to one account, he organized a great assembly at the south end of Columbia Lake in 1845, where he baptized hundreds of tribal members. Afterward, he erected a cross in a prominent place to commemorate the occasion. Relocated to the village in 2011, a log building to house the Columbia Discovery Centre and Ktunaxa Interpretive Centre opened in 2013. Name origin Canoeing upstream, David Thompson reached the headwaters of the Columbia River in April 1808. He named the land mass separating the waterways as McGillivray's Portage. Although probably named after Duncan McGillivray, who accompanied Thompson in 1800 in their search for an overland route to the Pacific, other possibilities are Duncan's brothers William and Simon McGillivray. Subsequent interchangeable names have included Columbia Portage or Lake Pass (1858), Howse Portage (1863), Kootenay City (1885), and Grohman (1888). In 1887, Kootenay City comprised a single one-room cabin. In 1892, the townsite was surveyed. In 1897, this name was recycled to promote what would become Procter. Canal Flat, adopted by 1888, was used interchangeably with the plural version of Canal Flats from 1895. An 1898 reference that lists Grohman as separate from Canal Flats may suggest that the southern portion had a distinct identity for a period. The plural spelling, which first appeared on a map in 1909, gained pre-eminence over time. Waterway and roads In 1884, the government called tenders for a ferry across the Kootenay at Upper Crossing. After retendering and negotiations, a charter was awarded to William Adolf Baillie Grohman in 1886. A wagon road northward from Galbraith's Ferry opened in 1886. Southeastward from Steamboat Landing, and a connecting bridge at Upper Crossing, followed the next year. Completed in July 1889, the Baillie-Grohman Canal was a barely functional scheme. Giving away of good land to create a virtually impassable ditch