Procter is an unincorporated community in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The former steamboat landing is on the south shore at the entrance to the West Arm of Kootenay Lake. By road and ferry, the locality (via BC Highway 3A and Harrop Procter Rd) is about northeast of Nelson. Name origin In 1891, Thomas Gregg Procter bought land at the lake outlet, and subsequently enlarged his home into a hunting and fishing lodge. In early 1897, a British syndicate acquired nearby land to create the town of Kootenay City, in anticipation of the coming railway. Between July 1897 and October 1898, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) built westward from Lethbridge via the Crowsnest Pass to the Kootenay Landing terminal (not Nelson as in its charter). The townsite proposal lapsed when the northwestward extension, which would have served their property, was instead operated by lake boats. By mid-1898, the location was known as Procter's Landing. In 1900, the lighthouse was built. T.G. Procter was the inaugural postmaster 1906–1908. In 1913, he died in Oak Bay, in a hit-and-run, reputedly the first person to die in an automobile accident in BC. CP railway and lake boats When CP opened the Nelson–Procter spur in 1900, the company created a townsite at the landing, called Procter, in honour of the original owner. In early 1901, at Sunshine Bay, between Harrop and nearby Procter, CP opened a wharf complex to handle freight cars, redefining the lake boat route from Kootenay Landing. That year, the first station was built on the Procter slip siding. In 1908, a proper station was erected on the main line. In 1911, a brakeman's leg was cut off in a train accident at the slip. From the beginning, the place name was often misspelled Proctor. The engineer in charge of the railway spur construction, Alexander Forbes Proctor, would use his spelling on documentation. In due course, this version appeared on timetables, maps, and the train station sign. Both spellings were used for decades before settling upon Procter. For 18 months during 1929–1930, a construction camp existed at Procter for the Procter–Kootenay Landing rail project. During this period, Coleman's Mill operated to produce ties for the extension. In 1931, opening the rail link service ended this CP lake route, and most activity at the Sunshine Bay wharves. However, the east–west Kootenay Lake Ferry followed a Fraser's Landing–Procter–Gray Creek route.