Trail is located in British Columbia just north of the Canadian / American border at the 49th parallel.
It is 7 hours east of Vancouver and 8 hours west of Calgary along Highway 3B. Kelowna is 4 hours north-east and Spokane, Washington is 2.5 hours south.
Other cities in the West Kootenays are Rossland (10 minutes away),
Castlegar (25 minutes away), and Nelson (1 hour away).
Trail grew up along the banks of the Columbia River between the
Selkirk and the Monashee mountain ranges in the 1890s when a smelter
was built there to handle the gold ore coming down from the lucrative
gold mines in Rossland.
That smelter has grown and become Teck, which is the world's largest integrated lead / zinc smelter.
This site includes a current online searchable "Community Services Directory" that West Kootenay Boundary residents will find to be a most useful resource.
![[Trail Public Library Home]](newimages/tpllogobw3.jpg)
![[Go]](newimages/gobutton2.gif){kind=small}