1890s

Rescued pioneer-era structures, summer street theatre, and grazing Clydesdales recall Fort Steele Heritage Town's origins as an outpost of the North West Mounted Police who came to tame itinerant gold seekers from America's wilder West.

Fort Steele Heritage Town is located in the Rocky Mountains, on the bench land of the Kootenay River and above the site of the former Galbraiths Ferry crossing. It is a time capsule of the settlement and changing fortunes of a pioneer community in nineteenth century British Columbia. This completely restored turn-of-the-century town is populated by townspeople in period costume and features a blacksmith's shop, a school, the Northwest Mounted Police barracks and live drama at the Wild Horse Theatre. The four distinct stages of settlement that occurred here: 1) the Galbraith's Ferry era (1864-65); 2) The Kootenay Post era (late 1880's), 3) the Fort Steele era (1890's), and 4) the period of decline which began in 1898. Today Fort Steele operates as a full service historic visitor attraction.

The Officers' Quarters of Kootenay Post—established here in 1887 by Superintendent Samuel Steele and Division of the North West Mounted Police—survives as a lone testament to the need for regulation and order which arose in response to conflicts between the burgeoning non-native population and the local Ktunaxa people. Characteristic of the early Canadian way of lawmaking, it represents the government's commitment to maintaining law and order and establishing a presence in developing areas in the late nineteenth century. The influence of the NWMP on this area was significant; it secured subsequent white settlement and growth, and inspired its renaming to Fort Steele in 1888. This building is valued as Fort Steele's only remaining physical connection to Sam Steele, a legendary figure in the history of the Canadian West, and commander of this, the first North West Mounted Police post west of the Rocky Mountains. Fort Steele is a Living Museum: Steam Train Rides put you in the seat of an early rail traveller, Clydesdale horse-drawn wagon tours are available of the town, take in some live drama at the Wild Horse Theatre, Pan for gold, Dine in spendour at the International Hotel Restaurant and enjoy baked goods at the City Bakery - everything is baked in a wood-fired oven.

Year round

Summer: 9:30-6pm; Spring/Fall 9:30-5pm; Winter 10-4pm.

Easily accessible on Highway 93/95, 16 kilometres northeast of Cranbrook.