City of Cranbrook Regional District of East Kootenay, British Columbia

City - A populated place with legally defined boundaries, incorporated as a city municipality under the provincial Municipal Act. W side Kootenay River, SW of Fort Steele, Kootenay Land District

Mapped Location

City of Cranbrook: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

 

Information

General information on City of Cranbrook

  • Feature Type: Incorporated

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for City of Cranbrook

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name Description
City of Cranbrook Official

 

Origin Notes and History of City of Cranbrook

References to City of Cranbrook that document the origin of its place name

Incorporated as a City municipality 1 November 1905; Cranbrook (city) confirmed 4 November 1926 on Geological Survey sheet 297A. See also the municipality's own internet site. Substantial expansion per Order in Council 651, 4 October 2007 - the boundary now extending north to St. Mary River.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

Cranbrook Post Office was opened 1 July 1886; closed 1 July 1892. When a townsite was laid out in 1897 the name of Cranbrook was chosen for the settlement; Cranbrook Post Office re-opened 1 September 1898. See also the municipality's own website.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

This area was formerly known as Joseph's Prairie after an Indian chief, and here the Kootenay Indian village of A'qkis ga'ktleet once stood. "St. Marys River" and "Josephs Prairie" are labelled on Trutch's 1871 map of British Columbia. Note that St. Mary/St. Mary's River had been named in 1845 by Father DeSmet after the feast day of the Holy Heart of Mary, on which day he had celebrated mass at Tobacco Plains, south of here. [Was the Kootenay Indian chief baptised "Joseph" because of the village's relative proximity to St. Mary River ?]

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

An early colonist, Colonel James Baker, sometime provincial Minister of Education, settled here in 1885 and named his estate Cranbrook Farm, after the little Kentish town of Cranbrook from which he came (advice from W.F. Robertson, Provincial Minerologist, 1908). Colonel Baker's ancestor, Sir John Baker, Speaker of the House of Commons in the reign of Henry VIII, had built the house known as Sissinghurst Place, at Cranbrook, Kent, in 1558.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

"Site pre-empted by John Thomas Galbraith, 25 March 1872. Named in 1885 after the ranch of Colonel James Baker, later BC minister of education 1892-98 and minister of mines 1895-98, who named it after his old home, Cranbrook, in Kent. Baker died 31 July 1906 at Dorsetshire, England, about 86 years of age."

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions  |  Province of British Columbia

".....there was no settlement to speak of before Colonel Baker arrived, but earlier the place was known as Joseph's Prairie after an Indian chief. The Indians call it yet "Joseph Achnadate". Cranbrook became important in consequence of the opening of the Crowsnest branch of the CPR." (17th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1921, as provided by R.L. Galbraith, Fort Steele.)

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
included with note  |  Province of British Columbia

The traditional name for this site is ?akisqukti?it, pronounced a-kis-kaq-thi it. [meaning/significance not provided] (April 2006 advice from Janice Alpine, Ktunaxa Language Program)

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
included with note  |  Province of British Columbia

 

Regional District of East Kootenay

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2023-10-21