Trail Wagon Road

The Rossland-Trail Wagon Road is on the lands of the Okanagan, Sinixt, Secwepemc, Splats'in, Shuswap and Ktunaxa Nations.The Rossland - Trail Wagon Road was a 13 kilometer road from the Rossland Camp to Trail Creek Landing for the purpose of bringing in machinery and hauling out ore. The Rossland - Trail Wagon Road at the LeRoi mine, made its way down to the corner of Cook Avenue and Esling Road and moved south to what is now called the Wagon Road Trail, down the north side of the Trail Creek Valley to Trail Creek Landing, in British Columbia.

Historically, the Rossland - Trail Wagon Road is valued as an early transportation route constructed in 1893, by the LeRoi mining company and the provincial government, in order to ensure that there was a reliable and feasible transportation route for taking equipment up the hill and ore down to the Columbia River. Before its construction, when ore was discovered on Red Mountain in 1891, the only way to get the ore to a smelter was using mules down the 13 kilometre overgrown and little-used Dewdney Trail.

The Rossland - Trail Wagon Road was also built in conjunction with a wagon road built in late 1892 by Oliver Durant between Red Mountain and Northport, Washington. In the early days of the wagon road, 1893 – 1895, ore wagons were carrying freight and baggage but passengers arriving at Trail Creek Landing still made the journey to Rossland by foot or horse.

By March, 1895 the traffic had grown so that Messrs. Ashcroft, Seal and Gillies started a stage line. The coaches had room for ten passengers with space on top for baggage. They were equipped with large springs on which the box was slung from leather straps. Teams of four or six horses or mules were used to draw the vehicles and the fare was $2.00 a head.

The significance of the Rossland - Trail Wagon Road was emphasized by its continued usage for travel by foot and by horse/mule between Rossland and Trail even after the ore wagons stopped utilizing the Wagon Road following the construction of the Columbia & Western Railway.

The Rossland - Trail Wagon Road was used until a new highway (present-day Highway 3B/22) was constructed to accommodate automobile traffic between Rossland and Trail. The new road followed the Rossland - Trail Wagon Road south of Warfield. The intact portion of the Rossland - Trail Wagon Road between Rossland and Warfield continues to be used as a hiking and biking trail.

The elements that define the heritage character of the Trail Wagon Road include its:

- Unpaved hiking and biking trail, still largely a graded trail;

- Natural, green corridor that provides habitat to a variety of indigenous plants, trees and fauna;

- Original intact portion of the Rossland - Trail Wagon Road between Rossland and Warfield; and

- Signage at the southern end of Esling Drive recognizing the heritage value of the Rossland - Trail Wagon Road.