Fairmont Hot Springs
Feature Type:Recreational Community - A populated place with seasonal or year-round services, accommodation and amenities associated primarily with recreational or leisure activities.
Status: Official
Name Authority: BC Geographical Names Office
Relative Location: Just N of Columbia Lake, SE of Invermere, Kootenay Land District
Latitude-Longitude: 50°20'09"N, 115°51'25"W at the approximate population centre of this feature.
Datum: WGS84
NTS Map: 82J/5
Other Recorded Names:
Fairmont Springs
Origin Notes and History:

Fairmont Hot Springs (Post Office & Steamer Landing) adopted 2 July 1953 on Columbia River Basin manuscript 49, as labelled on BC Lands' map 1EM, 1915, and on Geological Survey map #165, Windermere, 1918. Confirmed 9 January 1981 on 82 J/5. Form of name changed to Fairmont Hot Springs (community) 31 December 1982 on 82 J/5. Form of name changed to Fairmont Hot Springs (recreational community) 2 March 2005 on 82J/5.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Fairmont Springs Post Office was opened 1 April 1888; closed 31 December 1901; re-opened 1 April 1902; renamed Fairmont Hot Springs Post Office 1 May 1934.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

George Geary established a homestead here in 1887. The following year Sam Brewer built a rest stop for stagecoaches, which were just beginning to travel through the valley. The first resort was built at the hot springs location in the early 1900's. In 1957, brothers Earl and Lloyd Wilder bought the business and immediately expanded the hot mineral pools... (from Fairmont Hot Springs Resort website, 2002). See Fairmont Hot Springs (hot springs) for a description recorded in the 1898 BC Mines Report. See also Sir George Simpson's "Overland Journey" 1847, Vol 1, p.128.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Indians and white men passing through the country bathed in the hot springs here long before Mr. and Mrs. Brewer, around 1888, built their Fairmont Hotel, a log house within half a mile of the springs.

Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; 1001 British Columbia Place Names; Discovery Press, Vancouver 1969, 1970, 1973.