Adopted 7 October 1947 on Columbia River Basin manuscript 10, as labelled on BC map 1EM, 1915 et seq.

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

Named after Robert Evan Sproule, who staked the immensely-rich Blue Bell claim at Riondel in 1882, and was eventually tried and hanged for shooting Thomas Hammill, whom he had accused claim-jumping. (See Hamill Creek )

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

"I am sure no other man now living was as familiar and better acquainted with the parties concerned, and the details leading up to the unfortunate affair..... Robert Sproule was an American, from Seattle, where he had found coal in the hills and staked the ground. Other parties were hunting for coal also, came across his location and restaked it. A barn was burned in Seattle, the other stakers accused Sproule of setting the fire, and he was arrested. While Sproule was in jail awaiting trail he was given a choice: skip the country or serve time in the penitentiary. He was scared and decided to leave the country, so came to Bonner's Ferry. My brother (Richard Fry) hired him to help me rebuild the ferryboat (at Bonner's Ferry). He proved to be a No. 1 and fast workman. He stayed over the summer and proved a congenial, quiet companion. My brother was conversant with all the Kootenay Lake country. He had seen pieces of galena on the ground where the Blue Bell mine is (now) located, and told Mr. Sproule of this. Sproule borrowed a rowboat and with a map of the place my brother drew for him, located three claims, I think it was. This was late in the fall. Anyway he could not have legally recorded them, for the mining laws at that time required a locator to record his claims within 3 days after location, and the nearest recording office was at Fort Steele, 115 miles north of Bonner's Ferry. Thomas Hammill, a Cornishman, came to the lake by way of Bonner's Ferry. He was said to be in the employ of a Mr. Ainsworth of Portland. Hammill did the first claim-jumping recorded in the Kootenay district; it was Sproule's property he jumped, throwing them into litigation. Judge Kelley, gold commissioner at Fort Steele, was sent for to try the case. Hammil engaged a lawyer named Barnston from New Westminster or Victoria. There being no lawyers in the country for Sproule, he secured the services of one W.A. Bailey-Grohman. Grohman was well known in the early days of the country. The trial took place at Galena Bay. Barnston for some reason would not appear, but sent word to Hammill to do the best he could, and if it went against him, to appeal the case. Judge Kelley decided in Sproule's favour. Hammill asked for an appeal. The judge refused, but later Barnston secured an appeal and took the case to Victoria. The earlier decision was reversed, but Sproule - once back at Bonner's Ferry - vowed that Hammill would never work that claim. Dr. Hendryx of Sand Point, Idaho, who planned to build a smelter on (another ?) Sproule property, had given Sproule a new rifle. When the day arrived for Hammill to work on his recently-won claim, he began in the early morning, but did not go down (to the mining camp) for his dinner, so a man was sent up to find him. Hammill had been shot through the hips and was groaning in great pain. He did not seen who shot him. Sproule had taken his gun and started up the lake in his boat, evidently making to cross the line into the United States. Within a few hours Constable Harry Anderson was after him. At the end of the lake they located Sproule's boat at a trail head; Anderson kept to the river and hurried to a place close to the boundary line. Before long he heard a disturbance in the bushes, and Sproule with rifle in hand came into the open. Corporal Anderson said "Drop that rifle", which [Sproule] did, and was badly scared. Anderson took him across the river to the Custom House, kept by J.C. Rickert. Sproule was taken to Victoria, tried and sentenced to hang. After a short stay of proceedings, asked for by the United States to investigate a rumour that he was being railroaded, Sproule was hanged." (Nelson News, preprinted from Slocan Enterprise 20 October 1932, as told by Mr. Fry)

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

In 1882 Robert Sproule discovered the ore-bearing area that became the Blue Bell Mine; although unwilling to leave the site, he realized that he would have to travel to the nearest gold commissioner's office to register his claim. Only hours after Sproule's departure, Thomas Hammill stumbled upon the same deposits. As luck would have it, his hunting companion was a gold commissioner, and Hammill registered his claim on the spot. Legal wrangling ensued; though Sproule won his case he had spent so much money on court proceedings that he had to forfeit his rights to the claim. It was yet another personal disaster for Sproule;
in Washington he had been swindled, and in Colorado he had lost a property dispute. Sproule vowed vengeance on Hammill. Three years later Hammill was killed by a single bullet fired into his back, and although only circumstantial evidence was presented and he consistently declared his innocence, Sproule was found guilty and hanged in 1886. (Bondar, The Kootenays...., 1986)

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