| Feature Type: | Community - An unincorporated populated place, generally with a population of 50 or more, and having a recognized central area that might contain a post office, store and/or community hall, etc, intended for the use of the general public in the region. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | W side of Kootenay Lake, S of Kaslo, Kootenay Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 49°43'59"N, 116°54'40"W at the approximate population centre of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 82F/10 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Ainsworth (Village) adopted in the 18th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1924. Form of name changed to Ainsworth (Post Office) 7 October 1947 on Columbia River Basin manuscript 11, then to Ainsworth (Post Office & Steamer Landing) in the 1953 BC Gazetteer. Name changed to Ainsworth Hot Springs (Post Office) 10 October 1963 on 82 F/10; form changed to Ainsworth Hot Springs (community) 15 December 1982 on 82 F/10. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Ainsworth Post Office opened 1 December 1890; name changed to Ainsworth Hot Springs Post Office 11 January 1964. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Named for Captain J.C. Ainsworth ( -1893), of Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, California; founder of Oregon Steam Navigation Company. He and his son George J. Ainsworth were involved in mining and railway development in the Kootenay District in the 1880's & 90's. Source: Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions |
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Some say the locality was named after the son, George J. Ainsworth, promoter of the Kootenay Railway and Navigation Co, builders of the Columbia and Kootenay Railway, projected 1883, built 1892. George Ainsworth purchased the land around the hot springs in 1883, and the following year staked the first claim in the vicinity, the "Lulu" on Woodbury Creek. At that time, the locality or mining camp here, which until that time had been known as Hot Springs (Camp), was renamed Ainsworth. (BC Mines Bulletin #53, p.11). Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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After Captain George J. Ainsworth, an American capitalist from San Francisco. Through the claim-jumping of his agent Thomas Hammil, Ainsworth and his associates obtained possession of the fabulous Blue Bell Mine. Ainsworth is also remembered as the promoter of the Kootenay Railway and Navigation Company. Early settlers called this place on Kootenay Lake simply Hot Springs Camp until Ainsworth acquired the site in 1883. It then became Ainsworth Hot Springs. Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997 |