Named after Jack Fisher, who discovered gold in Wild Horse River in 1863. "....100 white men and a score of Chinese formed the population of Fisherville in its 2nd winter. By the autumn of 1866 there were 300 Chinese workers and less than 100 whites. In 1866 a post office was opened at Fisherfille under the name of Kootenay [sic]. In 1879 the HBC sold interests to Galbraith's firm, who operated a store at Fisherville. Fisherville was forgotten by the 1890s; all that remained by 1929 were a few remnants of log houses and a neglected cemetery, but... names on wooden boards at heads of graves have been long obliterated. One of those who died and was buried there was Mr. Boles Gaggin, the 2nd Gold Commission to serve on the creek..." (from History of the Cranbrook District by S.L. Thrupp, 1929; copy in Provincial Archives, accession 6 K84 T41.)

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

"...A thousand miners had pushed up the narrow canyon... to stake claims along the banks of the Wild Horse, and after, they took time out to build a town which was called Fisherville. But that camp didn't last long when it was discovered that gold lay under the townsite, so Fisherville was simply dismantled by the prospectors in order to work the ground underneath. A new camp came into being soon after, a camp south of and higher than Fisherville had been. This new mining camp was named Kootenai although it often went by the name of Wild Horse. Kootenai stood for years, a monument to the placer era long after Kee Chin, Dave Griffiths and a host of others had laid away their gold pans and the Wild Horse had ceased to be famous. ... only a few charred relics of its past remain..." (Gold Creeks and Ghost Towns, by N.L. Barlee, Canada West Magazine, Summerland, 1970/republished by Hancock House, Surrey, 1984)

Source: included with note