Feature Type: | Hotsprings / Hot Springs - Site of a natural flow of hot or warm water issuing from the ground. Plural of Hotspring / Hot Spring. |
Status: |
Official
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Name Authority: |
BC Geographical Names Office |
Relative Location: |
E of Columbia Lake, SE of Invermere, Kootenay Land District |
Latitude-Longitude: |
50°19'42"N, 115°50'27"W at the approximate centre of this feature. |
Datum: |
WGS84 |
NTS Map: |
82J/5 |
Origin Notes and History:
Adopted 31 December 1966 in the 1966 BC Gazetteer, as a well-established local name, and as identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Precise coordinates confirmed April 2005 by J.Farrell.
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office
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"Near Brewer's Ranch, about thirteen miles south of Windermere and only a few hundred yards from the main road, there is a series of hot springs, known as Fairmont Springs, which at this point bubble out from the side-hill. The waters as they leave the ground have a temperature of from 90° to 120°F. These springs, some twenty or twenty-five in number, cover an area of several acres and are of varying size and temperature, the largest running about as much water as would come out of a 3-inch pipe under a 10-foot head. The water is as clear as crystal and is evidently highly charged with lime and a little iron, judging from the deposits which form on the surface around the springs. This deposit forms in the shape of a circular basin with the spring in centre - regular natural baths - much used as such by the people of the locality, who credit the waters with great medicinal properties, a belief handed down by the Indians of the neighbourhood. There are several of these basins in the creek-bottom with waters at a temperature of 100°F, while within 5 feet flows a good-sized creek with water at 40 degrees, providing the 'hot bath and cold plunge' of the Turkish bath." (BC Mines Report, 1898, p.1036, reprinted in 1913 Report, p.K.117)
Source: BC place name cards, files, correspondence and/or research by BC Chief Geographer/Geographical Names Office.
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Labelled "Fairmont Sp." on Lands Dept 1888 map, Eastern part of British Columbia; "Fairmont Sp" labelled on 1902 & 1907 editions of East & West Kootenay District, with Warm Spring Creek and Cold Spring Creek adjacent; "Fairmont Springs" labelled on BC Lands' map 4G, 1914, and nearby creeks identified as Coldspring Creek and Hotspring Creek.
Source: Provincial Archives' Place Names File (the "Harvey File") compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions
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