AINSWORTH CEMETERY VIEWPOINT

Tall Cedar trees with hanging ‘Angel Hair’ in the historic Ainsworth Cemetery.

Rating: ♦♦◊◊◊
Location: Above Ainsworth Hot Springs on the west side of Kootenay Lake between Kaslo and Balfour. 
Difficulty: A1  easy 
Elevation Gain: +297m  974′ 
Distance: 5.3kms / 3.3 miles loop hike  
Time: 1 hour
Season: April to November 
Access: 2WD low clearance in Ainsworth. 4WD high clearance to drive the road 
Map: 82F/10 Crawford Bay 

Drive: Park at the hot springs and walk or drive 1 block north on Sutton Street to North Street. Park where the 4X4 track begins and hike from there.

Route/Trail: Behind the Ainsworth hot springs are town streets that lead to a 4X4 track that with a high clearance vehicle can be driven to the viewpoint at the Ainsworth Historic Cemetery. You can also hike or bike up the road to see the view. Continue on the Cedar Creek trail that crosses Cedar creek and descends to the highway to return to town. 
Pass lots of relics from the bygone mining days.

AINSWORTH HOT SPRINGS (pop 20). Previously named Ainsworth, this historic village on Kootenay Lake was founded on May 31, 1883, making it the oldest surviving community on the lake. It is located on Highway 31, 18 km north of Balfour and 19 km south of Kaslo.
History. The founder of Ainsworth Hot Springs was George Ainsworth, a steamboat captain from Portland, Oregon, who, with his father John, had already made a fortune operating sternwheelers on the Columbia River. Upon hearing of the discoveries of silver-lead ore in the Kootenays, the brothers travelled to British Columbia from Idaho via Bonners Ferry. On May 31, 1883, George Ainsworth received a Crown Grant of 166 acres (67 ha) at what was originally Hot Springs Camp. Ainsworth grew into a town in 1884 when “A.D. Wheeler landed there” with the first general store “started by G.B. Wright in the fall of 1888.”

Miners at Tariff Mine near Ainsworth, 1897
From 1884, the mountains above Ainsworth were alive with mining activity and prospectors had staked nearly every inch of ground from the townsite to the glacial summits. By 1889, several mines including Number One, Skyline, Little Donald and Krao were operating. Among the prospectors was road builder Gustavus Blin Wright, who had built part of the Old Cariboo Road. However, like many others, Wright would have no luck. Then in 1891, Eli Carpenter and John Seaton left Ainsworth for their mining claims, but returned after several futile weeks of searching. They returned to town by a route that took them over Payne Mountain, where they discovered ore samples worth CN$170 to $240 a ton. Carpenter’s and Seaton’s discoveries would be the catalyst for the Slocan Silver Rush and the region would become known as the “Silvery Slocan”.
The town of Ainsworth prospered during this period and Gold Commissioner, Henry Anderson petitioned the government for a wagon road from the town to the mines and a wharf. Both were built in 1889 and 1891, the town was visited by the new sternwheeler Nelson, the first sternwheeler built to provide service for the communities on Kootenay Lake.

The Nelson didn’t operate during the winter months and supplies had to be brought in by packhorse, driving up food prices and making such luxuries as liquor hard to come by. To solve the problems caused by this isolation, the community decided to build its own sternwheeler, one that could run all year round, connecting with Bonners Ferry. That sternwheeler was the City of Ainsworth, launched on May 4, 1892. The ill-fated boat had an unlucky launch, sliding down the ways stern first and flipping over onto her starboard side. She was soon righted by the steamer Galena and went on her maiden voyage without further incident.
Meanwhile, the town of Ainsworth continued to boom and the saloons and brothels prospered. One of the best-known hotels in town was the Olson Hotel, built by Charles Olson, who had paddled up to the area on a raft in 1883. He built the hotel when he was 21 and kept it until he died in 1926. The Olson Hotel’s most unusual feature was its two-story outhouse. The upper floor could be reached from the rooms in the second story of the hotel, while the ground floor was for patrons entering from the hotel’s grounds. The toilets were bowls with lids on top, which the proprietor’s wife kept from freezing in the winter by heating them with coal oil lamps.

Main Street in Ainsworth, 1894
By 1893, Ainsworth began to fall into a decline, while Kaslo became the terminus for the Kaslo and Slocan Railway and thus was the supply center of Kootenay Lake.
Fire was a constant hazard in these pioneer communities and on April 26, 1896, much of Ainsworth was destroyed. The fire brigade saved the Green Brothers store and several houses, but the fire burned down thirteen hotels including Olson’s. Rebuilding started immediately and most of the hotels were rebuilt. The Deering even boasted a swimming pool in its basement. Still, Ainsworth suffered in its isolation, having no roads until 1914 and not having electrical service until 1928. For many years, there was no hospital and the town’s medical needs were provided by the local veterinarian, Dr. Henry.
Ainsworth continued in the early years of the century. The Highland Boy and the No. 1 mine provided employment. Adjoining mines at Kaslo, Coffee Creek and the Molly Gibson made Ainsworth a supply point. Mining continued at Ainsworth nearly continuously until 1953. Ainsworth never achieved the fame of the nearby Slocan district, particularly, Sandon.
The Olson Hotel was torn down in 1960, but the family name is honoured by Mount Olson in the Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park. Another pioneer hotel, McKinnon House, survived and is now Silver Ledge. In 1963, Ainsworth officially changed its name to Ainsworth Hot Spring.
Today. Ainsworth Hot Springs is now a popular tourist destination and home to its namesake hot springs which originate in the Cody Caves area and are considered to be the best commercial hot springs in British Columbia. The temperatures vary from 40–42 °C (104–108 °F) in the cave to 35–38 °C (95–100 °F) in the pool.
Attractions. 
Cody Caves Provincial Park on the eastern slopes of the Selkirk Mountains are a system of ancient limestone caves with an underground stream.
Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park offers fishing, canoeing and kayaking on more than 30 glacier lakes and 32,035 hectares (79,160 acres) of wilderness with hiking and ski trails.
• 12 miles to the north is the village of Kaslo, home to two National historic sites including the SS Moyie, the world’s oldest intact sternwheeler.
• Northwest of Ainsworth is the historic ghost town of Sandon, the “Capital of the Silvery Slocan”, once known as the “Monte Carlo of Canada”.
• 11 miles south is Balfour, where visitors can enjoy the longest free ferry ride in the world, at the Kootenay Lake Ferry Crossing.

Thomas Higstrim Grave at Ainsworth Hot Springs, which dates to 1891, is West Kootenay’s oldest marked grave in situ. There are certainly many older, unmarked First Nations graves. But Higstrim’s posthumous distinction is that he’s been in the same marked grave longer than anyone else in our area. Seen below in 2007, it has a fence around it and a wooden headboard that reads: “Tomas Higstrim/A native of/Australia/Died/April 14th, 1891.”This marker is not the oldest surviving one though; Thomas Hammill’s original wooden tombstone, dated 1885, is in the Touchstones Nelson permanent exhibit. 
The circumstances of his death were reported in the Nelson Miner on April 25, 1891, along with an outline of his travels:

He was not buried in the present Ainsworth cemetery, but on a knoll closer to town, off Hanson Road. The grave was originally marked with a “neat cross,” so the existing marker was not the original one.
Ted Affleck, in High Grade & Hot Springs: A History of the Ainsworth Camp (2001) recounted the flu epidemic that struck Ainsworth and Higstrim’s death, based on what Stainer told him: The first life threatened by the flu was that of Tomas Higstrim, a native of Australia, who was working on his Coffee Creek claim in April 1891 when he took ill. Some Indians found him and carried him in a canoe to the Ainsworth townsite, but he died en route. Higstrim was interred in a burial plot on the Bonita mining claim. This site was actually the second of Ainsworth’s burial places, the first being located under a private dwelling. Thereafter burials were made in the cemetery located up the road to the Highland mine.
Higstrim died without a will. The following ad ran in the Nelson Miner on May 9, 1891 and in subsequent editions:

The December 1968 issue of the Australian magazine Walkabout contained the following item:

Immigrated to Australia until 1853 for an unknown reason.