Trout Lake, also known as Trout Lake City, is an unincorporated rural community, mining and former railway-speculation boomtown located at the north end of Trout Lake in the West Kootenay district of southeastern British Columbia, Canada. The Lardeau River runs into Trout Lake and exits at the south end of the lake. It then runs as does the lake on a southeastern course to the community of Lardeau at the north end of Kootenay Lake, while beyond it and the townsite of Trout Lake at its northwestern end is a low pass to the Beaton Arm of Upper Arrow Lake at Galena Bay. Speculation on railway development through this pass promoted a great amount of speculation at Trout Lake, or Trout Lake City as it soon was proclaimed to be, as well as at Lardeau and other potential townsites along the rail line's route. Halcyon Hot Springs, originally a railway-era resort, is located approximately thirty minutes away on Highway 31. The Windsor Lodge Trout Lake BC has a restaurant and bar and there is also a gas station/convenience store located within Trout Lake City. A coffee shop/cafe, the No-Board Cafe opened in 2006 in Trout Lake City. Long term residents do most of their grocery shopping in Nakusp, the nearest town, about forty-five minutes away. Trout Lake also has a general store which offers provisions and gasoline, operating out of the original Hladinec Esso garage. In 1882, while surveying the land for railway development, Robert Sproule noted a large area of iron staining on the eastern shore of Kootenay lake. Large amounts of high-grade silver was discovered, setting off an explosion of prospecting activity around Trout Lake. Many new discoveries followed throughout the late 19th century. Trout Lake grew as a staging point and shipping hub for ore from the Silver Cup, Broadview, True Fissure, Great Northern, and Nettie L. mines. As demand for mining equipment and labour grew, so did the surrounding settlements of Ferguson and at Trout Lake. Trout Lake City has fluctuated in size and population since the 1870s primarily based on the boom and bust cycle of resource development. Despite the mineral wealth of the region, mining pursuits have been afflicted by the same adversities which were present in 1900. Effective development has often been handicapped by transportation difficulties and the propensity of unscrupulous businessmen to over-hype their claims. E.M. Morgan said in 1900, "There's too many cheap-john jacklegs in the camp looking for something for nothing, and they find it. The result is they go down into the penny ante belt, float a jim-crow company, sell shares, find they have a wildcat, go broke and the shareholders in chorus condemn the countryin general, instead of stringing up the 'floater'". In 2007 a new mining boom began with the production of molybdenite concentrates at Roca's MAX mine. This was relatively short-lived however, and the mine shut down in 2011 due to underground collapse and low molybdenum prices. The MAX mine processing facility and tailings pond have remained inoperative since the MAX mine closure in 2011. Substantial mineral deposits remain in the vicinity of Trout Lake, and exploration and development work has been ongoing since the 1970s.
