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Rounding out the A’s: Annable, Apex, and Arrow Park

We finish off the first letter in our alphabetical look at West Kootenay place names.
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Arrow Park Road and the Arrow Park ferry are two reminders of a community that vanished in the 1960s behind the waters of the High Arrow dam.

Ninth in a series on West Kootenay-Boundary place names

Annable

The Warfield suburb of Annable was previously known as Jackson’s Siding and Winn. The former, according to the Warfield Golden Jubilee booklet, was for a train conductor “who researched transportation methods along the CPR between Rossland and Trail.”

An early reference appeared in the Nelson Daily News, July 29, 1910: “Twenty-five men were also sent to Jackson’s Siding where there is a bad fire …”

Winn, meanwhile, honoured a Rossland lawyer employed in the office of the planer mill established by George Malcolm (Mac) Annable, after whom the neighbourhood was finally christened. (Annable’s grandson published a book about him called The Laugh That Shook the West.)

From the Daily News, January 12, 1912: “The post office department has decided to change the name of the town from Winn to Annable and the CPR will put the change into effect on their next working timetable to be issued. The railway name for the station at this place is now Jackson’s siding.”

The post office opened as Winn on August 1, 1910 and was renamed Annable on March 1, 1912. It became Trail sub-office No. 2 on November 1, 1938 and closed August 31, 1956.

When Warfield was incorporated in 1952, 62 per cent of residents preferred to call the village Warfield instead of Annable-Warfield. But Annable is still in common use and there is a road by that name.

Apex

The cross-country ski area between Nelson and Ymir appeared in the civic directories by 1910. It was a flag station along the Great Northern Railway. It’s sometimes referred to as Apex-Busk, the latter referring to the site of Camp Busk, named for Charles Westly Busk, founder of the first Nelson boy scout troop.

Arrow Park

Also known as West Arrow Park, it is 19 km south of Nakusp on the west side of Upper Arrow Lake. The post office opened December 1, 1908 and closed on May 29, 1968 following construction of the Hugh Keenlyside dam that inundated the community.

Although it essentially ceased to exist, you can still catch the Arrow Park ferry, and an annual reunion is held there hosted by the Friends of Old Arrow Park.

Previous installments in this series

Introduction

Ainsworth

Alamo

Anaconda

Appledale

Applegrove, Appleby, and Appledale revisited

Argenta and Arrowhead

Aylwin