Kootenay Pass is a mountain pass halfway between Salmo and Creston. The pass was named
after the local Ktunaxa band, then known as the Kootenay band.1 Akrigg notes that the meaning of Kootenay is not known and that the often quoted
“water people” is a false etymology.2
The Kootenay Pass was also known as the Coutainnais Pass.3 In this despatch, Douglas describes the pass as a nature pack-road…of great beauty, and replete with objects of interest to the tourist
and the sportsman.
1. Who Are The Ktunaxa,Ktunaxa Nation; G. P. V. Akrigg and H. B. Akrigg, British Columbia Place Names (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 143.