Kaslo

The SS Moyie was launched in 1898 and worked Kootenay Lake for fifty-nine years, carrying passengers, freight and mail to communities with no roads, until she was retired in 1957; the village bought her for a dollar and hauled her onto the beach, and she is now the oldest intact passenger sternwheeler in the world. The cabins, engine room, wheelhouse and dining saloon are shown as they were. Kaslo itself was a silver boom town in the 1890s that briefly held thousands and now has about a thousand people, with a wooden city hall of 1898 still in use and a jazz festival held on the beach each August.

What to look for

• The SS Moyie - an 1898 sternwheeler on the beach, cabins and engine room intact.
• The 1898 city hall - a wooden civic building still in municipal use.
• The lake front - a long beach on Kootenay Lake below the mountains.
• The August jazz festival - a long-running festival staged on the beach.

When to go

May to September; the Moyie opens seasonally and closes for winter. The jazz festival falls in early August and fills the village. Roads in are mountain highways.

What to expect

The Moyie is closed roughly October to April. The village is small with limited services. Getting here means a long drive on winding lake roads from any direction.

Nearby

Nelson lies south; Sandon and New Denver are west.

Key facts