About Revelstoke

Revelstoke was founded in the 1880s when the Canadian Pacific Railway(CPR) was built through the area; mining was an important early industry. The name was originally Farwell, after a local land owner and surveyor. In yet earlier days, the spot was called the Second Crossing, to differentiate it from the first crossing of the Columbia River by the Canadian Pacific Railway near Golden. The city was named by the Canadian Pacific Railway in appreciation of Lord Revelstoke, the head of Baring & Glyn, a UK banking firm that saved the Canadian Pacific Railway from bankruptcy in the summer of 1885 by buying the company's bonds just as the railway was nearing completion. The construction of the Trans-Canada Highway in 1962 further eased access to the region, and since then tourism has been an important feature of the local economy, with skiing having emerged as the most prominent attraction. Mount Revelstoke National Park is just north of the town. Currently the construction of a major new ski resort is underway on Mount MacKenzie, just outside of town. Revelstoke is also the site of a railway museum well known throughout Canada. It is also the site and namesake of the 1965 impact of a meteorite [1], which, though resulting in only a few small pieces that could be found, made a splendorous fireball track across the sky. This meteorite was a carbonaceous chondrite, an especially primitive and friable type. That fact, plus the rather flat trajectory (allowing a long air path) accounts for the paucity of surviving fragments - most or the meteorite evaporated, burnt up, or broke into dust.