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Description area
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History
William Adolph Baillie-Grohman, 1851-1921, was born in London, England. In 1882, then a wealthy sportsman and author of adventure books, he took a hunting trip to the Kootenay area of British Columbia. He was impressed with the area as a potential settlement for English farmers, but discovered that it flooded almost every year. In 1883 he began negotiations with the British Columbia government for rights to build a water-diverting canal between the Kootenay River and Columbia Lake, and to sell the resulting reclaimed agricultural land. The canal was completed in 1889, but quickly closed due to concerns about the strength of the gates. No land was ever reclaimed, and William returned to Europe in 1893. He married Florence Nickalls in 1887 and they had at least one child, H.T. Baillie-Grohman, who was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1888.