Craigellachie, British Columbia

Craigellachie
Coordinates: 50°58′31″N 118°43′25″W / 50.97528°N 118.72361°W / 50.97528; -118.72361
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia
Region	BC Interior
Regional district	Columbia-Shuswap Regional District
Land District	Kamloops Division Yale Land District
Time zone	PST (UTC−8)
- Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC−7)
Postal code span	V0E 2J0
Highways	Trans-Canada Highway

Craigellachie (pronounced /krəˈɡɛləxi/, but /k/ or /h/ can be substituted for the /x/) is a locality in British Columbia, located several kilometres to the west of the Eagle Pass summit between Sicamous and Revelstoke.^[1] Craigellachie is the site of a tourist stop on the Trans-Canada Highway between Salmon Arm and Revelstoke.

It was named after the village of Craigellachie on the River Spey in Moray, Scotland, the ancestral home of Sir George Stephen, the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). At a critical time in the railway's development, Stephen travelled to Britain to raise desperately needed capital funding; when he succeeded, he telegraphed his associates in Canada quoting the familiar motto of Clan Grant: "Stand fast, Craigellachie!"

Sir Donald Smith drives in the last spike at Craigellachie

The Canadian Craigellachie is most famous for being the site of the "Last Spike" of the CPR, driven by Sir Donald Smith, a director of the CPR, on November 7, 1885.^[2]

References

1. ^ "Craigellachie (community)". BC Geographical Names. http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/4772.html. 
2. ^ In actual fact, Sir Donald drove in two spikes; his first attempt resulted in a bent spike and so the Last Spike was a replacement.

Coordinates: 50°58′31″N 118°43′25″W / 50.97528°N 118.72361°W / 50.97528; -118.72361 (Craigellachie)