Charles Wales Drysdale and the Kootenay River Tragedy
Foreword There is a tree just within the southern boundary of Kootenay National Park on which is carved a commemoration to my grandfather days after he was lost in the Kootenay River. Having looked through pictures and documents I am fairly certain within 50 feet where that tree is located. Something that has never been found by the family and I would very much like to find it. Charles Wales Drysdale's Kootenay Expedition Dr. Charles Wales Drysdale, Yale 1909. Charles Wales Drysdale, after whom Mt. Drysdale in Kootenay National Park is named, perished on a Geological Survey expedition along the Kootenay River in 1917. His body was never recovered nor the body of "Billy" Gray, Drysdale's field assistant who had accompanied him on many of his expeditions. The tragedy occurred three miles above the junction where the Cross River flows in the Kootenay River, just inside the southern boundary of Kootenay National Park. The three maps below indicate the l