Wood River

The Wood River, which flows in a southwesterly direction, is in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The former confluence was near the top of the Big Bend of the Columbia River. After the enlarged Kinbasket Lake formed the Mica Dam reservoir, the flow entered Wood Arm. Name origin In their respective journals, the waterway was called Flat Heart River by David Thompson (1811) (reflecting his men's timidity), Little Canoe River by Gabriel Franchère (1814) (adjacent to Canoe River mouth), and Portage River by Alexander Ross (1824) (largely unnavigable). In 1874, Sandford Fleming referred to the valley of Portage or Wood River. The name origin is unclear but may have indicated that the woodlands rather than the river provided the means of traversing this section.