Ferguson, British Columbia


Ferguson is a ghost town located in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. It is located west of the junction of Ferguson and Lardeau Creeks. It came into being with the discovery of gold in the region. In 1897, the Lardeau Hotel opened. By 1899, Ferguson had a main street with hotels, shops and saloons, and a population of 800. It had a newspaper called The Ferguson Eagle. It eventually went into decline and by 1920 was almost deserted. The Lardeau Hotel stood into the 1970s.
The main street is said to have come back to life in the 2000s, when many lots were sold to cabin builders.
Though mines in the surrounding mountains which had been supplied through Ferguson had generally fallen into disuse by the 1970s, substantial mineral resources remain in the area. In 2006 5 mines to the west of Ferguson were consolidated into the Thor deposit, which began gold production again in 2017.
Ferguson was founded and named for Dave Ferguson, who came from Grand Bend, Ontario in 1891, and vanished in Saanich in December 1903. His body was found in a bush the next March, a coroner's jury finding he died of "suicide in a fit of despondency".