The area around Nakusp was occupied by Aboriginal peoples from the Secwepemc, Sinixt and Ktunaxa peoples. In 1811, the first reported European explorer on the Arrow Lakes was Finan McDonald, an associate of David Thompson. European settlers arrived in 1890, and the settlement took shape in 1892 with opening of the first post office, the first store and the first sawmill. Small settlements developed along the shores of the Arrow Lakes to exploit the timber and mining potential of the area, but the nearest train link was the CPR at Revelstoke. All goods were shipped up and down the lakes by a growing fleet of shallow-draft stern wheel paddle steamers and Nakusp became something of a hub port. In 1954, the last of the sternwheelers, the Minto, was retired. In 1964, Nakusp was incorporated as a village. The construction of the Keenleyside Dam north of Castlegar in 1968 and the resulting rise of the lake level caused the rearrangement of the village and its waterfront. Mining used to be the most important industry in the area, but it was eclipsed by forestry which is today the major economic base of the village.
Nakusp Hot Springs Resort
Situated 14 kilometres north of the village on a former logging road up the Kuskanax Valley, the amphitheatre-shaped resort is built of rock and red cedar. The main building houses the 40-ft. diameter hot springs pools on the banks of the rushing Kuskanax Creek, next to a serviced campsite. The resort, designed by Saskatchewan architect Clifford Wiens, includes four cedar chalets in a narrow A-frame design. The pool's water is piped in from the source of the springs half a mile away. Premier Dave Barrett, who opened the resort officially, is supposed to have called it the Taj Mahal at the end of the Burma Road. There are two pools that are fed daily by 200,000 litres of fresh water pumped from the 57ºC source and filtered onsite. The smaller, Hot Pool is kept at 41ºC in winter and 38ºC in summer, and the filtered water is recycled every 30 minutes. The larger Warm Pool is maintained at 100°F in the winter and 97°F in the summer, on a two-hour recycling schedule. The resort was built for $700,000 and paid for by the federal and provincial governments in the form of grants for the benefit of the municipality, which owns it. Wiens, referred to only as "the architect from Saskatchewan" in a 1976 article in The Vancouver Sun, was the only "outsider" involved the development. Not everyone in Nakusp was pleased with the development, and continued to hike a half mile to the site of original hot springs, until one night when the old pool was "mysteriously dynamited." The resort made a profit for the first time in 2010. There is another, privately-owned hot springs resort called Halcyon Hot Springs located 35 kilometres north of Nakusp.
Nakusp is home to a community radio station, CJHQ-FM, and a small library and museum containing numerous local historical artifacts of the indigenous and settler communities of the region. In 2004 the village held its first Nakusp Music Fest, which proved to be a popular attraction. It was known as the Interior's largest classic rock festival, although classic rock isn't the only genre being played. The Nakusp Music Festival is no longer running, having come to an end in 2011.
Parzival Copes, was a Canadian economist and World War II survivor.
Climate
Naskup has a humid continental climate with pleasantly warm summer days coupled with cool nights and moderately cold, snowy winters with annual snowfall averaging 66 inches.
