Paulson, British Columbia

Paulson is a ghost town in the Boundary Country region of south central British Columbia.[1] The locality, on the Paulson Detour Rd off Highway 3, is about 26 kilometres (16 mi) northeast of Christina Lake and 54 kilometres (34 mi) west of Castlegar.[2]

Paulson
Paulson Location of Paulson in British Columbia
Coordinates: 49°11′59″N 118°07′04″W
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia
Region	Boundary Country
Regional district	Kootenay Boundary
Area code(s)	250, 778, 236, & 672

Bonanza Siding on the Columbia and Western Railway was named after the Bonanza mine. This siding became a flag stop on the former Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) line in 1902. That year, brothers Thomas Henry, John William, and George Alfred Paulson, applied for a liquor licence for their new hotel, which housed a general store/post office. In 1904, the post office was renamed Paulson, and George died of injuries sustained when struck by a freight train on the Red Mountain railway.[3] The population was likely larger when a sawmill operated around 1910, but more representative would be 25 in 1918,[4] and 23 in 1944, of which half were CP employees, and a quarter involved in mining.[5]

The Paulson bridge allowed the highway to bypass the settlement. The construction substructure was awarded to D.J. Manning Construction ($178,378) and the superstructure to Dominion Bridge ($726,872).[20] The opening was in 1962. In 2019, the crossing underwent a $6-million rehabilitation.[21]