Kicking Horse Pass

Kicking Horse Pass was first recorded in the report of the Palliser expedition of 1857-60 and takes its name from an incident in which Dr. James Hector, surgeon in the expedition, was kicked by his horse while exploring nearby. The pass was virtually unused until after 1881, when the Canadian Pacific Railway adopted it as its new route through the Rockies instead of the more northerly Yellowhead Pass. That decision altered the location of the rail line across western Canada and dramatically affected the development of the West.

British Columbia · Canada