It looks like an enormous liquid question mark dropped into the narrow confines of the rugged but beautiful mountain ranges of southern British Columbia. The First Nations people constructed crafts called Sturgeon nosed canoes to paddle the practically bottomless waters of this oasis. Eventually, prospectors came and started digging holes along the shoreline; some got rich, most didn't. One of the mining problems was how to move the ore. They eventually built paddlewheelers to transport ore and goods on the lake. Occasionally Kootenay would swallow a vessel. Such was the case on the stormy night of November 29, 1898 when the paddlewheeler The City Of Ainsworth attempted to cross the lake.