Teck Resources, formerly Cominco, has operated the Trail smelter since 1896, its facilities sprawling along the Columbia's banks. The operation processes lead and zinc concentrates, the ores arriving from mines throughout the region and beyond, the refined metals shipping to markets worldwide. The employment anchors the local economy, the wages supporting the businesses that line the highway and fill the downtown.

The environmental history is complicated. Early smelting released pollutants that damaged forests and farmland as far as Washington State, where American farmers eventually won compensation for damages. Modern operations are cleaner, the technology evolved, the visible plume less concerning than it once was. The smelter remains essential to Trail's economy and identity - removing it is unthinkable, but its presence requires ongoing management of legacies that predate current standards.

Members of the 44th Field Engineering Squadron have planted Canadian flags on peaks surrounding Trail, creating hiking destinations that combine physical challenge with patriotic display. Four flags wave from various mountaintops, each accessible by trails ranging from easy to intermediate difficulty. The hikes take one to two and a half hours, depending on the route and destination, and the viewpoints reveal the Columbia River valley, the smelter property, and the surrounding communities of Warfield, Rossland, and the ski hills beyond.

The McQuarrie Creek trail leads to the East Trail Flag above the regional hospital, a one-hour climb that rewards with views across the river toward West Trail. The Sunningdale Canadian Flag on Mount Heinze requires more commitment - two and a half hours through brush and swamp, bear country where making noise is advisable. These are community-created attractions, the flags placed and maintained by volunteers, the trails informal but well-marked for those willing to explore.

Trail sits on both banks of the Columbia River, ten kilometers north of the US border at Waneta. The river connects Trail to the regional geography - Castlegar twenty-five kilometers downstream, Rossland in the mountains to the west, the border communities to the south. Highway 3B runs through as the main route, connecting Trail to the Crowsnest Highway and the cross-province corridors that link the Kootenays to the coast and the prairies.

The climate is distinctly interior - hot and dry summers with temperatures exceeding 35°C, cool nights providing relief, thunderstorms rolling up from the south. Fall brings dense fog as cold air settles over the warm river. Winters are mild by Kootenay standards, with moderate snowfall, though the higher elevations at Warfield and Fruitvale receive more. It's a climate that allows comfortable hiking through much of the year, the trails accessible when coastal mountains are socked in with rain.

Rossland sits six kilometers west on Highway 3B, a mountain town known for skiing in winter and biking in summer. The Red Mountain Resort offers terrain that attracts skiers from throughout the region, while the summer trails draw mountain bikers to technical riding on slopes that drop steeply from the peaks. Trail serves as Rossland's service center, its grocery stores and hospital providing what the smaller community lacks.

Air access comes through West Kootenay Regional Airport in Castlegar, twenty-five minutes away but notorious for fog-related cancellations. Spokane International Airport in Washington offers more reliable connections, three hours south. The relative isolation is characteristic of the Kootenays - beautiful country, significant distances, the trade-offs that mountain living requires. Trail accepts those trade-offs, its residents choosing the smelter city for reasons that don't require justification to outsiders.