| 1898 | | CPR provincially incorporates Arrowhead and Kootenay Railway in BC: re-organized in 1901 as Kootenay and Arrowhead, with Federal subsidy. |
| 1898 | | Fernie, BC: The CPR sets up a saw mill. |
| 1898 | | Kimberley, BC: McVittie and McVittie lay out the townsite. |
| 1898 | | East Kootenay, BC: CPR establishes a storehouse at “Cranston” near today’s Galloway, possibly managed by Andrew Rosen. |
| 1898 | | “the Springs,” N-WT.: CPR builds a permanent depôt at what is now Blairmore, AB. |
| 1898 | | B.C.: The Finch Brothers set up sawmill at “the Narrows” of Moyie Lake. |
| 1898 | | B.C.: George Bigelow establishes the first sawmill in the Creston area. |
| 1898 | | N-WT: J.E. Davison builds store at CP’s “8th siding” west from Lethbridge on the Crowsnest Line—now Cowley, AB. |
| 1898 | | B.C.: CPR acquires controlling interest in the Nakusp and Slocan Railway. |
| 1898 | | Stand Off, I.R. 148A, N-WT: St. Mary’s Mission Indian Residential School completed. |
| 1898 | | Gladstone City, BC: Founded on the C&W in the McRae Creek valley on the western slopes of the Rosslands; abandoned within a year. |
| 1898 | | Osoyoos, BC: J.C. Fisher stakes the Dividend on Kruger Mountain nearby. |
| 1898 | | The Jewel and the Denoro Grande taken over by the Jewel Development Syndicate of London. |
| 1898 | | Sandon, BC: Incorporated as a City. |
| 1898 | | The Piikani take the $2100 that they were obliged to accept from the CPR for the right-of-way of the Crow’s Nest Line across their reserve, and buy sawmill equipment. |
| 1898 | | N-WT: The “Grand House” on the Garnett brothers’ ranch near what is now Lundbreck, AB, burns. |
| 1898 | | B.C.: R.A. Brown and Flora Averill granted the Sunset claim on Copper Mountain near Princeton. |
| 1898 | | B.C.: Chartered Company of Montreal buys the B.C. mine on Thimble Mountain near Phœnix. |
| 1898 | | J.P. Graves, A.L. White and S.H.C. Miner incorporate the Old Ironsides Mining Company in Montréal to buy the Old Ironsides and the Knob Hill properties on Phœnix. |
| 1898 | | William Mackenzie, Donald Mann, G.A. Cox, and T.G. Holt form an association to acquire the Stemwinder, the Brooklyn, Montezuma, Phœnix and Standard on Phœnix Mountain. |
| 1898 | | Rock Creek, BC: The Madge family opens hotel. |
| 1898 | | Federal Political: David Laird appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs in western Canada (served till post abolished upon his retirement in 1909). |
| 1898 | | Kitchener, BC: established on the BC Southern as a logging camp. |
| 1898 | | Lethbridge, N-WT: David Crichton and son establish the Lethbridge Foundry. |
| 1898 | | B.C.: The North American Land and Lumber Company sets up a mill near “Sparwood Siding.” |
| 1898 | Jan. 1 | Northport, WA: Le Roi Mining and Smelting Company blows in the first furnace of its smelter. |
| 1898 | January | Butte, MT: P.A. Largey, president on the Center Star Mining and Smelting Company, murdered. |
| 1898 | Jan. 1 | CP leases the BC Southern in perpetuity. |
| 1898 | Jan. 6 | Steel finally delivered to the CPR’s bridge site over what is now the Pincher Creek, near Brocket, AB. |
| 1898 | Jan. 15 | Minister of the Interior Clifford Sifton appoints Royal Commission to investigate the living and working conditions of labour on the Crow’s Nest Line. |
| 1898 | Jan. 24 | George Gurd and Sir James D. Edgar buy the Wardner Townsite Company from Jas. Wardner and associates. |
| 1898 | Jan. 27 | CPR crews have rails and ballast in place on the Crow’s Nest Line as far as the bridge site at the South Fork of the Old Man River (now the Pincher Creek). |
| 1898 | February | Typhoid fever strikes the construction camps on the B.C. Southern. |
| 1898 | February, late | Trestle bridge across Castle River in the District of Alberta finally completed. Begun November of ‘97. |
| 1898 | Feb. 2 | Bridge over the Pincher Creek west of Brocket, AB, completed. |
| 1898 | Feb. 11 | CPR agrees to buy the Columbia and Western Railway, Trail smelter, etc., from Heinze. |
| 1898 | March | Trail, B.C.: Trail Board of Trade organized. |
| 1898 | March | Cranbrook, B.C.: Horace T. Brown begins publishing the Cranbrook Herald. |
| 1898 | Mar. 1 | CPR buys F.A. Heinze’s Canadian assets. Walter Hull Aldridge assumes control of the Trail, BC, smelter, known thereafter as the Canadian Smelting Works. |
| 1898 | Mar. 17 | West Virginia: British Columbia Copper Company, Limited, incorporated by L.W. Mayer et al to buy out the Boundary Mines Company and build smelter to exploit the Mother Lode. |
| 1898 | Mar. 19 | WA: Corbin incorporates Kettle Valley Railroad and continues efforts to obtain a Canadian charter for his Kettle River Valley Railway. |
| 1898 | Spring | Moyie, B.C.: D.R. Young and F.J. Smyth begin publishing the Moyie City Leader. |
| 1898 | Mar. 30 | East Kootenays, B.C.: Canada Western Telephone and Telegraph Company begins operations. |
| 1898 | April | The Gooderham-Blackstock combine bought the Center Star Mining and Smelting Company: $2 million dollars. |
| 1898 | April | Captain Sanborn launches Echo on Moyie Lake. |
| 1898 | Apr. 5 | “Bull Head Prairie,” B.C.: Southern steel arrives near McGillivray Loop in the mouth of Michel Creek valley. |
| 1898 | Apr. 7 | N-WT: Four workers perish when gales blow down spans of the St. Mary’s River crossing on the Crow’s Nest Line. |
| 1898 | Apr. 8 | Ainsworth Hot Springs, B.C.: Gustavus Blin Wright dead. |
| 1898 | Apr. 15 | Federal political: D.C. Corbin’s final bid to encharter his Kettle River Valley Railway refused. |
| 1898 | Apr. 18 | Grand Forks, B.C.: Surveyors stake the alignment of the Columbia and Western Railway thus far. |
| 1898 | Apr. 28 | B.C.: British Columbia Copper Company, Limited, registered. |
| 1898 | Apr. 28 | Fort Steele, B.C.: The elegant J.D. Farrell arrives on her maiden voyage. |
| 1898 | May | B.C.: Crews of McGilvary and Leeson begin Elk River Crossing near what is now Elko. |
| 1898 | May 4 | B.C.: British Columbia Mining and Smelting Company re-registered provincially under the British Columbia Companies’ Act, 1897. |
| 1898 | May 4 | Lethbridge, N-WT.: With the Haney family aboard Superintendent N. John Niblock’s private car, the first train departs west-bound on the Crow’s Nest Line. |
| 1898 | May 20 | B.C. passes the Redistribution Act which divides the East Kootenay Electoral District into North and South Ridings, and redivides the West Kootenay Electoral District into Revelstoke, Slocan, Nelson, and Rossland Ridings. |
| 1898 | May 23 | Tuesday. Electric lighting illuminates the streets of Grand Forks, BC. |
| 1898 | May 30 | Malcolm Colin Cameron begins term as lieutenant-governor of the N-WT. |
| 1898 | June | Work begins on Columbia & Western Railway west from Robson West. Survey complete to Midway, BC. |
| 1898 | June | The Northport Mining and Smelting Co. is incorporated in Washington state, hdqtrs, Spokane. |
| 1898 | June | H.W. Forster acquires the charter of the Kaslo and Lardo-Duncan and sells it to the Kootenay Railway & Navigation Co. |
| 1898 | June 13 | Federal 61 Victoria chapter 57 permits Calgary and Edmonton Railway to be extended to the Crow’s Nest Line near the Town of Macleod, N-WT. |
| 1898 | June 13 | 61 Victoria chapter 89 subjects the Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway to federal regulation. |
| 1898 | June 15 | B.C. government granted the Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway a $4,000 per mile subsidy provided work begin by August 8th and that Ottawa grant a subsidy as well. Failed. |
| 1898 | June 20 | B.C.: Wardner designated as a Port of Entry. |
| 1898 | Summer | A two-stall fire hall built at Trail, BC. |
| 1898 | Summer | Leask and Johnson begin logging operations at Elko. |
| 1898 | June 27 | Mackenzie and Mann announce that the Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway would begin laying rail from Penticton. |
| 1898 | June 30 | Last issue of the Wardner International. |
| 1898 | July | BC Southern built through to Fernie, BC. |
| 1898 | July 1 | The Great Northern completes the aquisition of D.C. Corbin’s Spokane Falls & Northern, Nelson & Fort Sheppard, Red Mountain, and Columbia & Red Mountain railways, and Northport smelter. |
| 1898 | July 9 | B.C. political: Eighth General Election. East Kootenay North Riding, W.G. Neilson (January, 1899); East Kootenay South Riding, Jas. Baker; West Kootenay Nelson Riding, John Frederick Hume; West Kootenay Rossland Riding, J.M. Martin; West Kootenay Revelstoke Riding, J.M. Kellie; West Kootenay Slocan Riding, R.F. Green. |
| 1898 | July 9 | N-WT: Agreement signed between LDS church and Galt companies to construct the St. Mary’s Main Canal. |
| 1898 | July 15 | West Kootenay Power and Light began transmitting 22,000 volts of power from Plant No. 1 on the Lower Kootenay River 32 miles to Rossland. |
| 1898 | July 29 | Friday. B.C. Southern steel reaches the Kootenay River at Wardner, B.C. |
| 1898 | July 30 | The Right Honourable Sir Gilbert John Murray Kynynmond Elliot, 4th Earl of Minto, appointed governor general of Canada. |
| 1898 | August | Greenwood Water, Power and Light Company completes dam at Boundary Falls, B.C. |
| 1898 | Aug. 1 | Vermilion Forks Mining and Development Company acquires its first coal leases in Princeton, B.C., area. |
| 1898 | Aug. 3 | Ottawa authorizes CP’s lease of the C&W in perpetuity. |
| 1898 | Aug. 7 | Trail, B.C.: CPR blows in smelter furnace after renovations complete. |
| 1898 | Aug. 8 | Great Britain: H.W. Forster and J.J. Hill incorporate the Kootenay Railway and Navigation Company. Capitalized at £500,000. |
| 1898 | Aug. 8 | Federal: Order-in-Council authorizes CPR to lease the Columbia and Western Railway for 999 years. |
| 1898 | Aug. 8 | B.C. political: Government of J.H. Turner dismissed by Lieutenant-governor after apparent election loss on July 9th. |
| 1898 | Aug. 13 | Saturday. |
| 1898 | Aug. 13 | Wardner, B.C.: 1500 hours: the first CP train crosses the Upper Kootenay River. |
| 1898 | Aug. 15 | B.C. political: Charles Augustus Semlin installed as premier. His pan-B.C. party annuls subsidy to the Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway. |
| 1898 | Aug. 18 | B.C.: Cariboo Consolidated Gold Mining Company robbed of some 30 lbs. of gold near Camp McKinney. Unrecovered. |
| 1898 | Aug. 18 | Wardner, B.C.: Regular service on the CNL extended to Wardner, B.C. |
| 1898 | Aug. 18 | Pincher Creek, N-WT, incorporated as a Village. |
| 1898 | Aug. 23 | Cranbrook, B.C.: B.C. Southern trackage pushed onto townsite. |
| 1898 | Aug. 26 | Friday. |
| 1898 | Aug. 26 | Cranbrook, B.C.: Regular service inaugurated on the B.C. Southern (Crow’s Nest Line). |
| 1898 | Aug. 26 | N-WT: C.O. Card turns the inaugural farrow on the St. Mary’s Main Canal. |
| 1898 | September | B.C.: Work begins on Bulldog Tunnel on the C&W west of Castlegar. |
| 1898 | September | Moyie, B.C.: Emma C. McMahon begins teaching first school classes. |
| 1898 | Sep. 4 | Sunday. |
| 1898 | Sep. 4 | B.C.: BC Southern trackage through Jerome Tunnel and into Moyie City. |
| 1898 | Sep. 14 | B.C.: BC Southern steel tops the Goatfell Hill between Curzon and Kitchener. |
| 1898 | Sep. 19 | N-WT: Ordinance No. 9, “An Ordinance to amend and consolidate as amended Ordinance No. 5 of 1893 intitled [sic] ‘An Ordinance to make Regulations with respect to Coal Mines’” receives royal assent. |
| 1898 | Autumn | Cascade City, B.C.: The Cascade Water, Power and Light Company, Limited, begins to build its dam. |
| 1898 | Autumn | B.C.: The Gooderham-Blackstock syndicate completes the purchase of the Center Star M&S Company. |
| 1898 | Autumn | B.C.: R.J. Long constructs the first hotel as what is now Creston. |
| 1898 | Sep. 26 | N-WT: Lieutenant-governor Malcolm Colin Cameron dies in office. |
| 1898 | Sep. 29 | B.C.: The CPR’s Goat River bridge near Creston declared complete. |
| 1898 | October | Rosebery, B.C.: CPR launches Sandon (97 tons). Dismantled 1927. |
| 1898 | Thanksgiving Day | John Frederick Hume opens Hume Hotel in Nelson. |
| 1898 | Oct. 1 | Responsible government in N-WT inaugurated with Haultain as Premier. |
| 1898 | Oct. 1 | Post Office opens a bureau at Okanagan Falls. |
| 1898 | Oct. 4 | Amédée Emmanuel Forget begins the first of his two terms as lieutenant-governor of the North-West Territories. |
| 1898 | Oct. 6 | Thursday evening; last spike driven in Crow’s Nest Pass Line near Kootenay Landing. |
| 1898 | Oct. 22 | Nelson, B.C.: CPR launches Moyie (835 tons). Prefabricated in Toronto for Yukon service on the Stikine River in northern B.C. Retired April, 1957, survives as museum at Kaslo. |
| 1898 | November | Great Northern and the CPR begin an informal three year truce with an agreement which required the GN’s K&S to pay a subsidy to the CPR’s N&S to allow the former to haul 80% of Slocan ore. |
| 1898 | November | Bonner’s Ferry, WA: The Great Northern begins construction of the Kootenay Valley Railway towards the Boundary. |
| 1898 | Nov. 12 | Federal political: The Right Honourable Sir Gilbert John Murray Kynynmond Elliot, 4th Earl of Minto, sworn in as governor general of Canada. (1904) |
| 1898 | Nov. 14 | “Crow’s Nest Branch” from Macleod, N-WT., to Kootenay Lake in B.C. is turned over to CPR’s Operations. |
| 1898 | Nov. 18 | Nakusp, B.C.: CPR launches Minto (829 tons). Prefabricated in Toronto for Yukon service on the Stikine River in northern B.C. Retired April, 1954, purposely burned near Galena Bay on Upper Arrow on August 1, 1968. |
| 1898 | Nov. 22 | British-America Corporation, Limited, completes the purchase of the Le Roi Mining and Smelting Company. |
| 1898 | Nov. 29 | City of Ainsworth founders off Crawford Bay on Kootenay Lake. Nine lost. |
| 1898 | December | Mr. Redfield and Mr. Wilson set up a sawmill at “Moodyville” by Christina Lake. |
| 1898 | December | Trail, BC: Installation of ore roasters completed at CP’s smelter. |
| 1898 | Dec. 7 | Inauguration of Crow’s Nest Pass Line. |
| 1898 | Dec. 8 | Bound for Trail, BC, the first shipment of coke leaves Fernie, BC. |
| 1898 | End | Kootenai Valley Railway completed its 26 miles miles of trackage between Bonners Ferry and Bedlington, Idaho. |
