The Rocky Mountain Trench

The reservoir in the trench west of here carries a name built by contest. When the lake behind Libby Dam needed one in 1968, British Columbia proposed Kitunaha, a form of the name of the Ktunaxa people whose valley it was. Jack Davis, a minister in Trudeau's cabinet, opposed it as unpronounceable, and a local historical association offered Lac Morigeau, after an early settler. The winner was Alice Beers of Rexford, Montana, who joined Kootenai, Canada and USA into Koocanusa. Both countries' naming boards adopted it on June 17, 1968, and Rexford itself was moved before the water rose.

Where it stands