Before the white man came into the Elk Valley, the Kootenay Indian Band believed the Valley was under the special protection of Yau-Ke'Kam, who was responsible for the area's lush growth and abundant wildlife.

Fernie grew in the late 1800's from ramshackle prospector's huts into a busy coal town, and the Indian beliefs changed gradually into a Fernie superstition that the Three Sisters Muontain was a guardian spirit overlooking the Fernie Valley.

The Ghostrider of Hosmer Mountain.

Legend says that Captain Fernie courted an Indian Princess of the Kootenay Indian Band in order to learn the source of the 'sacred black stones' she wore around her neck. Once he learned the location of Morrissey coal seams, Fernie jilted his Indian bride, and her angry mother placed a curse on the Fernie Valley...a curse that was officially lifted by the Kootenay Indian Band in 1964.

But in the summer evening, a distinctive horse and rider shaped shadow still forms on Hosmer Mountain... the Ghost of Captain Fernie eternally fleeing the angry Indian Chief and his daughter.