John Roxborough

John Roxborough owned the Surprise Lake Hotel, at Surprise City, and the Gold House, in Discovery, in the Atlin district. The first Kootenay Hotel was built in Atlin in 1899, and it was owned by Jack Byrom. In 1910, John Roxborough owned the second Kootenay Hotel to be built on the same site and it was destroyed in a fire in 1914. The third Kootenay flourished through Atlin’s golden age of White Pass tourism. The Kootenay Hotels were the Roxborough family business for fifty-eight years until Diane Smith’s family bought the third and last hotel in 1968. John’s son was Robert Roxborough, and his granddaughter was Marvis Shaw. Mavis and Bun owned the third Kootenay Hotel.¹⁾