Montrose has the particular charm of a place that was basically invented because someone looked at a piece of hillside above the Columbia River and thought, yes, people should live here. In 1942, Leon Simmons and Trail lawyer A.G. Cameron formed Montrose Homesites Ltd. and began turning 220 acres of what was then known as Woods Flats into a new community. The name was borrowed from Scotland, the lots were laid out, and the village officially incorporated in 1956 with 707 residents.

Today, Montrose is the Gateway to the Beaver Valley, perched on a series of benches and slopes between Trail and Fruitvale. It’s small — about 1,070 people — but has an outsized commitment to community, with parks, pickleball, basketball, a spray park, skatepark, community garden and the ever-important community hall. The Antenna Trail climbs straight up from Montrose, delivering a proper workout and a pretty excellent payoff of views. Beyond town, Beaver Creek and the surrounding valley offer fishing, wildlife, farmland and plenty of ways to get outside, while the wider Beaver Valley delivers the sort of rural Kootenay landscape where you can leave town and be in the woods almost immediately.