The Kutenai (Ktunaxa) showed Archibald McDonald of the Hudson's Bay Company the huge lead outcrop in 1844.

By the 1880s, railroads advancing across the United States, and steamboats travelling up the rivers into BC, would change the economics.

In 1882, Robert Evan (Bob) Sproule staked four claims along the Riondel Peninsula, which included the Bluebell Mine.

In 1886, Sproule was sent to the gallows and hanged for murdering Thomas Hammill over a claim dispute from years earlier.

When the ineffective Pilot Bay smelter closed in 1896, the Hendryx settlement was renamed the Blue Bell Camp.

Eastman, obtained some financial backing from Canadian Pacific Railway's Consolidated Mining and Smelting (CM&S and now Teck Resources) subsidiary to reopen the operation.

After concentrating the zinc-rich lead ore using a methodology determined by the limited electricity supply, the product went to the Trail smelter.

To raise further capital, the venture was incorporated in 1929 as the Blue Bell Mines Limited, but the October stock market crash financially ruined the partners.

The major creditor, CM&S assumed ownership, leaving the mine idle until after World War II.

Riondel became a popular retirement community, at one time having more seniors per capital than any other postal code in Canada.

Today Riondel is a tidy village with streets, a lakeside campground, beach, community centre, playground, cable TV system, 9-hole golf course, grocery and liquor store, café, and pub.

[5][6] The Riondel Market, located at 1504 Eastman Avenue is a small general store carrying, among other things, groceries, liquor, and camping supplies.

Kootenay Lake is well stocked with many species of fish, including kokanee (sockeye salmon), rainbow and cutthroat trout, Dolly Varden, burbot, and whitefish.

[16] Other outdoor opportunities in Riondel include canoeing or kayaking the waters of Kootenay Lake (rentals available), swimming, wildlife and nature viewing, boating and sailing, horse-drawn adventures, and back country exploration.