THE KÜTNE READER

I was thrilled to find a postcard for sale on eBay recently of Nelson/Rossland pioneer Wesley Ziegler. It was taken by Campbell Art Gallery of Nelson sometime in the 1910s but never mailed. The Nelson Museum has a slightly different view from the same photo session. I have written about Ziegler before, in a story for Route 3 magazine about West Kootenay’s mostly little-known black pioneers. Ziegler (or Zeigler), otherwise known as Old Zieg, was born into slavery in Montgome

The photo below comes from a glass plate negative found in Alexander T. Garland’s store in Kaslo and is believed to show the International Hotel at Nelson. If so, the woman pictured may be Alice (Mother) Foster, alias the Midnight Nurse. It’s hard to say for certain: there are no other pictures of her or the building to compare it to. The hotel opened at the corner of Vernon and Stanley streets in 1890 but burned down in January 1894. (Kootenay Lake Archives 990.012.0058) Koo