THE KÜTNE READER

The dramatic story of the Bluebell murder, how Thomas Hammill (or Hamill, or Hammil) died near present-day Riondel on Kootenay Lake, allegedly at the hands of Robert Sproule, has been told many times. But the story of Hammill’s grave and grave markers — there are two or three of the latter, depending on how you count them — has not. Remarkably, none of these markers now denote the precise location where Hammill was buried. To briefly recap the case: Sproule staked the Bluebel

Did William Randolph Hearst (pictured below in a photo from Wikipedia), the larger-than-life American newspaper publisher who invented (or at least popularized) tabloid journalism, vacation in West Kootenay? Walter McRaye, sidekick to Pauline Johnson, the poet who toured Canadian concert halls in the early 1900s, related the following anecdote in his memoir: I was told a good story in Nelson not long ago by J.E. Carter of the CPR who, by the way, once lived in Winnipeg and ma

Last September, a group including scuba diver Brian Nadwidny went looking for a Caterpillar tractor supposedly lost in Kootenay Lake at Garland Bay, north of Riondel. Instead they found what appears to be a grapple loader, in 120 feet of water. They think it’s from the 1950s or ‘60s. Brian notes that the engine, batteries, and hydraulic hoses have all been removed. A sign on the back of the truck cab appears to read “TIDL*** Contractors.” Do you know when, how, or why it ende

Was the Mirror Lake post office once listed by Guinness as the world’s smallest? I first encountered this claim on p. 199 of Kaslo: The First 100 Years (1993): “1970 — Mirror Lake post office moved to the SS Moyie site in Kaslo. The little building was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest post office.” The post office in situ , ca. 1960s. (Ellis Anderson photo) It was pretty tiny, all right: 96 square feet (nine square meters). About the size of a tool shed