THE KÜTNE READER

Recently I’ve been posting photos by the late Ellis Anderson on the Lost Kootenays Facebook site . Anderson was a Creston photographer who took brilliant colour shots of the Kootenays in the 1960s and ‘70s and produced postcards, some of which you can still buy in stores and museums. After Ellis died in 1990, Don Lyon acquired his photo collection — thousands upon thousands of yellow and pink packages of negatives, positives, and small prints. When Don died in 2013 , his wife

The Nelson Museum recently posted a photo of the wedge-shaped building at 606 Front Street their Flickr account. It doesn’t look like much today, and looked like even less in the 1960s or ‘70s when that photo was taken. Today it has a vaguely Tudor-style look to it, and I always imagined it dated to the 1940s or ‘50s. Wrong. It turns out this not-so-stunning building is actually of high historic value: it’s one of only three surviving buildings from Chinatown. (The others ar

Nelson historian/author Peter Bartl shared this amazing rendering with me, showing a planned new library for the Notre Dame University campus in Nelson that was never built. Notre Dame University/DTUC fonds (Courtesy Nelson Museum) Ron Welwood, head librarian at Notre Dame and its successor, David Thompson University Centre from 1969 to 1984, says the image “brings back distant memories because it hung in my office for many years until the old dilapidated facility was abandon

The following concept sketch of an aquatic centre for Nelson’s Lakeside Park appeared in the Daily News of Oct. 25, 1949, signed by local architect Bill Williams. It was proposed by the local Kinsmen Club. According to the caption: The completed building will include, on the ground floor, a bathhouse of four sections, men, boys, women, girls; a checkroom, a first aid room, a large concession booth, a furnace room and the Rowing Club. The top floor will include a large ballro

Here’s a newscast that aired on KC Radio in Nelson and Creston on Jan. 21, 1975, read by Ray Zinck, who sent it to me quite a few years ago. Ray worked there from 1973 to 1975 and went on to become co-owner, president, and general manager of CJLS in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He sold that station in 2015. Ray Zinck in the news studio at KC Radio in Nelson, mid-1970s. Note the ashtray, giant speaker, spare mic, and sideburns. Ray did a daily phone-in show from 9 to 10 a.m. from t

Kyle Kusch of the Arrow Lakes Historical Society just finished digitizing more than 800 slides from Wilf (Hufty) Hewat, a pilot and firefighter who lived most of his life in Kaslo until moving to Nakusp in the late 1960s. Two of these shots, seen below, were labelled “Helicopter Mishap 9.4.60” and show a helicopter smashed to bits on the Nelson waterfront, about where the Prestige Lakeside Resort was built on fill in the 1990s. The top slide also shows the Ellison’s building

Inventor Thomas Edison (seen below in a Wikipedia photo) passed through Nelson 110 years ago. While his visit was fleeting, he told a reporter that concrete houses were the way of the future. He was wrong, although he spent considerable efforts experimenting with molds to create such houses, going so far as to create a demonstration cottage at his New Jersey home. The following appeared in the Nelson Daily News on Sept. 6, 1908. I’m indebted to Greg Scott for discovering it

Many’s the time I’ve come across something historically interesting in a newspaper only to: a) Fail to fully appreciate its significance and not bother to write down the information or its source; b) Write down the information but not the source; or c) Write down the information and the source but lose the slip of paper. This may be followed by years of fruitless efforts to rediscover the said item, often led astray by own hazy memory. Below are six examples of these Holy Gra

The postcard below is part of a sequence showing Lieut. George Knopp Trim’s flight around Nelson during the fall fair of 1919 — and crash landing in Kootenay Lake. (Greg Nesteroff collection) Originally the Nelson Agricultural and Industrial Association asked Capt. Fred McCall of Calgary to perform acrobatic flying at the fair but he was forced to cancel due to engine trouble and suggested they approach the Vancouver Aerial League to send someone in his place. Trim (often mis

Nelson has had three Kootenay Lake Hospitals. The first, built in 1893 near 40 High Street, had a dozen beds. According to Dr. Lorris E. Borden, it was really primitive … On the ground floor was the admitting room and the kitchen; the second floor had a medical ward and the operating room which was very small and narrow; the bird floor was for surgical patients which was considered a poor arrangement [because] there was no elevator and all surgical patients had to be carried

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

Go for a walk on Beatty Avenue in Nelson, down by the waterfront next to the RCMP station, and you will come across this curious building. From 1948 to 1952, Colin Baker ran a confectionery at the corner of Baker and Railway streets. On Dec. 1, 1952 he opened a new store on Beatty Avenue, next to his house along the waterfront. Nelson Daily News, Nov. 14, 1952 The store was listed in the 1954 directory as Baker’s Grocery & Confectionery, 1026 Beatty Ave., but it only lasted

A previous post looked at surviving West Kootenay landmarks related to the Patrick family, hockey pioneers who lived in Nelson from 1907-11 before founding western Canada’s first professional league. Lester Patrick, as a member of the 1909 Nelson senior hockey club, which won a provincial championship. Their departure — after helping build the Hall Mines arena, guiding the senior men’s team to the 1909 provincial championship, and making noises about challenging for the Stan

This business at 323 Vernon Street in Nelson only existed from about 1969-71. Winslow Sommerfeldt (1923-2016) was president and his son Will Sommerfelt was vice-president. The sign is on the east side of the retaining wall below the Terrace Apartments. According to Winslow’s obituary , “In 1969, they [Winslow and wife Reita] moved the family to Nelson and operated a GM dealership there called Winslow Motors. After a few years there, they moved to Lethbridge before returning t

Third in a series on local electric cars The most noteworthy early electric vehicle in our area belonged to a Kootenay lumber baron, the appropriately-named Alfred Edward (Ted) Watts (1856-1937). Known as a special touring phaeton, it was manufactured in London in 1903 by the City and Suburban Electric Carriage Co., based on the Columbia design by the Electric Vehicle Co. of Hartford. It cost £700 new, which is something like $34,000 Cdn today. Ad from an unknown publication.

Second of five parts In 2016, John Mackie of The Vancouver Sun wrote an interesting story about early electric vehicles, and called Nelson “a hotbed of electric cars,” because it had its own power plant. He quoted one old car expert as saying “Nelson was the greatest place on Earth for electric cars. The city had plug-ins all around town.” Indeed, the Calgary Herald of Oct. 12, 1912, noted Nelson’s “public services and institutions, including electric cars, electric light,

Is Trail missing a manhole cover? If so, public works might want to call their counterparts in Nelson, because there’s one in Railtown clearly marked “City of Trail.” It’s near the corner of Railway and Silica, across from the Selkirk Veterinary Hospital. No idea how long it’s been there, although I first noticed it around 2010. It turns out this is not the only instance of a wandering manhole cover in our area. In the Walmart parking lot in Trail, you will find this one. And

The Big Orange Bridge will soon be the Big Green Bridge. The new private owner of the span across Kootenay Lake’s West Arm in Nelson plans a major paint job, transforming the local landmark’s longtime hue. BC’s Ministry of Transportation sold the bridge last September to Shanghai-based Wifulyu Corp. for $11.8 million. Although company spokeswoman Lirpa Loof insists tolls are “not under active consideration,” she said the company will immediately paint the bridge to cover the

In 1940, Nelson city council was planning to build a new city hall next door to its existing one at the foot of Ward Street. Local architect Bill Williams drew up a modernist design that looked a bit like the current Vancouver city hall on a smaller scale. I don’t know why the proposal failed, but as a result, the city spent another 20 years in its existing building before deciding, amid much controversy, to move to the former post office at the corner of Ward and Vernon. Th

Sometime after the Silver King Hotel in Nelson was demolished in 1947, a sign (seen below, circa 1960s) was painted on the side of KWC block advertising “Hume Hotel — 1 block to fine food and accommodation.” (Ellis Anderson photo) It became a phantom sign of sorts in 1980, when the Hume Hotel was renamed the Heritage Inn. New proprietors Dave and Sheila Martin were trying to escape the stigma attached to the old name due to the dodgy reputation of previous owners. This photo