THE KÜTNE READER

Despite being such an historic and picturesque site, little has been written about the history of New Denver’s cemetery — until now. This story originally appeared in the Winter 2019 edition of The Silver Standard , the newsletter of the Silvery Slocan Historical Society. The Silvery Slocan Historical Society hosted a well-attended tour of the New Denver cemetery in October 2018. (Paula Cravens photo) In the upper, lower, and Masonic sections lie the remains of nearly 1,000 p

Of the 100 or so cemeteries in West Kootenay/Boundary, two dozen can no longer be visited because they were either flooded out, exhumed, ploughed over, covered by slides, or simply lost. In addition, five cemeteries never actually existed. Three were proposed but didn’t happen and two others entered the historical record in error. These phantom graveyards are detailed below. PASSMORE The Passmore notes of the Slocan Enterprise of July 13, 1927 read: “The Farmers Institute he

A terrific cover from Silverton, postmarked July 28, 1894, sold for $192.50 Cdn yesterday on eBay. It was sent from Hunter & McKinnon,...

Twice this year I’ve learned secret details about someone that made me re-evaluate everything I thought I knew about them. The first case concerned pioneer prospector Eli Carpenter , who co-discovered the claim that started the Silvery Slocan mining rush and once walked a tightrope over Slocan City’s Main Street. Although it was rumoured Carpenter came to BC after his wife was unfaithful, I was dismayed to discover he tried to kill her and her paramour. His drunken stupor pre

Curious thing: this ad appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on March 26, 1911 and subsequent issues. Koch Siding is a nearly-obsolete name for the area of Slocan Park that’s on the flats across from the cemetery. It was the site of a sawmill built by William Koch that operated from 1906 into the 1920s. Lawrence Twoaxe was a Mohawk from the Kahnawake reserve in Quebec, born in 1885 in Cornwall, Ont. to Thomas Twoaxe and Margaret Hill. In 1935, while living in Oakland, he e

In January 1910, a man posted a notice in Silverton that read: Mr. A.L. Pinchbeck, D.M.S. dental surgeon, has visited Silverton for two weeks only. All who want teeth seen to either crowning bridging or stopping. Set and false teeth a specialty. Honorary certificate for above work guaranteed and done $1 less than in Nelson or any other town in British Columbia. His typewritten diploma, however, was made out in a different name: This is to certify that Arthur L. Stanger is now

One of West Kootenay’s least known attractions is an amazing map of the Kootenays and Okanagan in the pub of the Salmo Hotel , created in March 1955 by Vancouver sign painter Jack Lines. We know the date and the artist because he signed it. I haven’t measured the map, but it takes up a good portion of the wall behind the pool table. (Unfortunately, the location of the table and way the room is lit make it very difficult to get good pictures.) It has a red border, with the wor

Here’s something that seems completely lost from local memory: from at least 1922 to 1943, a ferry crossed the Slocan River at Slocan Park. Looking into it took me in several surprising directions — including a meteorite landing, a message in a bottle, and Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. The first mention I can find of the ferry is in the BC government public accounts covering April 1921 to March 1922. An expenditure of $606.94 is recorded as being paid to N. Wolverton to ru

I recently came across a charming anecdote about hockey legend Lester Patrick in West Kootenay that I had never seen before — and in fact found several slightly different versions of it. The first appeared in the Toronto Star Weekly of June 27, 1936 as follows: RECALLS PATRICK UNKNOWN MAESTRO Lester preceded fame to coast — Wanted by Slocans Nelson — Reputations did not travel very fast into this West Kootenay country 30 years ago. So Carl Lindow, now postmaster at Salmo, 15

From 1909 until the early 1950s, the Cornwall Cup was awarded for the men’s hockey championship of the Slocan. Officially engraved as the Slocan District Hockey Trophy, at least six towns played for it at various times: Slocan City, Silverton, New Denver, Sandon, Nakusp, and Kaslo — even though the latter two are not in the Slocan. Sandon had a head start on the other Slocan cities, icing its first team in 1897. There was no league back then — just a series of exhibition game

I devoted an earlier post to West Kootenay sites associated with hockey’s Patrick family, including the Crescent Valley beach, where the...

Slocan Lake never freezes, it is said. And while it’s true that it rarely happens, there have been several notable exceptions. I came across a map on the door of the Valhalla Pure Beach Shop in New Denver (pictured below), produced in 2016 and bearing the following statement: “Slocan Lake … only froze over 3 times in history! In 1970, 1950 and 1928.” That struck me as unlikely. Well, perhaps it froze in those three years, but others as well. Or maybe ice formed in some years

I recently wrote about Holy Grail historical items — things I once saw somewhere and couldn’t find again. I’m pleased to report that I’ve rediscovered one. I had a vague memory of coming across the names of some Chinese chefs on the SS Slocan and thinking it was an interesting nugget of information. But not, it seems, interesting enough that I bothered to note where I found it. I thought it might have been in one of the civic directories, which did list crew members, or at

This huge, colourful ad was rescued from the old hardware store at 216 6th Ave. (Block 13, Lot 6) in New Denver before it was was torn down in July 2018 along with a former warehouse a few lots east. The following originally appeared in the Summer 2018 issue of The Silver Standard , the Silvery Slocan Historical Society newsletter. Long covered up with wallpaper, the ad was discovered during preparation to tear the building down. Owner Vern Gustafson saved it and gave it to t

This amazing little item is in the midst of being transferred from the Touchstones Nelson archives to the Slocan Valley Historical Society. It’s a dance card, complete with pencil. (IOOF is the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.) On the pencil is written “Johann Paper.” Alas, this card went unused, but it does reveal what sort of dances you were expected to know in 1897: I’m not sure where Schonberg’s hall was, but at the time, Slocan City had two newspapers. I looked the danc

Painting signs by hand has largely gone out of style but was once a common vocation. The men (and I imagine a few women) who did it for a living sometimes supplemented their income by painting houses but also occasionally created other artwork. In 1880s Idaho and 1890s Montana and West Kootenay/Boundary, if your opera house needed a new backdrop or you wanted to gussy up your hotel (or boat or store), M.D. Cryderman was your guy. Main Street in Slocan City is seen in May 1897

In the spring of 1973, you might have met a guy in the Slocan Valley named Bill Lane, who was living in his van. He looked like many other young Americans who came north during that era, either escaping the Vietnam War or joining the back-to-the-land movement, or both. But he was actually FBI special agent Cril Payne on a dubious — and completely illegal — mission. Six years later wrote a book that was part mea culpa, condemning his former agency and the tactics it used. Deep

In Silverton’s early days, Amy Carey was among the community’s leading entrepreneurs. She owned hotels, a grocery store, livery stable, and dairy. A postcard view of early Silverton, ca. 1900s. (Greg Nesteroff collection) But how she honed her business acumen is a mystery. Amy Ellis was born somewhere in Ontario, either in January 1863 or on June 15, 1865, according to conflicting census returns. We know nothing about her upbringing. She married Alfred William Carey, date and

West Kootenay prospector Eli Carpenter (?-1917) was chiefly famous for two things: co-locating the Payne mine, which started the Silvery Slocan rush in 1891, and walking a tightrope across Slocan’s Main St. on May 24, 1897 as part of Queen’s birthday celebrations (depicted below in a mural in the Slocan campground). He is also the namesake of Carpenter Creek, which flows through Sandon and New Denver. Both the Payne’s discovery and the tightrope walk are part of local folklor

This little building in Hills , on the east side of Highway 6, began life in October 1934 as the Hunter Siding school. An earlier Hunter Siding school opened around 1932. According to George Markin’s history of Hills, published in the Arrow Lakes News on Dec. 16, 1981 and reproduced at http://www.doukhobor.org/Hills.html: The first school was opened in a log cabin on the property of Marc DuMont, with his daughter, Rosalie, as teacher. The class consisted of about 12 pupils,