THE KÜTNE READER

For those who grew up in the Kootenays before 1950, the word Gassosa must be intensely nostalgic. It means soda in Italian and was the name of a Trail soft drink company that operated in the Gulch. According to the book Trail of Memories, company founder Dominic Daloise came to Canada from Italy in 1904. He initially worked for the CPR in South Slocan, but soon transferred to Trail, and then spent several years at the smelter until his fellow Italian workers chose him to mana

Around 1929, Cominco built a three-storey brick staff house a t 211 Kootenay Ave. in Tadanac (then a company-owned district municipality that included the smelter and adjacent residential neighbourhood). It was a residence for the company’s young single employees until 1972, when it became surplus office space. Later it was converted into a training centre. Tadanac staff house, ca. 1930s. (Greg Nesteroff collection) Jim Bennett, who was steward of the staff house, offered som

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

These Art Deco masterpieces, held by the City of Vancouver Archives , were drawn by the firm of Townley and Matheson , who designed Vancouver city hall, among many other buildings in that city. The first set is of a four-storey hotel intended for Trail, dated Dec. 30, 1927, followed by a three-storey version apparently intended for the same place. City of Vancouver Archives AM1399-S3---: CVA 1399-573 City of Vancouver Archives AM1399-S3---: CVA 1399-575 City of Vancouver Arch

The City of Trail bought the Union Hotel (pictured below) and a neighbouring building last year with plans to tear them down and sell the lots for redevelopment. The Union joins several other Trail heritage buildings and sites that have met the wrecking ball in the last 20 years, including the old Legion (now the site of Lordco), the Tadanac staff house, the Project 9 tower, the Auto-Vue Drive-In (now the site of Walmart), and an entire block of homes in the Gulch (now a tru

Western Canada’s most infamous bootlegger was once in the ice cream business in Trail. Emilio Picariello immigrated from Capriglia Iprina, Italy to the US in 1899, moved to Toronto in 1902, and then came west to Fernie in 1911, where he worked in a macaroni factory. He later went into the liquor business as a representative of the Pollack Wine Co. By 1916, he cornered the local market on bottles, earning him the nickname the Bottle King. Legendary bootlegger Emilio Picariell

Below are four postcard images from my collection of Trail’s Jacob’s Ladder, also known as the Golden Stairway, the Golden Stairs, or simply The Steps. They were the way most smelter employees got to work each day, and headed home after long shifts. They were built at the behest of smelter owner Fritz Augustus Heinze. According to the Trail Creek News of Oct. 2, 1896: “After climbing Smelter Hill several times in the dark, Mr. Heinze gave orders for the building of a stairway

I just finished reading Eve Lazarus’ book Blood, Sweat, and Fear , about John F.C.B. Vance (1884-1964), a Vancouver forensic scientist who was known internationally as Canada’s Sherlock Holmes. On page 32, she writes: Young John Vance worked for various mines since he was 17. He’d started as an assistant assayer and soon became the assistant chemist at the War Eagle cyanide extraction plant in Trail, where he developed a cone hood for a hot blast furnace, a breakthrough in me