THE KÜTNE READER

Four bridges have crossed the Canadian side of the Pend d’Oreille River, two of which still stand. Others were proposed.

Presenting six rare or never-before-seen postcards of Waneta recently sold online and probably dating to the 1910s.

Several envelopes that sold at auction have intriguing connections to West Kootenay Japanese-Canadian, Chinese Canadian, and mining history.

An envelope mailed from London to Fort Shepherd in January 1862 sold today for $1,600 Cdn. The piece was part of the Gerald Wellburn gold rush collection being auctioned by All Nations Stamp and Coin . The envelope is addressed: “Mr. James Cooke, Fort Shepherd, near the mouth of Pond [sic] Oreille River in Vicinity of Colville Mines on Columbia River British Columbia North America.” It bears a London postmark of Jan. 2, 1862 as well as Port Townsend, Washington Territory. U

The remarkable postcard seen below shows two friends, Anna Norris of Boundary, Wash., and Velma Shields, of Waneta, who didn’t let a little thing like an international border come between them. The photo was taken by Frank Palmer of Spokane in 1908, who also published a postcard of the Waneta bridge. He had the girls dress in nearly identical clothing and pose at the boundary marker. The photo appeared in many US newspapers between May 19 and July 20 of that year, including t

In 1893, a prospector named Baxter wrote two letters to the Northwest Mining Review of Spokane from the Salmo River (then called the Salmon). Both were printed in the May 22 edition and are available through Google Books , but to my knowledge they have never been reprinted. It’s unclear how the letters were mailed, but it was either via Northport, whose post office opened Nov. 1, 1892, or Waneta, where the office opened on May 1, 1893. Baxter comments in the second letter on

In 1989, Donna Bishop and Joan Field produced a report for the Salmo Arts and Museum Society entitled Dewdney Trail 1865. They wrote the following of the confluence of the Salmo and Pend d’Oreille rivers under the heading “Ghost Flats.” There are many stories as to who was buried here. Some say the graves have been there since the turn of the century. What we do know is that they were travellers or settlers on the Dewdney Trail. This gravesite was apparently moved in 1949 wh

I’ve long written a weekly series for the local Black Press newspapers about West Kootenay/Boundary place names. In my installment on Waneta , I said its name defies explanation (although my own best guess is that it comes from Waneta Lake, New York and was bestowed by the Kootenay Hydraulic Mining Co.). But three times I’ve been led to believe there might be a definitive answer, only to have my hopes dashed. Waneta Landing, ca. 1892-93 with what is presumably the SS Lytton