THE KÜTNE READER

Here is another photo from a series of negatives I recently purchased showing Trail in 1953. Pictured is the intersection of Bay and...

A few strange stories worth sharing. The following appeared in the Nelson Daily News, of Jan. 14, 1914, under the headline “Pigs show...

I was delighted to find in my disorganized storage locker last weekend a box of cassette tapes – one of which contained some radio...

In a guest post, Ted Burns looks at some of the corner stores that operated in Nelson during the 1950s.

Below is one of the strangest souvenirs ever made of our area, courtesy of the Greenwood Centennial Committee. The committee was first...

I bought a bunch of negatives showing Trail in 1953 (judging by the license plates on the cars in one of the shots) and had them scanned...

In July 2000, I visited Verigin’s Tomb (later renamed Verigin Memorial Park ) at Brilliant, the burial site of Doukhobor leader Peter (Lordly) Verigin , his son Peter P. Verigin, their wives Evdokia Grigoryevna and Anna Fyodorovna, and Peter’s daughter Anna Markova. (Markova’s son John J. Verigin has since been buried there.) I can’t remember whether I spotted a sign that said “Historical site” and asked the attendant about it, or if the attendant told me to look for the sign

When Kinji Nagatani died at Willowhaven Hospital on Kootenay Lake’s North Shore in 1970, with him went the amazing story of a roving...

Longtime Ymir and Salmo resident Evelyn Murray died on April 9 in Castlegar at 96. While she was not the last person born in the old Ymir...

In 1956, local Greyhound driver Max Carne was taking his bus over the old Santa Rosa Pass between Rossland and Grand Forks — a gravel...

During West Kootenay’s mining boom of the 1890s, newspapers popped up like Starbucks franchises. But lugging a printing press into a remote area was no small chore. Consequently, many presses churned out several titles before being retired. In 1962, during land clearing for a resort at Trout Lake, a bulldozer unearthed a hand-cranked press, seen above in the Nelson Daily News on June 23 of that year. The caption read in part: [T]his ancient Washington hand press … appeared f

Sandon is an interesting place for many reasons. One remarkable but perhaps under-appreciated aspect is that it is (or ought to be) a...

Went for a walk with my wife in Trail’s Sunningdale neighbourhood and came across this curious building at 632 Isabella Crescent. It was...

Several of bestselling BC crime historian Eve Lazarus’ books have West Kootenay connections. I’ve discussed one before, how Canada’s...

This week, a rare envelope from the Hotel Pilot Bay, postmarked 1897, sold on eBay for $115 US. Making it all the more appealing, it was...

Is anything more nostalgic (at least to certain generations) than a drive-in theatre? From 1947 to 2003, at least 10 of them operated in West Kootenay/Boundary. The peak era was the late 1950s, when six were in business simultaneously (among 32 in the province, including a few more in East Kootenay). Four survived into the 1980s, and the last two into the early 2000s. Today the sites are home to trailer parks, a campground, and a Walmart, among other things. However, two scre

Salmo first came to prominence as the result of a bar room murder in 1893. The town — then little more than a cluster of shacks — was...

Pictured here is what is probably the most valuable and coveted baseball card with a West Kootenay connection. In 1897, Kaslo, Rossland,...

The rare postcard below, which sold recently on eBay, shows the Burns Block at 560 Baker Street (formerly 514 Baker) in Nelson — although...

I was thrilled to find a postcard for sale on eBay recently of Nelson/Rossland pioneer Wesley Ziegler. It was taken by Campbell Art...