THE KÜTNE READER

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 newscasts that I had given up for lost, and previously detailed in a post about Holy Grails of local history . Both were recorded on Oct. 24, 1999. The first is the KBS 8 a.m. cast read by Jayne Garry, who you can still hear every day on EZ Rock. I saved it because it includes a story I filed about the 75th anniversary of the train explosion that

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 struck in 1958 to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Colony of British Columbia, and revived in 1965 ahead of the 100th anniversary of the amalgamation of the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, and of Canada’s 100th birthday. The committee decided to issue a commemorative card of Greenwood’s smelter, which operat

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 this week. Seen below is one of the more interesting shots, of the 1300 block of Bay Avenue. From left, we have the Bluebird Cafe, Mandy’s Recreations (snooker/bowling/billiards/food bar), the Salvation Army, three buildings with no visible signage, and the Crown Point Hotel. Going to the 1953 civic directory (coincidentally the only one ava

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 gambler who stowed away aboard a trans-Pacific freighter, lost his life savings in a game of chance, and briefly avoided the Japanese-Canadian internment by hiding in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Fortunately he told much of it to Nelson’s Jim Sawada, who shared it with me. Kinji Nagatani lived at 606 Front Street in Nelson, seen here in a photo recrea

Longtime Ymir and Salmo resident Evelyn Murray died on April 9 , 2019 in Castlegar at 96. While she was not the last person born in the old Ymir hospital, I believe she was the last person alive who entered the world there. This postcard of the Ymir hospital, taken sometime between 1908 and 1913, was the work of the Mystery Photographer . (Greg Nesteroff collection) Evelyn was the daughter of Edward Emilson and Sarah Rankin. Her father, a miner from Sweden, worked in the Lar

In 1956, local Greyhound driver Max Carne was taking his bus over the old Santa Rosa Pass between Rossland and Grand Forks — a gravel road otherwise known as the Hump. As Vancouver Sun reporter Tom Hazlitt once described it: It is the first, the highest, and the wildest provincial highway in BC. It was built with gold, sweat, and donkeys in the record time of seven months … Only on the Hump can you have a snowball fight in June or experience the eerie feeling of driving strai

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 Mecca for antique fire hydrant aficionados. At one time the town had 11 hydrants. Today there are 10, of which nine are pictured below, although only three are original to Sandon. Top row, from left: 1) Next to old laundry in upper Sandon. This one is several feet tall and is the most photographed Sandon hydrant. 2) At corner of replica buildi

Went for a walk with my wife in Trail’s Sunningdale neighbourhood and came across this curious building at 632 Isabella Crescent. It was clearly once a commercial building of some sort. (Trail has quite a few such buildings in residential areas that have been turned into homes.) 632 Isabella Crescent, as seen from the Monte Road side, looking southwest. Intrigued, I checked the BC Assessment site, which indicates it was built in 1951, although I subsequently discovered it was

Several of bestselling BC crime historian Eve Lazarus’ books have West Kootenay connections. I’ve discussed one before, how Canada’s Sherlock Holmes , Insp. John F.C.B. Vance, once worked at as assistant chemist in Trail. In a later post, I’ll detail a case she wrote about in Sensational Vancouver , about how a man wanted for murder in the US was caught in Yahk and then deported to face execution. Lazarus’ latest book, Murder by Milkshake , recounts the story of Rene Castella

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 addressed to Henry Croasdaile, manager of the Hall Mines smelter in Nelson. Once the site of its own smelter and sawmill, Pilot Bay was busy enough in the 1890s to justify the existence of three hotels and two boarding houses. The earliest of these, the Hotel Clark, was first mentioned in the Victoria Daily Times of June 15, 1892: “A letter

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 known as Salmon City, and was headquarters for contractor Pete Larson, who was building the Nelson and Fort Sheppard Railway. The spot was described as “near the forks of the Salmon river and about two miles from where the railway crosses the north fork.” It was also a rendezvous for placer miners on the Salmon (now Salmo) River and Hall Creek.

Pictured here is what is probably the most valuable and coveted baseball card with a West Kootenay connection. In 1897, Kaslo, Rossland, and Spokane were part of a professional baseball circuit known by several names, but generally called the Kootenay Washington League. Nelson was supposed to be part of the loop as well, but dropped out for lack of a suitable field. Trail and Sandon were both considered as replacements, but neither city fielded a team. The league’s most notew

The rare postcard below, which sold recently on eBay, shows the Burns Block at 560 Baker Street (formerly 514 Baker) in Nelson — although if the photo had been cropped any tighter on the right, it might have been impossible to recognize. The postcard is unmailed, but probably from about 1910. Fortunately, the distinctive ornamentation of the steer’s head and 1899 date stone above the front door is partly visible. This building was the Kootenay headquarters of Alberta beef bar

I was thrilled to find a postcard for sale on eBay recently of Nelson/Rossland pioneer Wesley Ziegler. It was taken by Campbell Art Gallery of Nelson sometime in the 1910s but never mailed. The Nelson Museum has a slightly different view from the same photo session. I have written about Ziegler before, in a story for Route 3 magazine about West Kootenay’s mostly little-known black pioneers. Ziegler (or Zeigler), otherwise known as Old Zieg, was born into slavery in Montgome

A few outstanding postcards and photos sold recently on eBay showing Nelson sports teams, one of which was an action shot of a lacrosse game against Spokane in 1911. Although it is badly creased, it is unusual to find such a crisp action shot on a postcard from that era. Here is a closer look at some of the players. You could have fooled me into thinking this match was played at the civic field in Nelson (now the parking lot of the Nelson and District Community Complex), for