THE KÜTNE READER

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...

Betty Ridge, who died in Nelson on Dec. 23 at age 98, was probably the last surviving person born in the mining town of Phoenix, BC. She...

The following story is completely fabricated. The names and circumstances were made up but passed off as genuine. It says something...

Of the 100 or so cemeteries in West Kootenay/Boundary, two dozen can no longer be visited because they were either flooded out, exhumed,...

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...

Curious thing: this ad appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on March 26, 1911 and subsequent issues. Koch Siding is a nearly-obsolete...

Robert Main was sometimes referred to as the poet laureate of the Kootenays. In the 1920s, he ran a small roadside stand at Beasley...

I’m not sure who the first woman to work for a West Kootenay/Boundary newspaper was, but one early example was Harriet Haire Smith, a daughter of C. Dell Smith, proprietor of the Ymir Mirror . The paper’s Jan. 30, 1904 edition noted: “Miss Smith of the Mirror business staff is visiting her friend, Miss Adie at Waneta.” I presume she was Dell’s daughter, but can’t say for sure. At the time, Harriet was not yet 16. The family moved to Victoria after the newspaper folded a few

Having examined births, marriages, and deaths aboard sternwheelers on local lakes, we turn our attention to West Kootenay–related births involving other forms of transportation. Plane In August 1959, Betty Ector of Argenta went in to labour ten days ahead of her due date, aboard a Delta Airlines flight, 9,000 feet over Malden, Missouri. Baby Suzanne was born in a compartment at the end of the plane, with two flight attendants and two passengers as midwives. The plane continu

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...

On Sept. 29, 1958, CJAT Trail opened a new studio in the former post office at 1300 Cedar Ave. They also marked their 25th anniversary as...

An amazing cabinet card sold on eBay last week for $181.50 US ($240 Cdn), showing two First Nations people in a studio portrait by...

It may be in Washington state, but I regard Northport as an honourary West Kootenay town, given that its existence from 1898 to 1921 was...

In 1962-63, the American jingle house of Richard H. Ullman Associates produced a series of cheesy but oh-so-catchy songs to promote radio...

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...

Six West Kootenay/Boundary residents and one former resident were among the 1,200 passengers and crew who perished when a German U-boat...

The Cody Caves (naturally occurring) and hot springs caves (mostly or entirely human-created) aren’t the only caves in and around...

Three noteworthy bits of Greenwood memorabilia (Greewoodiana?) have sold on eBay in the last few months. On Aug. 4, a dry-mount photo of...

What does Fred Flintstone’s mother-in-law have to do with West Kootenay? The woman who provided the original voice for Pearl Slaghoople...