THE KÜTNE READER

Between 1872 and 1923, at least 12 Chinese Canadian births occurred at Rock Creek. This was noteworthy for a few reasons. First, there was perhaps only one other such birth elsewhere in the Boundary during that time. Most of these births preceded the first Chinese Canadian births in West Kootenay (two in Nelson and five in Kaslo during the same period). But even more intriguing: all 12 people were actually of mixed ancestry, part Chinese and part Indigenous. Rock Creek is see

You’d think if fire destroyed a town’s business district, the date would be well documented. Not in Fruitvale’s case. Much of the town...

There was a time (primarily in the 1950s) where it was common practice to honour individuals (usually trustees and other politicians) by...

Go for a walk on Beatty Avenue in Nelson, down by the waterfront next to the RCMP station, and you will come across this curious building. From 1948 to 1952, Colin Baker ran a confectionery at the corner of Baker and Railway streets. On Dec. 1, 1952 he opened a new store on Beatty Avenue, next to his house along the waterfront. Nelson Daily News, Nov. 14, 1952 The store was listed in the 1954 directory as Baker’s Grocery & Confectionery, 1026 Beatty Ave., but it only lasted

John Gibb Devlin (1865-1925), alias the Gunner from Galway, was a well-known early Kootenay character. One funny story about him is how...

This amazing little item is in the midst of being transferred from the Touchstones Nelson archives to the Slocan Valley Historical...

The remarkable postcard seen below shows two friends, Anna Norris of Boundary, Wash., and Velma Shields, of Waneta, who didn’t let a...

A previous post looked at surviving West Kootenay landmarks related to the Patrick family, hockey pioneers who lived in Nelson from...

It was once common for newspapers to fancifully refer to certain people (well, men) as the mayor of a place that wasn’t incorporated....

The story of pioneer Trout Lake hotelier and prospector Alice Jowett is well told in books such as Circle of Silver as well as on the...

Painting signs by hand has largely gone out of style but was once a common vocation. The men (and I imagine a few women) who did it for a...

This business at 323 Vernon Street in Nelson only existed from about 1969-71. Winslow Sommerfeldt (1923-2016) was president and his son...

Last of five parts Who was the first person in the Kootenay Boundary to own an electric car since their re-emergence and where was the...

Fourth of five parts Alexander Zuckerberg of Castlegar’s Zuckerberg Island had an electric car in the mid-1950s. An ingenious man, he no...

Third in a series on local electric cars The most noteworthy early electric vehicle in our area belonged to a Kootenay lumber baron, the...

Second of five parts In 2016, John Mackie of The Vancouver Sun wrote an interesting story about early electric vehicles, and called...

First of five parts Was the first automobile ever seen in this region electric? With the current push to better accommodate electric...

Like anything else, phone books and civic directories are obviously prone to mistakes. Still, I wonder how some of the following...

Is Trail missing a manhole cover? If so, public works might want to call their counterparts in Nelson, because there’s one in Railtown...

At a presentation on the history of Slocan Valley sawmills in November 2016, a forester suggested the poles for the original light stands...