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Ainsworth resort in vintage ads, postcards, and brochures
A look at the development of Ainsworth Hot Springs resort from the 1930s to the '60s as seen through ephemera.

Greg Nesteroff
Oct 6, 20203 min read


Old Boyes club
Did former Montreal Wanderers goalie Art Boyce (aka Boyes) play for Nelson in 1917? Spoiler: no. It’s a case of mistaken identity.

Greg Nesteroff
Sep 28, 20203 min read


Hidden signs of Sandon’s internment years
Names scratched on bricks outside the Sandon museum are some of the few reminders of the town's days as a Japanese-Canadian internment camp.

Greg Nesteroff
Sep 21, 20206 min read


Early Fruitvale in postcards
Seven rare postcards of Fruitvale have been sold on eBay over the last few months by four different dealers, for a collective price of $673

Greg Nesteroff
Sep 9, 20207 min read


The many sides of Bill Barlee
A previously unpublished interview with the late author and TV host.

Greg Nesteroff
Aug 7, 202019 min read


Salmo’s monster bridge
In 1910, a remarkable curved bridge was built at Salmo across a slough formed by the Salmo River.

Greg Nesteroff
Aug 7, 20206 min read


Fruitvale’s Premiere Theatre
Did you ever see a movie — or perform — at the Premiere Theatre in Fruitvale? If so, you’re part of an elite group.

Greg Nesteroff
Jul 30, 20206 min read


A picture postcard romance
A love story involving an Italian-Canadian miner from Nelson, his Cornish bride, and the postcard that brought them together.

Greg Nesteroff
Jul 29, 202013 min read


Cascade City cover sells for $240
An amazing envelope from Cascade City has sold on eBay.

Greg Nesteroff
Jul 15, 20201 min read


Syd Desireau: West Kootenay’s first pro hockey player
The first professional hockey player born in BC was from Nelson.

Greg Nesteroff
Jul 3, 202019 min read


The Abbott mine graves
It was the end of the work day at the Abbott mine on Jan. 8, 1896. The property was at the head of Healy Creek, near Trout Lake, on the...

Greg Nesteroff
Jun 29, 20204 min read


The Balfour store
The following memoir by Allison Holt of Victoria looks back on the store that her family ran at Balfour from about 1913-15 and 1919-45....

Greg Nesteroff
Jun 17, 20206 min read


The Housekeeping trestle
One of the chief set pieces of the movie Housekeeping , filmed in the fall of 1986 in and around Nelson and Castlegar, was a huge wooden railway trestle. The movie and novel of the same name that it was based on are set in fictional Fingerbone, Idaho, which is based on Sandpoint, Idaho, where author Marilynne Robinson was born. (And which coincidentally became a sister city to Nelson in 2013.) In the first few pages of the novel, Robinson’s protagonist, Ruth, describes her gr

Greg Nesteroff
Jun 6, 20205 min read


Nelson’s forgotten reservoir
Some of the earliest picture postcards of Nelson (seen below) look west down the Kootenay River with the corner of a pond in the...

Greg Nesteroff
May 21, 20203 min read


Geordie Smith: Nelson’s Lusitania hero
I’ve written before about people from the Kootenay who were aboard the SS Lusitania the night it was sunk by a German U-boat in May 1915,...

Greg Nesteroff
May 15, 20206 min read


The adventures of Alpine Al
In 1959, Joe and Freda Zimmerman opened the Swiss Inn and Motel at Kettle Valley, a little east of Rock Creek. It was quite a building,...

Greg Nesteroff
May 15, 20207 min read


Nellie McClung in Nelson
In 1937, prominent suffragette Nellie McClung visited Nelson. (Pictured in an undated photo from Library and Archives Canada,...

Greg Nesteroff
Apr 11, 20206 min read


Castle Brewery
Having studied one brewery in Nelson’s Fairview neighbourhood that was planned but never built, here’s the story of another that was...

Greg Nesteroff
Apr 2, 20207 min read


What still stands of the Strand
Kütne Reader reader Bob Guesford recently pointed out something to me that I never noticed: two giant walls from the old Strand Theatre...

Greg Nesteroff
Mar 6, 20203 min read


Victoria Hopper in Trail
1930s stage and film actress Victoria Hopper (1909-2007) spent part of her childhood in Trail. Although the city has done an excellent...

Greg Nesteroff
Mar 6, 20202 min read
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