A postcard from Sidley

7 hours ago

2 min read

I was delighted to acquire a postcard on eBay from the West Boundary ghost town of Sidley. It was mailed by the town’s namesake, Richard Sidley, to L.R. Boissonault, the customs inspector at Nelson, Wash. (now known as Danville) and bears a stamp that says “Customs Canada/Aug 18 1899/Sidley, BC.”

The message reads:

Dr. Mr. Boissonnault,

I was very much pleased to hear from you through Mr. Kelsey [?] I hope you will find time some day to pay me a visit.

Yours very truly

R.G. Sidley

Although there was a post office in Sidley from 1895 to 1913, this card was mailed from Camp McKinney (another ghost town nearby).

This map from an unknown source is not terribly accurate, but it is one of the few that marks the location of Sidley.

Both the man and the place are notable for several reasons.

Robert G. Sidley came to the area in the 1880s from Ontario to ranch and farm and became all things to his remote part of the world. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1891, postmaster when a post office opened in 1895, and customs officer when the port of Sidley opened in 1899.

Sidley also had a store, a blacksmith shop, and a hotel known as the Mountain View, which he built in 1905, hoping to capitalize on the construction of the Great Northern’s new Vancouver, Victoria, and Eastern Railway, which he expected would run through his ranch. Much to his dismay, it did not.

This ad appeared weekly in the Boundary Creek Times between 1905 and 1907.

Sidley called the broader area where he lived Anarchist Mountain, after local eccentric and accused cattle rustler John Haywood (also known as Hayward or Hayworth), who was said to have carried dynamite in his boots. When asked why he did so, Haywood replied that he was an anarchist.

This gave us one of BC’s most colourful place names. Yet somehow surveyor and future MLA Rupert Haggen got the idea that Sidley himself was the eponymous anarchist. Haggen wrote this in a 1945 manuscript called Origin of Place Names in the Boundary District and added that Sidley was fired from his political appointments due to his unorthodox views. This wasn’t true but it has been repeated ever since. I debunked this notion in 2019 and happily, if you go to the Wikipedia entry for Anarchist Mountain, you’ll find my story is cited.

Sidley, the town, has vanished entirely. The customs office burned down in 1906 and the border crossing closed in 1907. The store burned down in 1909. The hotel burned down around 1910. The post office closed in 1913.

I don’t think the Sidley townsite is even accessible from public property. It may be unique among Canadian ghost towns in that the best way to view it is from the United States. In the 1960s or ‘70s, the Okanogan County Historical Society put up a sign near Molson, Wash., pointing out that Sidley was just across the border. A newer version of that sign remains. The view is of an expansive field.

Sidley, the man, remained in the area until his death in 1924 (not 1922 as indicated on the sign). He’s buried in the Bridesville cemetery.