Guilty or innocent: The fate of Charles Bodman
Was a respected chief engineer on an Arrow Lakes sternwheeler also an opium smuggler?
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Greg Nesteroff
Apr 49 min read
Lost Arrow Lakes lighthouses
Lighthouses on the Arrow Lakes? Yes, they existed! But nothing has been written about them until now. This post illuminates the subject.
1,345 views5 comments
Michael A. Cone
Mar 30, 20237 min read
The remarkable steam launches of Captain Troup
While James W. Troup was renowned for building sternwheelers in the West Kootenay, Michael Cone recounts three steam launches he owned.
469 views2 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Dec 12, 20228 min read
Mysteries of Comaplix
Wherein I try to figure out more about a woman depicted on a postcard — and reveal some puzzling findings about a murdered brothel keeper.
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Greg Nesteroff
Sep 20, 20213 min read
5 doctored West Kootenay postcards
Long before Photoshop, postcard publishers were using airbrushes and other tools to alter images.
1,836 views6 comments
Greg Nesteroff
May 13, 20213 min read
Tales old envelopes tell
Several envelopes that sold at auction have intriguing connections to West Kootenay Japanese-Canadian, Chinese Canadian, and mining history.
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Greg Nesteroff
Apr 7, 20198 min read
Wandering printing presses of West Kootenay
During West Kootenay’s mining boom of the 1890s, newspapers popped up like Starbucks franchises. But lugging a printing press into a...
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Greg Nesteroff
Dec 16, 20188 min read
Pioneer women of West Kootenay: Ralphia Weir Stitt McLean Borrow
I’m not sure who the first woman to work for a West Kootenay/Boundary newspaper was, but it may have been Harriet Haire Smith, a daughter...
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Greg Nesteroff
Nov 19, 20187 min read
Kootenaians on the Lusitania’s last voyage
Six West Kootenay/Boundary residents and one former resident were among the 1,200 passengers and crew who perished when a German U-boat...
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Greg Nesteroff
Jul 3, 20187 min read
Ici repose: The Hamel family of Comaplix
One of most poignant epitaphs I’ve ever seen appears on twin gravemarkers in West Kootenay’s most remote cemetery. The Hamel siblings,...
1,406 views1 comment
Greg Nesteroff
Apr 23, 20181 min read
Wandering manhole covers of West Kootenay
Is Trail missing a manhole cover? If so, public works might want to call their counterparts in Nelson, because there’s one in Railtown...
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Greg Nesteroff
Apr 12, 201814 min read
Overwaitea in West Kootenay/Boundary
One of the most venerable and unique made-in-BC business names ceased to exist on March 22, 2018 after 103 years. The last Overwaitea...
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Greg Nesteroff
Mar 25, 20188 min read
Mattie Gunterman and the Williams sisters
The photo below is probably the second most-reproduced image ever taken in West Kootenay (next to R.H. Trueman’s vertigo-inducing shot of...
1,167 views2 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Mar 13, 20184 min read
A girl named Columbia
On Oct. 26, 1892, the sternwheeler Columbia was on the Arrow Lakes, en route from Little Dalles, Wash. to Revelstoke, when a passenger...
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