THE KÜTNE READER

The Trail Smoke Eaters’ famous logo has seen far more changes in the last 90 years than you think. So have their sweaters.

Larry Kwong was the first Chinese Canadian to play senior hockey in the Kootenays. But he was not the only one.

Before Evel Knievel was a motorcycle stuntman, he was Bob Knievel, hockey player.

The Kootenay International Junior Hockey League’s beginnings have long been mired in confusion. The league’s own website is wrong.

Exactly when did legendary Trail Smoke Eaters goaltender start wearing a mask? And was it before or after Jacques Plante did the same thing?

From 1927 to 1934, Nelson’s senior men’s hockey team changed names four times. Why? Finding out is proving more challenging than I expected.

Sandon produced a Hall of Fame NHL goaltender. But Tiny Thompson’s relationship with his birthplace has not been explored — until now.

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

The first professional hockey player born in BC was from Nelson.

The remarkable postcard seen below sold in 2020 on eBay for $168 Cdn. It’s a previously unknown image of the Patrick Lumber Camp No. 1...

You heard it here last: Larry Kwong, the NHL’s first player of Asian descent and the oldest Trail Smoke Eaters alumnus, died on March 15,...

I recently came across a charming anecdote about hockey legend Lester Patrick in West Kootenay that I had never seen before — and in fact...

From 1909 until the early 1950s, the Cornwall Cup was awarded for the men’s hockey championship of the Slocan. Officially engraved as the...

On Sept. 4 and 5, 1999, Trail hosted a reunion of Western International Hockey League players and officials. The senior league existed...

A previous post enumerated historical finds I have made only to lose track of them or fail to document their discovery, to my everlasting...

I devoted an earlier post to West Kootenay sites associated with hockey’s Patrick family, including the Crescent Valley beach, where the...

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

From 1907 to 1911, members of the Patrick family lived in Nelson while operating a lumber company that owned timber limits in the Slocan...

Here’s a gallery of photos I took on March 3, 2003 during filming in Rossland of the Kurt Russell movie Miracle. Columbia Avenue was...

The last surviving members of what was probably the strangest hockey team ever to play in the Kootenay have died. Terry Cavanagh...