Wandering hotel bars of West Kootenay
What happened to the bars from the Reco, Sandon, and Hume hotels?
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Greg Nesteroff
Dec 4, 20223 min read
Sandon token fetches $610 at auction
The cachet associated with the ghost town of Sandon probably drove up the auction price of a trade token from the Hotel Reco.
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Greg Nesteroff
Mar 9, 20217 min read
Pioneer women of West Kootenay: Kitty Hope
A couple of postcards sold on eBay, both mailed in 1908 to a Miss Kitty Hope of Sandon. Who was she?
1,016 views5 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Mar 1, 20216 min read
Tiny Thompson and Sandon
Sandon produced a Hall of Fame NHL goaltender. But Tiny Thompson’s relationship with his birthplace has not been explored — until now.
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Greg Nesteroff
Jan 10, 20214 min read
Sandon in watercolour, 1944
The story behind a charming painting created more than 75 years ago. At least two people who were there that day are still around.
1,860 views4 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Sep 21, 20206 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.
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Greg Nesteroff
Jan 17, 20204 min read
The first moving pictures in the Kootenay
I was intrigued to read in John Mackie’s This Week in History column in The Vancouver Sun: The first films in BC were shown in Victoria...
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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
Apr 4, 201910 min read
Sandon’s fire hydrants
Sandon is an interesting place for many reasons. One remarkable but perhaps under-appreciated aspect is that it is (or ought to be) a...
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Greg Nesteroff
Sep 8, 20183 min read
Written in concrete
A little to the northeast of the Sandon cemetery — which is on a hillside about 1.4 km northwest of the ghost town — lies a concrete slab...
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Greg Nesteroff
Aug 19, 20182 min read
Sandon centenarians
An obituary appeared in the Vancouver Sun for Norma Evelyn Schiller of Mission, who died Aug. 9, 2018 at age 100. She was born in Sandon....
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Greg Nesteroff
Aug 17, 20183 min read
From the Greentree to Greenwood
Visting Sandon in August 2018, I was surprised to see a hand-carved wooden sign on the old brothel as you enter town that reads:...
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Greg Nesteroff
Jul 6, 20185 min read
Julia Henshaw in West Kootenay
Michael Kluckner’s new graphic novel, Julia, is a biography of Vancouver’s Julia Henshaw (1869-1937). She was, among other things, a...
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Greg Nesteroff
May 4, 201810 min read
M.D. Cryderman, scenic artist for hire
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...
681 views2 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Feb 22, 20188 min read
The secret life of Eli Carpenter
West Kootenay prospector Eli Carpenter (?-1917) was chiefly famous for two things: co-locating the Payne mine, which started the Silvery...
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Greg Nesteroff
Feb 18, 20181 min read
Sandon Paystreak envelope sells for $241
A neat item sold this afternoon on eBay for $192 US (which is $241 Cdn): an envelope from the Sandon Paystreak newspaper. It was...
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Greg Nesteroff
Feb 1, 20185 min read
7 men who were mayor of Sandon (and 3 who weren’t)
During its 22 years as a bona fide city, Sandon had seven mayors — and four receivers. Sandon city hall was built in 1900 following a...
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Greg Nesteroff
Jan 30, 20187 min read
Chinese Canadian pioneers of West Kootenay: Jim and Annie Kee
The Kootenay Lake Historical Society has just reprinted the 1980 book Pioneer Families of Kaslo in a revised and expanded form. My...
974 views5 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Jan 3, 20182 min read
Japanese-Canadian pioneers of West Kootenay: George Motosawa
George Motosawa was a restaurateur and laundry owner in two West Kootenay ghost towns. We know he was born April 6, 1867 and immigrated...
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