Slocan City Miners’ Union ribbon sells for $1,003
The Western Federation of Miners had at least 22 locals in the Kootenay-Boundary, whose ribbons are highly coveted by collectors.
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Greg Nesteroff
Aug 297 min read
Call the Vallican midwife
How is it that so many people were born in Vallican between 1923 and 1942? The answer is Nellie Innes.
570 views3 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Aug 1920 min read
Riddle of the Retallack schoolhouse
Was a cabin at Retallack once a school? Or a hideout for armed robbers?
597 views3 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Apr 153 min read
New Denver envelope fetches $1,046
An envelope that sold on eBay for an eye-popping price has a connection to a man convicted of bank robbery and embezzlement.
381 views2 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Jun 4, 202313 min read
The Newmarket Hotel guest register
I had the privilege of reading the guest book of a famous New Denver hotel from 1897 to 1899 that was rescued from a landfill.
662 views3 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Aug 2, 20227 min read
The night the Newmarket Hotel burned
When fire destroyed the Newmarket Hotel in October 1973, New Denver lost its greatest heritage building, constructed 80 years earlier.
1,166 views0 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Feb 6, 20226 min read
Leonard Cheshire’s vet colony
Britain’s most celebrated bomber pilot planned to start a veterans commune at New Denver in 1947.
533 views2 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Jul 13, 202119 min read
The Ottawa Silver Mining and Milling mill
Concrete ruins adjacent to the Springer Creek campground in Slocan are from an unusual intersection of mining and Japanese-Canadian history.
1,470 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.
1,674 views0 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Mar 6, 20207 min read
Patricks on postcards
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...
749 views3 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Dec 28, 20193 min read
Edward Connolly and the lost bullion of Slocan Lake
One day I’d like to write a book or booklet about the lost bullion of Slocan Lake, one of our region’s most enduring treasure stories. On...
3,798 views2 comments
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...
1,337 views2 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Mar 1, 20196 min read
His lot in life: The hard luck of Lot Willey
Lot Willey had a lot of bad luck. And bad timing. He was a sort of anti-Forrest Gump, with an uncanny knack for arriving in a town just...
931 views3 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Feb 1, 20194 min read
Empress of Ireland’s lost footage found
In 2019, I wrote here about some long-lost footage showing survivors of the Empress of Ireland disaster of May 29, 1914 that claimed more...
2,426 views5 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Jan 22, 201912 min read
New Denver’s cemetery story
Despite being such an historic and picturesque site, little has been written about the history of New Denver’s cemetery — until now. This...
1,364 views5 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Dec 24, 20186 min read
5 phantom cemeteries
Of the 100 or so cemeteries in West Kootenay/Boundary, two dozen can no longer be visited because they were either flooded out, exhumed,...
1,297 views2 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Dec 23, 20183 min read
Silverton’s oldest piece of mail?
A terrific cover from Silverton, postmarked July 28, 1894, sold for $192.50 Cdn yesterday on eBay. It was sent from Hunter & McKinnon,...
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Greg Nesteroff
Dec 22, 20188 min read
A Russian revolutionary in the Slocan Valley
Twice this year I’ve learned secret details about someone that made me re-evaluate everything I thought I knew about them. The first case...
1,369 views0 comments
Greg Nesteroff
Dec 20, 20182 min read
Lawrence Twoaxe in the Slocan Valley
Curious thing: this ad appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on March 26, 1911 and subsequent issues. Koch Siding is a nearly-obsolete...
483 views1 comment
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