THE KÜTNE READER

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...

Curious thing: this ad appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on March 26, 1911 and subsequent issues. Koch Siding is a nearly-obsolete...

In January 1910, a man posted a notice in Silverton that read: Mr. A.L. Pinchbeck, D.M.S. dental surgeon, has visited Silverton for two...

One of West Kootenay’s least known attractions is an amazing map of the Kootenays and Okanagan in the pub of the Salmo Hotel, created in...

Here’s something that seems completely lost from local memory: from at least 1922 to 1943, a ferry crossed the Slocan River at Slocan...

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...

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

Slocan Lake never freezes, it is said. And while it’s true that it rarely happens, there have been several notable exceptions. I came...

I recently wrote about Holy Grail historical items — things I once saw somewhere and couldn’t find again. I’m pleased to report that I’ve...

This huge, colourful ad was rescued from the old hardware store at 216 6th Ave. (Block 13, Lot 6) in New Denver before it was was torn...

This amazing little item is in the midst of being transferred from the Touchstones Nelson archives to the Slocan Valley Historical...

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...

In the spring of 1973, you might have met a guy in the Slocan Valley named Bill Lane, who was living in his van. He looked like many...

In Silverton’s early days, Amy Carey was among the community’s leading entrepreneurs. She owned hotels, a grocery store, livery stable,...

West Kootenay prospector Eli Carpenter (?-1917) was chiefly famous for two things: co-locating the Payne mine, which started the Silvery...

This little building in Hills, on the east side of Highway 6, began life in October 1934 as the Hunter Siding school. An earlier Hunter...

In the early 20th century, Slocan City’s brothels were on the west side of Block 36, at the south end of Main Street between Giffin and...

In the summer of 2017, Dian Aylwin made a remarkable discovery in her father’s garage in New Denver: tacked to the wall was the townsite...

There’s an oft-heard tale about the burial of a black brothel keeper in the Slocan cemetery. According to the Castlegar News of June 24,...