RECORDED: Moyie (B.C.), 1975-05-05 SUMMARY: [No content summaries available for this interview.];

CALL NUMBER: T1096:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-05-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Garnet E. Willis talks about his father and the people of the Chilliwack and the Similkameen region, 1894 to 1916. He describes how his family farmed near Sardis; what Chilliwack was like in his youth; steamboats on the Fraser; Harrison House; hard work on farms; school days; stories about Bill Miner; stories about John Ryder and his family; the Nelson brothers; how his father hauled freight; his father's background with the fur brigade; a discussion of the brigade route; details of his father's travels in Fort Garry, California and BC; his father's claims in the Cariboo; how his father logged on the present site of Vancouver; and John Beatty. TRACK 2: Mr. Willis continues with a story about an old man; the circumstances by which he came to the Similkameen area with his father in 1914; an anecdote about his father and the farm at Sumas; a comparison of Chilliwack and Similkameen areas; cattle and cattle drives over the Dewdney Trail; several stories about travels on the Hope Trail; a discussion of Herman Grell, known as "Shorty" Dunn; Jack Budd; and train robber Bill Miner.

CALL NUMBER: T1096:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-05-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Willis continues with more on Shorty Dunn of Bill Miner's gang; a story about Pat Kennedy of Princeton; Jim Slater; a story about Charlie Rheinhardt; Price Chandler; the beginning of Keremeos; Keremeos centre; the town of Loomis, Washington; a description of Princeton in 1913; Bill Allison; Mr. Willis' own place near Princeton; several stories about August Carlson; a story about Steve Mangat; the Olalla Mine; other mines and drilling. TRACK 2: Mr. Willis offers a story about Duncan Woods of the Hedley Mascot Mine; a discussion of his wife's uncle, a packer named John Worth; Bill Bristol and his stopping house east of Hope; a discussion of "Colonel" Robert Stevenson and his tall stories; a story about tracking lost cattle; more about Stevenson; more about Jack Budd and Bill Miner; and a story about a foot race in Montana.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-09-16 SUMMARY: Mr. George "Romey" Kingsley came from Washington with his father in 1899 and landed in Midway. He went to Anarchist Mountain, then known as Rock Mountain, though people called it One-Eyed Mountain. He speaks about life in Caldville [i.e., Colville, Washington]; mining, hunting, lack of borders, farmers and prospectors. He discusses the history of Bridesville in great detail and then Greenwood; mining stories, surrounding farms and several people who lived there. Then he discusses the Dewdney Trail which ran from Creston to Salmo and the stagecoach routes of the time. Kingsley describes Salmo in great detail with dates of good crop years and bad crop years, prices for crops, what the town consisted of and stories of the settlers.

CALL NUMBER: T0088:0008 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Les Walker: Nelson and area, 1902-1920s, part I PERIOD COVERED: 1890-1929 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1963-01-17 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Les Walker remembers coming to Nelson as a child in 1903. The journey. Transportation in the West Kootenay region. Nelson, 1903. Recreation to 1929. Transportation: air, boat, rail, Trail to Rossland link, Kettle Valley line. Nelson smelter. Crescent Beach. C.P.R. steamers on Kootenay Lake. Wilfred Laurier. Nelson as distribution point. Silver King Mine. Nelson. Silver in the Slocan distr;ict. Mining. Rossland. Nelson's "Bogus Town". Bill Fernie. Memories of Nelson and local characters. Red light district. Opera house. TRACK 2: More about the red light district. Saloons. "Boomer" brakemen, 1910-1915. Steamboat men. Chakho Mika Carnival in Nelson. Steamboats. "The Gunner of Galloway". Incident in Rossland. Bill Murphy story. Labour strife -- mining, 1890s-1902. Strikes and unionism; Western Federation of Miners.

CALL NUMBER: T0088:0009 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Les Walker: Nelson and area, 1902-1920s, part II PERIOD COVERED: 1902-1920s RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1963-01-17 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Les Walker continues to remember the Nelson area to 1920. Incidents in the Rossland Hall. Canada - U.S. relations -- the open border. Nez Perce Indians. More about the border. The Dewdney Trail. Nelson City Light and Mayor John Houston. Memories of Nelson people and incidents. More about "The Gunner of Galloway". "Old Jess". Nelson smelter burns, c.1910. Nelson smelters. Kootenay River. ;TRACK 2: Missionaries. Italian population. Kootenay Indians. Anecdote about mother and getting a drink of water. Strike of 1918 at Nelson smelter. Anecdote. The people. Opera house. Movies. News of the Titanic reaches Nelson. Changes in Nelson. Joy riding. School. Locomotives.

The item is a letter from George B. Martin to John Forsyth, Provincial Librarian dated April 12, 1920. The letter is about the construction of the Dewdney Trail from Christina Lake to the head of Kootenay Lake.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-09-13 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Arrowsmith, born in Green River; Utah, describes some of the old timers from when he moved to Creston fifty years prior. He describes experiences prospecting in the Three Sisters Mountains, which he began in 1912. He discusses Mormons in the area. Mr. Arrowsmith offers early childhood memories of the Creston area. His father ran the first dike in the area. He mentions several characters and offers anecdotes about local Indians including their history in the Creston area. He describes the Great Northern Railroad and anecdotes about Rocky Mountain Jack. TRACK 2: Mr. Arrowsmith continues his stories about Rocky Mountain Jack; Jim Crawford; Pete the Packer; the Dewdney Trail; Joe Wilson, who was a police officer; and Creston in the 1930s.

CALL NUMBER: T0357:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-09-17 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Randolph F. Sandner begins this interview by telling the story of his father who was from Chicago and came to Rossland in 1896 to stake a gold mine, but ended up taking the Dewdney Trail to Christina Lake. Mr. Sandner discusses history and Indian stories of Christina Lake and Kettle River. He speaks of Ranald MacDonald who was the first white man to teach in Japan and made a fortune in the BC gold rush. He goes on to speak more about his father's life and then the hotels in Cascade which prospered from the overflow from Rossland. He mentions a fire in 1902 which destroyed Cascade, how the town never recovered and the remnants headed to Christina Lake.

TRACK 2: He describes where people lived in Christina Lake prior to WWI, and a person named Jack Wardrow who owned a cigar store. He also discusses the English settlers in the area in great detail and mentions a few by name: Angus Stewart, newspaper reporter for the Grand Forks Gazette, and a remittance man named George Charles Archibald Brown, who built the Alpine Inn but was a terrible business man. He mentions a Vancouver company named Airline Chocolates. Mr. Sandner speaks of the difficulty of finding a school teacher and his poor educational background because of it. He was taught to live with nature and how to track deer. The track ends with a story of a girl on a freight train with a baby.

CALL NUMBER: T0357:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-09-17 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: The story about the freight train is continued and "young fellows must never help a woman!" is disclosed. Mr. Sandner says that he was raised in the woods and speaks about his mother's job of working in the mill and the family's hotel business, the North End Lodge. His father was wrongfully arrested for stealing a cable and he tells the story in detail. Mr. Sandner describes his childhood by speaking of the hotel, his mother's role, what life was like, and the family car. He tells the story of the Alice L. Mine in Paulson which was mined for gold and silver. Then he tells the story of Aaron Chandler, the man who founded Greenwood along with George Stocker and Alphonse Bertoius. These men called themselves the Canadian Consolidated Company, as they owned the smelter in Grand Forks.

TRACK 2: Mr. Sandner speaks of the two railroads in Grand Forks and how they relate to the smelters. He begins to discuss the history of Cascade, which had two newspapers. Cascade Power and; Light Company was bought out by West Kootenay Power and Light Company. He describes mining and Scott McRae who was the first man in Grand Forks, "a true pioneer". Mentions Mrs. Roylance and says that she will discuss McRae further. Then he speaks of Jack Coryell, another miner.

Documentary. Traces the pack-trail which once linked the Kootenay gold fields with the west coast, from Fort Hope to Fort Steele. Includes footage of the closing down of Camp McKinney gold mine; site of Fort Shepherd HBC post; Waneta Dam; St. Eugene Mission Church, and the cemetery at trail's end, Wild Horse Creek. One striking sequence shows the deserted streets and buildings of Fort Steele prior to its restoration.

Travelogue. Scenic and recreational attractions of the West Kootenay area. Includes sequences on Arrow, Christina and Kootenay lakes; mining history, abandoned mine workings, old hotels and ghost towns, including Sandon; Hugh Keenleyside dam (and boat lock there); boating, fishing and water-skiing; Duck Lake wildfowl sanctuary; Meadow Creek kokanee spawning channel; "house of bottles" tourist attraction; Ainsworth Hot Springs; the retired sternwheeler S.S. "Moyie" at Kaslo; the Balfour-Kootenay Bay car ferry; mining museum at Rossland; parade honouring champion skier Nancy Greene, who is seen winning the ladies' slalom in the Du Maurier International at Red Mountain; Trail, including Cominco smelter; Phoenix open-pit mine; Doukhobor village museum and tomb of Peter Veregin; trail riding on the Dewdney Trail; various facilities for visitors.