An eventful day! We woke up in Silverton, had breakfast in New Denver at the wonderful Apple Tree sandwich shop, took a quick peek at the Nikkei internment memorial centre, and met Hal and Vida in Sandon and got a very full tour of the place. Sandon is called a ghost town but Hal and Vida are bringing it back to life!
“In it’s heyday in the 1890s, Sandon was a city with all the modern conveniences: theatres, stores, 29 hotels, 28 saloons, factories and mills. A large red-light district thrived due to the predominance of men, and several churches did their best to bring morality to this wild boom town. Electricity was “state of the art” and Sandon became the first place in BC to have an electrical utility where every citizen could obtain electrical service. With an abundance of water and steep mountains Sandon was ideally suited to the generation of hydroelectricity. In all, eight hydroelectric systems operated in the Sandon area during the peak years. In 1897, the finest of them all, the Slocan Star plant, later renamed the Silversmith, went into operation to supply electricity and compressed air to Canada’s wealthiest mining company, ancestor of today’s global mining giant Goldcorp. It is still operating today providing 100% green, modern AC electricity for BC’s smallest regulated utility, Silversmith Power & Light.
In addition to the main generating plant, the Silversmith powerhouse also houses an Ingersol-Rand air compressor c. 1897, a Fairbanks-Morse 3-cylinder Oil Engine c. 1917, a Blackstone Diesel Engine c. 1952, a 600-cfm Holman compressor driven by a 6-cylinder GM diesel, and numerous smaller artifacts from Canada’s electrical and industrial past.” from SandonBC.ca
“The Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre (NIMC)
A National Historic Site dedicated to telling the story of over 22,000 Japanese Canadians who were forcibly relocated during World War II. Located on the site of “The Orchard” internment camp, the NIMC contains original buildings, period artifacts and interpretive displays as well as the Heiwa Teien Peace Garden, designed by the renowned Japanese Canadian gardener, Tomomichi (Roy) Sumi.” from http://newdenver.ca/nikkei/
After Sandon we drove to Kaslo along highway 31A which is really fun. It’s like a roller coaster with lots of turns and hills. We poked around Kaslo a bit and then went to Ainsworth Hot springs, which is one of my favourite places in BC. And then after a quick fashion shoot by Coffee Creek we got on the ferry at Balfour and headed East to see Heather’s Aunt by Kootenay Bay.
