By Maryanna Gabriel
I remember the newspaper articles. Picking up from my last blog, the Freedom Fighters were one sect of Doukhobors. Millions of dollars worth of land was confiscated by the British Columbia government and sold off. Desperate to protect their children that were forcibly removed, the mothers stripped to protest. How did we deal with it? We changed the law so that the mothers would be jailed for three years. To paraphrase what I was told, they were saying with their actions: "You have taken everything, so take my underclothes too."
Oh my. Given the history, I admit I was holding it against New Denver when I chose not to stop,
My destination was the ghost town of Sandon. It used to be a silver mine. It had all the marking for tourism except the road was embanked with snow to either side and the car slipped precariously on an ungraded slick. Roaring Carpenter Creek snaked alongside, more river than creek and at times a steep decline. Slowly, I made my way, admiring the entrepreneurial spirit of the miners of yore, seeking to make their fortune, who came in with pack horses.
Two railroads once served the place. Hard to believe, let alone picture. Sandon was incorporated in 1898 with 24 hotels, an opera house, saloons, stores, mining broker's offices, newspapers, banks etc and was called the soul of "Silvery Slocan". Tragedy followed. In the 1900s a fire decimated the town. Then there was a landslide that killed miners. Another that killed families. Unbelievably the Japanese were interred during the war in some of the abandoned houses. That must have been fun for them. In 1955, a flood undermined what was left. Mother nature rules.
Talk about a heritage. Nothing romantic about it. Hear the wind blow. Are those the cries of the dead I am hearing?
I was totally creeped out by the place. Noone was around except for a couple of other bewildered tourists with out of province license plates. I couldn't get out fast enough.
Next destination? Naksup.
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| Silver mine in Sandon. Intermittently active. |
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| Sandon city hall, 1900 date on building. |