Trudy and Dale Buxton
Biggar Independent
A great stop in Kaslo as we continue on Highway 31A which is kind of a cut through the mountains heading towards New Denver.
For a person on a motorcycle these are the runs that you cherish and take advantage of anytime. It’s never a bad drive through the Kootney’s in the interior of British Columbia.
We come to the small occupation of Retallack which is basically a ghost town with a handful of people that look after some of the buildings that are still standing. Once known as Bell’s Camp, Retallack was renamed in honour of Major John Ley Retallack who had bought the local mine.
When going through small communities you have to figure that must be some kind of history, and Retallack is no exception. Did you know that Retallack once operated the second largest silver, lead and zinc operation in the entire British Empire, this in the late 1800’s and supported a population of over 300 people.
It was at this time that Retallack was going to be a large, populated community, until the bust in the mining industry and mostly everyone had to leave.
However, not everything was doom and gloom with Retallack. The annual snowfall in Retallack is a staggering 25- to 40-feet of fresh powder which spawned a couple of tourism businesses in the area.
The terrain features over 11,000 acres of pure downhill skiing in which some of the runs can drop over a staggering 4,200 feet. Retallack is also home to the world’s largest helicopter-biking operation in the summer with a very large, guided back country mountain bike program.
It is amazing the kind of things that you find out when researching these small areas.
Continuing on along the highway we come to a couple of other ghost towns, Zincton and Three Hills, all built during the silver rush in the late 1800’s, but after the mining was finished so were these communities.
We did find out that the Fish Lake region was the home of the famous Toad Migration in which tens of thousands of migrating toads cross the highway at a certain time of the year. Because of these migrating toads there is an artificial bridge used to prevent highway mortality.
Next up is the community of New Denver, population around 500 people. Once known as Eldorado City in the late 1800’s the region was renamed New Denver with hopes of mirroring the massive silver wealth and prosperity of Denver, Colorado, and a feat that they did accomplish in the early 1900’s as the hub of silver mining.
New Denver is situated on the Slocan Lake and surrounded by mountains making this place a haven for outdoor recreation, with beaches, hiking, biking and skiing.
During the Second World War, New Denver held an internment camp for over 1,500 Japanese Canadian people. These internees built 275 tiny shacks in the local fruit grove which was known as the Orchard.
From this camp the Kohan Reflection Garden was built, which is a Japanese style garden built to honour the resilience of the internees and to serve as the symbol of peace and reconciliation.
Next up we continue north on Highway 6 and next week we will continue our story in Nakusp.
