Kimberley Chronicle

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Volume 25 Monday March 4, 2013 kimberleychronicle@gmail.com Welcome to the 25th Issue of Kimberley Chronicle! We are very excited to be printing our first issue with a guest writer: Doug Johnson. Doug has so many fond memories of places like McDougall Hall that you can look forward to reading more from him in future issues. While we enjoy researching local history, its way better when we can let the people that were there tell the stories. If any of our other readers have stories that should be told, let us know, wed love to help you tell them. Feel free to check out our digital archives which are readily available through our Facebook Page and Google. Send your questions or comments to kimberleychronicle@gmail.com or 427-5430.

Life in The Mining Camp

The wonder of it! The magic of it all. Strange words maybe for a mining camp sponsored rec hall in a mining camp; but it was magic damnit. And I grew up in its shadow - right across 7th Avenue from the furnace room of that magnificent building. It was a complex really rec hall, clay tennis courts, lawn bowling greens (still operating), tennis club house and band stand, gasoline station (Esso), huge parking lot and of course the recently deceased swimming pool. And at one time, a large wading pool for younger children and their parents (and the family dog too until the life guard at the big pool noticed and put an end to the transgression). And certainly we cant forget the commercial traffic to and fro around the canteen or convenience store in McDougall Hall, the grounds and pool in 1935. Photo coutesy of Kimberley the Hall itself. All of this set in a roll- Heritage Museum and Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History. High ing expanse of manicured lawns, maple quality prints available at www.basinintitute.org. trees, larch trees, sidewalks, and bordered by natural stone walls. It was contained in a huge area between 7th and 4th Avenues, Rossland Boulevard and Giegerich Road. It was like a city within a city. And it was a huge part of my life. In the winter, the tennis courts were flooded, and hockey games and skating never ended morning until night.

I remember one winter when I was playing hockey with about 20 other kids when an avalanche of snow and ice descended from the third roof of the Hall down to the second roof and then out onto the ice. For advertising rates, questions, What a hullabaloo when that snow and ice came down off the roof and covcomments & complaints contact us ered the rink! Its a wonder nobody was killed. It seemed to come down at 427-5430 from a thousand feet up. We were in the middle of a game. There was a racket. Somebody yelled look out and next thing you know down it came. or kimberleychronicle@gmail.com I was only 6 years old and it sure seemed like an avalanche to me! Summer time was just as exciting on those old tennis courts. I remember waking up one morning and looking out our living room window to see the Kimberley Heritage Museum courts completely full of people and activity. I asked my Dad whats going on? and he said something about Dominions Day. I was so young I did 105 Spokane Street - above the library not understand what he was saying. I remember going over there with some Monday-Friday 1-4pm of my friends and what excitement! There were food booths, and games just Phone: 250-427-7510 like the midway at todays fairs. Meanwhile, on the other side of the parking Email: kdhs@shawbiz.ca lot, the Ktunaxa were camped in the bush. They had come in the night beEntry Fee - By Donation fore with their horses and wagons. The next day they went over to Lindsay Park with their horses and, for ten precious cents; you could ride one of their horses around the 200 meter cinder track. My buddy, Robert Pratt and Kootenay Cleaning Services I, could only come up with a dime between the two of us. No problem. The Ktunaxa let us double up on one horse! I remember the Ktunaxa, the adults A Breath of Fresh Air and there were even children there our age as being very kind, nice people Residential, Recreational & and I remember they lifted us up onto the horse and they showed Robert Commercial Cleaning how to hang onto the reins and away we went. How exciting! I had never been on a horse before. We were only about 6 years old, if that. While we 250-427-8644 were riding around the track, we could watch a softball game in the infield and the mining company were running a drilling competition in the corner of Lindsay Park. They had brought down two huge boulders on a Euclid Happy Hands Tattoo Lowboy, dumped them off, set up a compressor and teams of drillers competed all day! Huge noise!!! Those boulders sat there for years full of holes and the neighbourhood children climbed on them for hours. At the end of the day, all the children in the neighbourhood (there was lots) were exhausted, full of hot dogs, cotton candy, pop and Kool-Aid, and very appreciative of this guy Dominion who hosted this birthday party! th 418 - 304 St 778-481-5000I think back now there were lots of reasons why life was so exciting in the mining camp, namely, at that time in Kimberley, there was no television. The only television sets we knew of were in the Eatons and Simpson Sears catalogues. We made our own entertainment and our parents made theirs and I also think back and have discussed it later with people of my parents generation and Barb Taplin told me that adults at that time had come through the Great Depression and then WWII and were exceedingly grateful to still be alive, to have work, food on the table, a roof over their heads and to raise a family in peace. That was life in the mining camp, and it was www.basininstitute.org good. Ill tell you more, in a future issue. Doug Johnson

Kimberley Chronicle

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by Kara Clarke

A Kootenay Freeheel Festival March 16-17 at KAR From a ramble to a scramble A 8) According to 2006 Statcan Census, how does Kimberley Kootenay Freeheel Festival is a rank in the list of the most populous communities? fine fine way to spend a day on the mountain. Kimberley Alpine Make sure to vote online (faceResort is the host for a full day of book) for your favourite entry competitions, and a day of telein the Community Show after mark clinics and gear demos. Saturday Nights Dirtbag Gala. Saturdays Events: One of the prizes is probably the The Northstar Ramble coolest pair of skis ever made the Sushi Scramble (Thanks to DeCosse Customs). Old Dogs, New Tricks Rumour has it there there is a Beauty Contest video clip of two toddlers slidOpen to all disciplines ing down a pile of gravel, we (tele, AT & splitboards) recommend voting for that clip! Lets Go Movie Showing in the Two aerials meet on a roof - fall in love - get married. The cerStemwinder emony was rubbish - but the reception was brilliant. Sundays Events: Telelmark Clinics The Kimberley Branch of the Order of the Eastern Star is collecting Freeheel Market postage stamps, Campbell Soup Labels and Pop Can Tabs for various www.bctelemark.com charities. These items can be dropped off at Curves or at 960 Rotary. 7) What year did Dominion Day change to Canada Day? Friday March 8th - Spoken Words at Centre 64: An intimate evening with Wordsmiths and Story Ninjas. Show is from 8-10pm. Saturday March 9th - Dirtbag Gala at McKim: Photos, flicks, performances and the usual mayhem. Doors open at 7, showtime 7:30. www.dirtbagfestival.com

Tickets Now On Sale at Sprout!

A little bit of everything, be ready for sun,snow,sleet & rain. Average highs of 6oC, average lows of -2oC.
Puzzle & Trivia Answers computers - networks - communications 1) Foreign policy. 5) Off sides. 250-432-5269 2) Back to the future. 6) Party line. 170 Wallinger (behind the Bean Tree) 3) Covered wagon. 7) 1982 4) Midwife. 8) Kimberley is the 46th most populous community in BC.

Weather

Wednesday March 6: Free public swim, 5-6pm, sponsored by H&R Block. Friday March 8: Dirtbag Spoken Words at Centre 64, 8-10pm. Saturday March 9: KNPS Guided Snowshoe Hike: Dips & Doodles Snowshoe. Meet at the Swan Ave. entrance at 9am Gift Certificates Now Available. for a 2-3 hour hike. Like us on Facebook and Saturday March 9: Kimberley Volunteer Ski Patrol Dirtbag check out our schedule at Poker Run, $10 for one hand, $15 for two, registration beside the quad. Awesome prizes and after party at the Elks Club. www.onelovehotyoga.ca Saturday March 9: Dirtbag Gala at McKim, doors open at 7, show starts at 7:30pm. Saturday & Sunday March 9-10: Live Music at the StemKimberley Forest winder featuring 60 Hertz, 3-6pm. Consulting Friday March 15: The Kimberley Happiness Project Presents Your forest expert. Laughology, Centre 64 at 7:30pm. Saturday & Sunday March 9-10: The Choice Presents The Wildfire Assessments, Scott Greasy Rail Jam. Clinics, competitions & awards for Forest Development Plans, all ages. Saturday March 16: Kootenay Freeheel Festival, a full day of Ecosystem Management, Surveys. competitions, clinics and gear demos at KAR for those with Wade Jarvis, RPF legs of thunder.
kimberleyforest@gmail.com

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