You know that expression "You learn something new every day?" Well, these last few days, it seems that every time I turn around I'm learning something more about local history.  Here are a few examples:

In 1919, there was something called "Miss Candy's Hospital." I learned about that one in a birth announcement I looked up for a visitor. I don't know where it was, but in the 1920s there was a maternity hospital on 10th Avenue North, in the building that until recently housed Nadan Nessie's.  Maybe they were the same thing - that's something I'll have to check out, one of these days.

The Canadian Pacific Railway changed the colour of the smokestacks on its steamships.  Prior to 1908, the smokestacks were black; after that, they were painted buff with a black band at the top.  And, after 1942, the Nasookin had a black smokestack with a white band around it, about two-thirds of the way to the top. Also, the Kuskanook started life with a tall stack, and later got a shorter one (I don't know why - that's something else I'll have to look up!)  Do you know how many hundreds of photos of steamships I've looked at, and never noticed the different colours?

The barges that the CPR used on Kootenay Lake, to transport box cars, originally had little houses mounted on the posts of the barge.  These little houses were required because the tug boats, that pushed the barges all over the lake, were too low - they only had a single deck, with the wheel house on top of it. As a result, the captains of the tugs couldn't see over the box cars, and that caused a few problems when they were trying to bring the barges in to a wharf. So one of the crew members would go up into the little houses, which, because they were on the posts, were considerably higher than the tugs, and guide the captains in to the wharf.  Later, the CPR began building their tugs with a second deck, which eliminated the need for the barge houses.

Among the last boxes that Wynndel Box and Lumber produced in its box factory were ammunition boxes for the US Army - during the Vietnam War.

The Depression-era relief camp near Gray Creek is one of the very few in the province that can still be seen.  The Gray Creek Historical Society is working on putting up a sign to tell people more about it.  One of these days, I hope to take a closer look at the old camp - so far, I only have to take Tom Lymbery's word for it.  But, since his family has owned the Gray Creek store for the last century, and Tom himself remembers the relief camp, I think that's a pretty good authority.

And, by the way, today (May 18) is the day that the first outbreak of foul brood in bees was detected in a local apiary - that of J.W. Head of Lister. Foul brood is a nasty bacteria, easily spread from one part a hive to another and from one hive to another, and can live for up to forty years so it's extremely difficult to get rid of. That was back in 1921, and I think they've long-since dealt with the threat - but it seems ironic that I read about foul brood only one day after Lew Truscott was in talking to me about the current challenge of Colony Collapse Disorder. I think there's an I Love Creston article coming up on the issues facing beekeepers, now and in the past.