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PLACE NAMES: Slocan Park, West Slocan, Slocan Valley

One-hundred eighty-second in an alphabetical series on West Kootenay/Boundary place names
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Alfred Driscoll surveyed the townsite plan for Slocan West and deposited it with the land registry in 1898. (Courtesy of Regional District of Central Kootenay)

One-hundred eighty-second in an alphabetical series on West Kootenay/Boundary place names

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen that Slocan is an Interior Salish word that referred to the Sinixt practice of harpooning salmon, and started looking at the many geographic features and communities it’s been applied to.

Slocan Park was originally known as Park Siding, a stop on the Slocan branch of the CPR’s Columbia and Kootenay Railway, first mentioned in the Nelson Tribune on Dec. 25, 1897. In 1901 or 1902, Park Siding was renamed Gutelius after Frederick Gutelius (1864-1935), superintendent of the Columbia and Western. It’s first mentioned in the Tribune on Oct. 4, 1902, and the Gutelius post office opened on April 1, 1903. (We’ve already covered some of this in an earlier installment about Passmore.)

The first mention of Slocan Park is a real estate ad for Wolverton &Co. that appeared in the Nelson Daily News on Oct. 2, 1907. Using the name “Park” in communities or subdivisions was a well-established practice — Wolverton &Co. also applied it to Columbia Park, just north of Trail, now known as Rivervale. (There’s also Deer Park and Arrow Park on the Arrow Lakes). It’s probably just a coincidence that Slocan Park was originally Park Siding.

Surveyor A.H. Green created Slocan Park by subdividing Lot 7065 on Dec. 20, 1907 but didn’t deposit it with the land registry until Sept. 14, 1908.

On June 4, 1910, the Daily News announced: “To prevent confusion, the siding on the Slocan branch of the CPR, heretofore known as Whiteley &Murray’s siding, will hereafter be known as Slocan Park.”

No other contemporary references to Whiteley &Murray’s siding have been discovered, but we do know who it was named after. In an unpublished history of South Slocan, held by the Shawn Lamb Archives at Touchstones Nelson, Violet Greyson wrote: “John Murray and his partner Bill Whiteley came to South Slocan just after the turn of the century and worked the Rover Creek mines. Later they went up the Slocan Valley and were engaged in cutting cordwood for [Cominco] until the First [World] War. Murray went to England and came back … with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.”

The Daily News of Feb. 10, 1912 noted: “A petition is being circulated to have the post office name here changed from Gutelius to Slocan Park.” The change took effect on May 1.

The Gutelius railway siding, however, was renamed Passmore.

Meanwhile, Koch Siding, the flat below the Slocan Park cemetery, was once a distinct place but today most people would consider it part of Slocan Park.

WEST SLOCAN

The Slocan West (or West Slocan) townsite was directly across the Slocan River from Slocan City and was first mentioned in The Ledge of April 22, 1897: “Tom Mulvey has turned his ranch at the foot of Slocan lake into a townsite and it will now be known as West Slocan City.”

The plan was surveyed by Alfred Driscoll and deposited with the land registry on Jan. 17, 1898. Mulvey was listed at owner along with Billy Clement, with whom he started the first hotel in Slocan City.

The streets were named River, View, Pine, First, Second, Third, and Fourth. None of these survive today, although River Street is now Slocan West Road. It’s hard to imagine how most of the other streets could have existed given that they would have cut through rock bluffs.

West Slocan remains a distinct neighbourhood, which has expanded beyond the original townsite.

There is no East Slocan, although North Slocan is the area from Enterprise Creek to Summit Lake, and we’ll look at South Slocan next week.

SLOCAN VALLEY

“Ask ten different people where the Slocan Valley starts and stops,” Katherine Gordon writes in The Slocan: Portrait of a Valley, “and ten different answers will be given.”

Despite its ubiquity, Slocan Valley isn’t recognized by the BC Geographic Names office as an official name. The earliest use was in the Nelson Miner of Dec. 12, 1891: “They report no snow in Slocan valley …” but it didn’t enter common parlance until much later. The first example with valley capitalized is in the Miner of June 19, 1897: “McLean Brothers … who will build 16 miles of the Slocan Valley railway, will start work next week …”

Gordon was correct that the exact geographic boundaries of the Slocan Valley are ill-defined. It appears to be both more and less than the drainages of Slocan Lake and the Slocan River.

It definitely includes the area from Crescent Valley north to Hills, but what’s about the fringes? South Slocan? Krestova? Pass Creek? Summit Lake? (Shoreacres, formerly known as Slocan Crossing, isn’t generally considered to be in the Slocan, even though the Slocan River enters the Kootenay there.)

The Slocan also extends east from New Denver as far as Retallack. Highway 31A between New Denver and Kaslo has been dubbed the Valley of the Ghosts, due to its high number of ghost towns, but only the western half is in the Slocan.

Kaslo isn’t in the Slocan, but during the Silvery Slocan mining rush, it tried to get in on the action by association. It had short-lived newspapers named the Kaslo-Slocan Examiner and Slocan Sun.

One interesting phenomenon is that when a local says they live in “The Valley,” they’re invariably talking about the Slocan, even though the area has many other valleys (the Lardeau, the Salmo, the Beaver, etc.).

Previous installments in this series

Introduction

Ainsworth

Alamo

Anaconda

Annable, Apex, and Arrow Park

Annable, revisited

Appledale

Applegrove, Appleby, and Appledale revisited

Argenta and Arrowhead

Aylwin

Bakers, Birds, and Bosun Landing

Balfour

Bannock City, Basin City, and Bear Lake City

Beasley

Beaton

Bealby Point

Bealby Point (aka Florence Park) revisited

Belford and Blewett

Beaverdell and Billings

Birchbank and Birchdale

Blueberry and Bonnington

Boswell, Bosworth, Boulder Mill, and Broadwater

Brandon

Brilliant

Brooklyn, Brouse, and Burnt Flat

Burton

Camborne, Cariboo City, and Carrolls Landing

Carmi, Cedar Point, Circle City, and Clark’s Camp

Carson, Carstens, and Cascade City

Casino and Champion Creek

Castlegar, Part 1

Castlegar, Part 2

Castlegar, Part 3

Christina Lake

Christina City and Christian Valley

Clubb Landing and Coltern

Cody and Champion Creek revisited

Champion Creek revisited, again

Columbia

Columbia City, Columbia Gardens, and Columbia Park

Comaplix

Cooper Creek and Corra Linn

Crawford Bay and Comaplix revisited

Crescent Valley and Craigtown

Davenport

Dawson, Deadwood, and Deanshaven

Deer Park

East Arrow Park and Edgewood

Eholt

English Cove and English Point

Enterprise

Erie

Evans Creek and Evansport

Falls City

Farron

Fauquier

Ferguson

Ferguson, revisited

Fife

Forslund, Fosthall, and Fairview

Fort Shepherd vs. Fort Sheppard, Part 1

Fort Shepherd vs. Fort Sheppard, Part 2

Fort Sheppard, revisited

Fraser’s Landing and Franklin

Fredericton

Fruitvale and Fraine

Galena Bay

Genelle

Gerrard

Gilpin and Glade

Gladstone and Gerrard, revisited

Glendevon and Graham Landing

Gloster City

Goldfields and Gold Hill

Grand Forks, Part 1

Grand Forks, Part 2

Granite Siding and Granite City

Gray Creek, Part 1

Gray Creek, Part 2

Gray Creek, revisited

Green City

Greenwood

Halcyon Hot Springs

Hall Siding and Healy’s Landing

Harrop

Hartford Junction

Hills

Howser, Part 1

Howser, Part 2

Howser, Part 3

Howser, Part 4

Hudu Valley, Huntingtdon, and Healy’s Landing revisited

Inonoaklin Valley (aka Fire Valley)

Jersey, Johnsons Landing, and Jubilee Point

Kaslo, Part 1

Kaslo, Part 2

Kaslo, Part 3

Kaslo, Part 4

Kettle River, Part 1

Kettle River, Part 2

Kinnaird, Part 1

Kinnaird, Part 2

Kitto Landing

Koch Siding and Keen

Kokanee

Kootenay Bay, Kraft, and Krestova

Kuskonook, Part 1

Kuskonook, Part 2

Kuskonook (and Kuskanax), Part 3

Labarthe, Lafferty, and Longbeach

Lardeau, Part 1

Lardeau, Part 2

Lardeau, Part 3

Lardeau, Part 4

Lebahdo

Lemon Creek, Part 1

Lemon Creek, Part 2

Lemon Creek, Part 3

Makinsons Landing and Marblehead

McDonalds Landing, McGuigagren, and Meadow Creek

Meadows, Melville, and Miles’ Ferry

Midway

Mineral City and Minton

Mirror Lake and Molly Gibson Landing

Montgomery and Monte Carlo, Part 1

Montgomery and Monte Carlo, Part 2

Montrose and Myncaster

Nakusp, Part 1

Nakusp, Part 2

Nashville

Needles

Nelson, Part 1

Nelson, Part 2

Nelson, Part 3

Nelson, Part 4

Nelson, Wash.

Nelway and New Galway

New Denver, Part 1

New Denver, Part 2

Niagara

Oasis and Oatescott

Ootischenia

Oro

Park Siding and Pass Creek

Passmore

Paterson

Paulson

Perry Siding

Phoenix

Pilot Bay

Pingston

Playmor Junction

Poplar and Porcupine

Porto Rico and Pottersville

Poupore, Powder Point, and Power’s Camp

Procter, Part 1

Procter, Part 2

Queens Bay, Rambler, and Raspberry

Remac and Renata

Retallack

Rhone and Rideau

Riondel

Ritaville, Riverside I, Riverside II, and Rivervale

Robson and Rock Creek

Rosebery and Ross Spur

Rossland, Part 1

Rossland, Part 2

St. Leon and Rosebery, revisited

Salmo

Salmon Rapids

Sandon, Part 1

Sandon, Part 2

Sayward

Seaton

Sheep Creek

Shields, Shirley, and Shoreholme

Shoreacres

Shutty Bench and Six Mile

Silverton

Slocan

Slocan City