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Memories of rural life in the Kettle River Valley of long ago will never be forgotten. They will always live on through the memories left by so many of its early settlers, who chronicled the life around them in photographs and memoirs. Come along as they tell their stories, in picture and print, while we travel through the land they homesteaded and the lives they created from it.
They were among the first Europeans in this land of rolling hills, rich grasslands and lush valleys. They came at the turn of the 20th century, when it was still isolated from more populated regions of British Columbia to the east and west – nestled in a valley between two mountain ranges – where the Kettle River winds its way east along the Canada/U.S. border.
Their early years on the land were dedicated to survival – clearing land, building and growing everything they needed – but before too long, life was not all work and meant to be enjoyed. Harvest, schooldays and trips to town – any excursion or gathering could be a time to meet, to learn, to celebrate.
Camera in hand, our photographers recorded life as they saw it, in the present, and often at its most interesting. And while their subjects would be identifiable, the photographers themselves often remained anonymous.
Most of our writers, on the other hand, took pen to paper at their leisure and in their later years, looking back through the lens of nostalgia. And they were rarely anonymous, passing their writing on to their families or contributing to historical anthologies of the day.
But all their memories are fascinating and their stories unique. They live on.
