Up the West Arm of Kootenay Lake website launch at Touchstones Nelson
By Contributor
The beautiful West Arm of Kootenay Lake has a rich history of pioneering that is fading into the recesses of memory.
Come and share the launch party of a newly created website that will provide a platform to gather and share these memories during the launch of the website, Sunday, September 28 at Touchstones Nelson at 502 Vernon Street from 1-3 p.m.
Open to the public, there will be cakes from the St. Andrews by the Lake Anglican Church Guild, some apple cider to sip, a bit of trivia, door prizes and surely some meet and greets of old acquaintances.
With the encouragement of friends and relatives, in the spring of 2013 Patricia Ormond and Randa Jensen set upon the task of retrieving “up the lake” history before it disappeared forever.
Themselves descendants of the Heddle Bros. Ranch , Ormond and Jensen realized that a lot of West Arm history was packed into boxes in basements or buried in photo albums.
Early on, it was decided to record the history onto a website. Unlike a book with an end, a website accommodates easy addition of information.
Jensen explains, “As two people we couldn’t possibly round up all the information out there but we could set the foundation for the community to contribute their memories, stories, family histories and any other pertinent archival material.”
The results of these efforts to date will be featured at the launch on September 28th.
It’s not a completed project but the basic foundation of one. “Sections of the website already have stories and memories filled in and we hope that it will inspire people to continue to contribute things that we haven’t posted yet as well as anything they may have to complement what is already there.” says Ormond.
“It’s a website for the people, by the people.”
The website criteria is two-mile to 12-mile (Kokanee Creek) over the last 100+ years. This was the catchment area of AI Collinson School and the Duhamel Recreation Commission.
Sponsored by: Regional District District of Central Kootenay; the Columbia Basin Trust – Community Initiatives Grant and Touchstones Nelson.
Submissions can be sent to: upthelakehistory@gmail.com
