The Basin Record Newsletter Vol.2 Issue 5

Name: _______________________________________ Mailing Address:_______________________________ ____________________________________________ Phone Number:________________________________ Email Address:_ _______________________________ Become a member of the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History Individual: $25.00 Family: $40.00 Institutional: $50.00 Corporate: $200.00 Annual Membership Fee: Please drop-off or mail this form - with payment in cash, cheque or money order to: Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History, 21-A 10th Ave S, Cranbrook BC, V1C 2M9 Phone: 489-9150 City of Cranbrook The Government of Canada has contributed funding to this initiative Columbia Basin Institute Image Bank Project Columbia Basin Institute AGM The 2nd Annual General Meeting was held November 23rd in the Board Room at Realty Executives (the old Jackson Building on Baker Street). Thank you to Sharon Billey and Realty Executives. The financial reports showed the Institute to be in good shape with enough income to take us forward with the work of making the region’s history public. Some time was spent discussing the Columbia Basin Image Bank and Phase II of the project, which we will start putting together soon (for a discussion of Phase I see elsewhere in this newsletter). The Executive Director will start identifying Phase II partners and funding sources for the work. SeveralDirectorssteppeddownduetoleavingtheregion. The new Board consists of Directors Ron Beamish, Trudy Clifford, Angus Davis, Gerald Hudson, Darrel Mikulcik (President), Don Ohs (Treasurer) and Shirley White. The Executive Director is Derryll White. Things to look for this coming year are a newly designed websitewithanup-to-date cultural news function, the launch of the Image Bank and an extension into other parts of the Basin. The Directors voted to keep the membership fee structure the same and to work at increasing both personal and corporate membership in the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History. Everyone was pleased with the growth and work of the Institute in its second full year of operation. Particular notice was taken of the ongoing partnership with the City of Cranbrook, and the desire was expressed to extend that relationship to other cities in the Basin. Yale-Columbia Sawmill - Westley TheYale-ColumbiaCompanywas incorporated in 1899. The head office was situated at Greenwood. Peter and John Genelle, whom a local village is named after, were two of the directors in this company. The Westley mill was built around 1902 and operated until destroyed by fire in 1909. The Westley Lumber Co. built a mill on the same site in 1927-28, which suffered the same fate of fire in 1931. The Yale-Columbia Co., taken over by American interests by 1906, became one of the largest lumbering concerns in the province. Mills at Revelstoke, Comaplix and Westley employed250men,with300moreworking in thewoods. These three mills produced 25,000,000 feet in one year. The investment in mills amounted to $200,000, with an investment in timber limits of $500,000, which covered 50,000 acres in East andWest Kootenay. YALE-COLUMBIASAWMILL –WESTLEY, BC