The Basin Record Newsletter Vol.2 Issue 1

Published by the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History Newsletter : Vol. 2 No. 1 21-A 10 Ave S Cranbrook BC V1C 2M9 Telephone: (250) 489-9150 E-mail: basininstitute1@cyberlink.bc.ca Inside this Issue Basin Record the The Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History is currently developing a website that will eventually be home to a large research database. Everyone holding a Columbia Basin Institute membership will receive full access to these research holdings. The site will feature historical documents and articles, photographs, postcards, streaming audio recordings from interviews with people who have historical ties to the region, and of course, every issue of this newsletter will also be available to read online. In themeantime,whilewe arebusy preparing the website, the City of Cranbrook has reserved some space for us on their website to showcase some of the local events we are involved with. Please visit www.cranbrook.ca and find our link to the left of the page. Regional History on the Web Winter harvest of brothers J.W. Queen and J.A. Queen of Fort Steele, B.C. Local Fur Farming How Elizabeth Lake got its name A biography of Captain F.P. Armstrong Alook at Overwaitea through- out the years Early Chinese New Year celebrations The fur industry was booming in the early 1920s and by 1923 the market in British Columbia was worth an estimated $5,000,000. It was said that B.C. was climatically ideal for raising foxes, more so than any other area of Canada, and 200 pairs were in the province by 1924. Willard W. Warren, a man with years of experience in raising foxes, moved from Prince Edward Island in 1922. He established the Cranbrook Silver Black Fox Company at the corner of Durick Avenue (now 7 th Avenue) and 5 th Street. Two pairs of foxes arrived from a fox ranch on P.E.I. in November 1923, and by December of that year the company had six pairs to breed. A few years later the prosperous company was selling public shares in the Cranbrook Silver Fox Co. Ltd and an average pelt was selling for around $300. After Mr. Warren’s death in 1926, Joseph Condon, who also worked at a silver fox ranch on Prince Edward Island, took over. In 1927, under Mr. Condon’s care, the company had sixty high grade foxes for mating. During the depression years the farm was purchased by W.H. Harris and was managed by Elliot Harris until the late 1930’s. Another fox farm on the Jaffray/Baynes Lake Road, overlooking Deer Lake, was in operation from 1926 until 1938. Owned by Etherly Eaton Payne, the farm raised 30 pairs of foxes as well as a few mink and martin. These animals were fed old or sick mine horses that were purchased from the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company, as well as fish from the Little Bull River and gophers in the summer time. The Payne farm had just started to raise muskrats when the depression caused the fur market to decline and as it was no longer economical for the Payne family to raise animals for fur, they quit farming and moved to Natal, BC. Other known fur farms in the area were: Carl Bloom, who raised mink on a farm near Wardner; P.F. Howden’s fur farm in Cranbrook where he had rabbits, black skunks and red foxes; a large fur farm at Woodbury Creek, and; a farm at Lemon Creek in the Slocan Valley. O.P. Neilsen who was of Danish descent and a butcher by trade, had a large fox farm in Edgewater at the end of WWII and apparently fed horse meat to the animals. He may also have been associated with the round-up of wild horses on Skookumchuck Prairie at that time. Fox farms produced nearly the entire Canadian supply of over 230,000 silver fox pelts in 1938 according to the Dominion Bureau of Statistics issued by the Department of Trade and Commerce at Ottawa. That year was also the highest in the history of the silver fox industry with over 6.7 million dollars in total value comprising 39 percent of the total for all types of fur. Although fur farming was quite profitable, the farms had a malodorous scent that attracted wild animals such as coyotes. Predations caused significant loss to the farmers. The Columbia Basin Institute intends to continue research on this topic. We would like to hear any recollections you may have regarding fur farming in the Columbia Basin.