History

You’re invited – ぜひお越しください！

Opening Ceremony *July 19 *for “Window to the Past – Japanese Canadians in Sandon” Exhibit*

On behalf of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society, the Sandon Historical Society is honoured to invite you to the opening ceremony for our new permanent exhibit entitled “Window to the Past – Japanese Canadians in Sandon”.

The event will be held from 2 pm on Saturday, July 19, at the Burns building adjacent to the Sandon Historical Society Museum in Sandon, BC, on unceded Sinixt territory.

A storefront exhibit on the history of Nikkei interned in Sandon from 1942-1944, “Window to the Past” will be displayed all year round in the windows of the newly refurbished Burns replica building.

The interpretive panels feature stories of Sandon’s Japanese Canadian residents, sharing the history of their displacement from the West Coast and the establishment of community life in Sandon before their eventual departure.

The exhibit began with a project proposal from the Sandon Historical Society and was subsequently made possible with guidance and funding from the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society. After a welcome from the Sinixt First Nation, representatives of both societies will speak briefly during the ceremony, and we will recognize some of those dedicated folks – from Vancouver to Toronto – who were involved in bringing this important exhibit to fruition.

The event will be accessible with parking coordinated at the site with a drop-off area, and there will be some covered seating available. We will be offering light refreshments at the event and free museum admission all day.

If you have any questions about the event or the exhibit itself, please feel free to contact us at SandonMuseum@netidea.com.

We hope to see you in Sandon!

https://facebook.com/events/s/window-to-the-past-japanese-ca/1668424183869059/

Idaho Peak FSR - Looking for Public Feedback....

The information below is from the Selkirk Natural Resource District road safety information page on the BC Gov website. We would encourage you all to read through the offered options and email your feedback to the included address. We have reached out to our members to help shape our own feedback as a stakeholder but feel it is important to engage as many interested folk as possible. Since the FSR was closed to the public, we and eager volunteers have endeavoured to keep the trails on Idaho Peak open to hikers and bikers but it has certainly been a struggle! Kudos to all those who have self-powered to the peak in the last five years!

'The Idaho Lookout FSR has been closed since June of 2020 due to fill slope failures and culvert washouts. The Selkirk District is currently doing engagement on options that are being considered to reestablish access to Idaho Lookout.

The options were developed in conjunction with the Ministry of Forests Engineering Branch, along with input from the Selkirk Resource District Engineering department. Ground truthing and feasibility studies have been completed over the last couple of years to identify the most reasonable options to reestablish access to Idaho Lookout.'

For location information and proposed routes, view the link at the bottom. In case it is not clear from the maps, options 2 and 3 would take out much of the existing trails H-Road and Choices.

The current options are:

Option 1 – A new bridge installed that would cross Carpenter Creek 2.5 km downstream of the current Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) access to Sandon. There would be 4.3 km of new road construction before the road would connect with the current FSR at 4.5 km

Option 2 – A new bridge installed crossing Carpenter Creek, and the road would connect with the MoTI access road to Sandon approximately 100 m from Highway 31A. There would be ten kilometres of new road, including fourteen switchbacks before the road would reconnect with the existing FSR

Option 3 – This would be the same new bridge as Option 4, and there would be 8.7 km of new road built with fifteen switchbacks and four gulley crossings, before reconnecting with the existing FSR

Option 4 - Repair the FSR in its current location where is has failed. This would also require private land acquisition that the road is currently in trespass on

Option 5 - Close and discontinue the FSR. This would require full road deactivation to the end of the FSR and Idaho Lookout would no longer be accessible

Public can provide comments for review on the planned work by email to FOR.SelkirkDistrictOffice@gov.bc.ca until February 28, 2025

BC Heritage Week Event!

'和趣味 / Wa shumi: Japanese hobbies in Sandon, 1942–44'

This year's BC Heritage Week theme is 'Pastimes in Past Times.' Please join the Sandon Historical Society for a Heritage Week event exploring the various Japanese hobbies – or 和趣味 (*Wa shumi*) – that were practiced during the Nikkei internment in Sandon, 1942–1944. The event will be held at Sandon's K&S Station on BC Family Day; Monday, February 17, at 1 pm. We will briefly discuss the internment in Sandon before turning to the Wa shumi that were practiced within the Japanese-Canadian community there and other area internment sites in the 1940s.

While some hobbies may be familiar such as haiku, origami and judo, we will introduce other lesser known pastimes practiced in Sandon such as shigin, go and kendo. There will be some demonstrations and attendees can try their hand at several activities after the presentation.

Seating in the K&S Station will be limited so most folks should be prepared to stand and, while it will be heated inside, please dress warmly.

On behalf of the Sandon Historical Society, we hope to see you there!