August06_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

The town of Sandon was born April 7, 1892 when J.M."Johnny" Harris uncovered a fabulous vein of silver. He was born in Virginia and spent his early boyhood in the tobacco and cotton fields. Still only a boy, he left Virginia and wound up in Idaho in 1884 where he worked in the gold mines. He discovered he had a talent for selling real estate and opened an office. It was there a prospector from the North Country brought him a piece of ore shining with veins of silver. That was all it took for Johnny Harris to know where he must go-and he headed for the North Country. His goal was the outpost camp of New Denver, 35 miles up Slocan Lake. From there he started hiking up the Sandon River and reached the Carpenter Creek tributary and started digging. Almost at once, he discovered the vein of silver. The date was April 7, 1892.

Photos - Old shacks at the entrance to the town of Sandon BC beside the entrance road which is a five mile drive way off Highway 31A. I stopped the car, parked and got out to photograph these buildings and the trailer with the Kenworth truck you see in the photos on this page. I immediately got the feeling of peace, quiet and solitude and it wasn't until about half way through my exploration of the town, that I saw anyone at all. The next thing I started to realize was that there are some odd collections of artifacts here in this town.

Kenworth began its history in Portland, Oregon. In 1912, the company was founded by brothers George T. and Louis Gerlinger, Jr. as a car and truck dealership known as Gerlinger Motor Car Works. In 1914, they decided to build their own truck with a more powerful inline six-cylinder engine. This was the first ever put into a commercial truck. The Gersix, as it was known, unveiled in 1915, was framed in structural steel, which along with its power, made the truck ideal for the rugged Northwest, where it was used for logging.

Photos - Frames left and right: Parked upon a low bed trailer as if on display, or perhaps on its way someplace, is a Canadian built Kenworth Dump Truck (1960s).

Center frame: Looking east at a circle of steel with wrapped wires used in a turbine generator.

Photos - Frames left and right: Two views of another shack at the entrance to town, all boarded up and unused.

Center frame: One of a handful of homes in Sandon that are being used. This one is on the corner of Galena Street and Mill Lane.

Click here for more photos of Historic Sandon for this day.