August16_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Photos - L-R - This beautiful looking Church is St Andrews United Church built in 1893, located at 500 Fourth Street in Kaslo. The Village Hall across the street from this old Church, was built a few years after this church.

A two storey soap box house at 408 A - Avenue. It has the architecture that was popular around the time period between the two great World Wars.

Leaving Kaslo via along Highway 31 toward Lardeau I stopped to picture this Odocoileus Hemionus (Mule Deer) who was grazing in the filed beside the Highway. The Mule Deer family which includes the Black-tail deer, has a stocky body and sturdy legs. In summer, the upper body has an overall rusty brown color, in winter, the fur can be grayish. Throat patch, rump patch, inside ears and inside legs are an off white, lower parts creamy white to tan. The ears are large, up to 6 inches in length, and move independently. The males have antlers that are equally branched, each separate beam forking into 2 tines. Antlers can grow with a spread of about 4 feet.

Photos - From the town of Lardeau along Highway 31, the highway ceases to be a highway and becomes a narrow dirt logging road that can't be traversed in high speeds above 50 Km per hour. This is a section of the road that crosses Lardeau River at Gerrard BC between Lardeau and Trout Lake. The Kiosk in center frame located on the west side of the bridge reads: "Dedicated to the spirit of the descendants of Gerrard and to the memory of Esther Brandon and her three sons Malcolm, James and William who were the last residents of this town site." Gerrard is at the south end of Trout Lake.

The town of Gerrard is now existed from about 1900 into the Second World War and the town's right-of-way is now the narrow dirt highway 31. This town as well as Lardeau and Trout Lake depended upon the CPR which began construction in July of 1899 and boasted great possibilities for the area with the hopes of thriving communities and townsites. The area was surrounded by good mineral claims and there was unlimited water power for smelting purposes. Gerrard grew with the local mines and died with the mines failures in the Lake-Ferguson District, but Gerrard wasn't just a mining town, it was a thrice-a-week steam boat stop on Trout Lake.

Gerrard's little railway became world famous during the closing years with a section of the rail tended by A&K which boasted the smallest rolling stock of any line in BC. The engine was a converted truck with a makeshift cattle guard on the front, and smaller than average freight cars. In fact rail buffs from all over the continent would flock to the area to ride the rail and picture the train.

Photos - Once you get past the fear of a narrow, winding logging road, the drive through this area is breathtaking. In some places the embankment on one side reaches up a hundred feet in an almost vertical angle, while on the other side drops down to Trout Lake continuing in the same helter skelter angle hundreds of feet to the base. There are few pull outs and if one meets an on coming truck, the road in reverse is a long journey. This section of the road does not have steeply inclined shoulders. I was able to stop for a breather ant listen to the silence of nature without so much as an interruption of a mechanical device. In fact, on this journey I only encountered one pick up truck traveling in the opposite direction, and in an area that was wide enough for easy passing.

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