Greg Nesteroff and Eric Brighton started the Lost Kootenays Facebook Group with the intent of preserving, promoting and sharing the history of the Kootenays and the people who lived here. Today the Lost Kootenays community is 48,000 strong and one of the most dynamic sites in British Columbia.

GHOSTS HAUNT LAKEWOOD LANDS AND BLAYLOCK’S MANSION. WHO ARE THEY? WHY ARE THEY THERE? Straight out of a fairy tale or thriller movie, Blaylock's Mansion leaps into stunning view as one traverses a gentle curve in the road. Surrounded by spellbinding gardens and majestic trees, the 16,000-square-foot Tudor-Revival style architecture deep in the harsh, spectacular mountains of southeastern British Columbia captures the eye and the imagination. Selwyn G. Blaylock learned all about harsh and spectacular things. In 1899 the young metallurgist graduated from Quebec's McGill University and ventured to Trail, B.C. During the next three decades his meteoric rise to President of Consolidated Mining and Smelting (later known as Cominco) had tremendous impact around the world. Yet Blaylock was to pay a price in several ways. His life carried the great weight of expectation and demand, blended with responsibility and accountability. Some might suggest guilt. The controversial death of union organizer Ginger Goodwin remains linked to Blaylock, as does his role in ‘the bomb’ dropped on Japan. Many believed Selwyn to be a haunted man. Blaylock was not the only unique, larger-than-real-life character to live in the mansion or on the large property known as Lakewood. A number of fascinating characters also resided there before and after him. Some of them never left. From First Nation hunters, Hudson Bay Company workers, two mayors, freemasons, and a Civil War hero to a smooth-talking, high-rolling con man from California, veteran Canadian writer Charlie Hodge brings to life a variety of real and fictional characters and their common denominator in Lost Souls of Lakewood - The History and Mystery of Blaylock’s Mansion It features several spellbinding tales within the main story, each one worthy of its own novel. Lost Souls of Lakewood is a must read for anyone with an interest in history, mystery or ghosts.

A smart and enchanting postwar mystery that will appeal to fans of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. It is 1946, and war-weary young ex-intelligence officer Lane Winslow leaves London to look for a fresh start. When she finds herself happily settled into a sleepy hamlet in the interior of British Columbia surrounded by a suitably eclectic cast of small-town characters she feels like she may finally be able to put her past to rest. But then a body is discovered, the victim of murder, and although she works alongside the town’s inspectors Darling and Ames to discover who might have possibly have motivation to kill, she unknowingly casts doubt on herself. As the investigation reveals facts that she has desperately tried to keep a secret, it threatens to pull her into a vortex of even greater losses than the ones she has already endured. A clever postwar mystery that will appeal to fans the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear or the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd.

A warm-hearted memoir of a childhood spent living in various mining towns in the Kootenays throughout the 1930s and '40s. When young Shirley Doris Hall and her family moved to BC's West Kootenay region in 1927, the area was a hub of mining activity. Shirley's father, a cook, had no problem finding work at the mining camps, and the family dutifully followed him from town to town as his services were sought after. For Shirley and her brother, Ray--described as both her confidant and her nemesis--mining camps were the backdrop of their youth. The instant close-knit communities that formed around them; the freedom of barely tamed wilderness; and the struggles of the Depression years and the war that followed created an unlikely environment for a happy childhood. Yet Shirley's memories reveal that it was indeed a magical time and place in which to grow up. Children of the Kootenayspaints a lively portrait of this forgotten period in BC history--of mining towns that are now ghost towns--told from the unique perspective of a young girl.

Many of BC's old mining towns are now abandoned ruins, disappearing into the wilderness. These once-thriving towns and the pioneers who built them are remembered in 10 fascinating stories of hard work and heroism. A mine rescue worker sadly recounts a tale of death underground at Coal Creek. Three eccentric old bachelors become the final residents of Phoenix. Legends of Spanish treasure near a Vancouver Island gold-rush town persist to this day. Experience BC's colourful past in these entertaining stories from the province's vanished communities.

The Kootenays a region of rivers, lakes and mountains in southeastern British Columbia is home to the kokanee. This landlocked sibling of the sockeye salmon is an extravagant gift from the Pacific Ocean, an elusive flash of molten silver, a lustful reproductive torrent of fire-engine red, a marvel of interior adaptation, an icon of regional culture, and a pawn of industry. In Kokanee: The Redfish and the Kootenay Bioregion, writer and ecologist Don Gayton tells the kokanee's story, from the cataclysmic Ice Age events that gave birth to the species through its heyday as a sporting fish, to current threats to its existence. The story of the kokanee is the story of the delicate balance between land and water, and between people and nature. Kokanee: The Redfish and the Kootenay Bioregion is Number 9 in the Transmontanus series of books edited by Terry Glavin.

A fully illustrated social history profiling forty historic hotels spread over five regions of the southern interior of British Columbia, covering the time period of the 1890s to 1950s. Room at the Inn reveals the long-forgotten histories of British Columbia’s early hospitality industry, through the riveting stories of the men and women who built, ran, and frequented hotels, hostelries, resorts, and roadhouses in the southern Interior. From the Similkameen town of Keremeos to Spences Bridge at the confluence of the Thompson and Nicola Rivers, east to the Alberta border along the Trans-Canada Highway, and south to the Canada–US border, the history of these hotels mirrors the history of BC’s mining towns and boom-bust economy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as waves of prospectors, settlers, and eventually tourists shaped the culture of the province that we know today. Of the forty historic hotels profiled in this book, all contributed to their communities in various ways. They provided more than just a roof over the heads of weary travellers; they were often the sites of live entertainment, places where community members could meet and socialize. Some even doubled as makeshift hospitals during wildfires and floods. Through colourful anecdotes, meticulous research, and fascinating archival photography, Room at the Inn transports readers to a bygone era and pays tribute to the pioneers, entrepreneurs, and hard-work men and women who built and operated these historic accommodations.

Leaning headstones and cow parsnip covered ruins proclaim that people once lived in over fifty ghostly communities of West Kootenay. Other towns like Arrowhead, Beaton, Needles and Waneta were drowned or became power dams. Comaplix died one fiery night. Elsie Turnbull helps you revisit them all.

The Secret Lives of Saints paints a troubling portrait of an extreme religious sect. These zealous believers impose severe and often violent restrictions on women, deprive children of education and opt instead to school them in the tenets of their faith, defy the law and move freely and secretly over international borders. They punish dissent with violence and even death. No, this sect is not the Taliban, but North America's fundamentalist Mormons. Daphne Bramham explores the history and ideas of this surprisingly resilient and insular society, asking the questions that surround its continued existence and telling the stories of the men and women whose lives are so entwined with it—both the leaders and the victims.

The story behind the Sinixt First Nation also known as the "Arrow Lakes Indians" of the West Kootenay. Includes historical photographs, illustrations, and maps throughout.