Forest fire safety

"Get the habit. Prevent forest fires." 

Trailside sign from years gone by, found and re-mounted on a cedar.

Polar Pete

???

I guess we'll know next Saturday.

Opinions, attitude, etc. etc.

Liquor Store Ivy

Two seasons

Around here we like to say that there are only two seasons: winter, and road work. The latter season is coming to end with a flurry of activity.

Sit at your own risk

A ferocious windstorm brought down dozens of trees around town, including many giant cottonwoods and cedars along the lakefront. Several fell on trailers, sheds, campers and atop or near houses but no one was injured. Beneath this one is the remains of a park bench.

Nikkei Centre

Hundreds of Canadian citizens and landed immigrants of Japanese heritage were interned in this area during WWII. This living museum, garden and interpretive centre was part of the government's formal apology to those affected.

Community Bulletin Board

Just a stone's throw from the post office, in the geographic and social centre of the village, the community message board gets the word out in an old-fashioned way.

Donation Store

It's a thrift store without prices. If you see something you like, you take it home, with a cash donation expected/encouraged, but the amount totally up to you. Often people "borrow" items from the donation store for a few days -- puzzles, dishes, skates, board games, costume clothing -- making a nominal donation, so it also functions like a library for "stuff."

Traffic signal

We are not even a one-traffic-light town. All we have is this little flashing light gracing our main intersection, reminding people to slow down as they drive through on the highway, and those trying to cross the highway on main street to stop and check in case there's actually some traffic driving by.

Back lane

Not an active Imperial Oil Service Station. Just an antique sign salvaged and installed on a back lane by someone's garage. Silverton no longer has a service station. The place that sold gasoline until 15 years ago is now a Healing Arts and Wellness Centre. Times change.

Silverton Gallery

The gallery building itself was once a schoolhouse. It is now a multi-purpose community arts and culture space. Outdoors it houses the mining exhibit.

Villa Dome Quixote

Kootenay Shire

A unique driveway sign marking a private residence.

The big snow ... 2

Not much height left on this sign. And still it snows...

Welcome

Somehow the illustration on the sign and the actual setting seem a little incongruous, don't you think?

Avalanche arms at work

The roads are nasty here right now. Two of the three roads that connect our community to the outside world have been closed for over a day now. The trip over the third has been described by locals as "the worst driving I've had to do in years." At lower elevations the roads are just slushy like this. But as the roads wind up to higher elevations the amount of snowfall dramatically increases, the slush is half-frozen, and there have been copious small and larger avalanches onto the highway.

They clear the avalanches as soon as they can do so safely, but they don't re-open the road until the avalanche danger has de-escalated.

Kohan Sign

The Apple Tree

It's a local institution. They just joined the 20th century by getting a debit machine, after years of resistance. I'm sure the 21st century will never arrive here. They still let regulars run a tab. The owner swears it's nothing as classy as a café, it's just a sandwich shop, but someone made the "new" sign more than a decade ago and so now it calls itself a café.Our favourite menu items are the TCOP (tomato, cheese, onion and pesto) toasted sandwich and the grilled edam sandwich on honey-garlic bread. In summer you can eat at picnic benches in the garden. In the winter you hunker down at indoor tables near the wood stove.

House-front businesses

In our village residents with artistic skill or a service or business idea to offer don't need to fuss with zoning and acquiring commercial property. If they have a home near where other businesses are and where people tend to congregate, they just create a space within the home for their business. Tamara and Curtis run this gallery / workshop / store / café near the main intersection in town. Some days there's a hair stylist who works out of a back room too. Their main product is hand-painted garments inspired by Japanese style and motifs. Nuru means "paint" in Japanese. Curtis has roots in the Japanese community here.

There's an enclosed porch with a few café tables, and the coffee and snacks are divine. One summer this place was the official tourist information office. Nowadays it's just an unofficial place for tourists and locals alike to gather local knowledge.