Village of Slocan History
A Bustling, Boisterous Boomtown
The Village of Slocan is a small, peaceful community at the south end of Slocan Lake where the Slocan River begins. It wasn’t always so peaceful. During the 1890’s, it was a bustling, boisterous, boom-town filled with hotels, saloons, pack teams, and rail cars filled with ore and miners in pursuit of the ever elusive “mother-lode”.
The name “Slocan” (/sloʊˈkæn/ sloh-KAN) is from Ktunaxa sⱡuqan, IPA: [sɬuqan]),[4] or the related (/slhuˈkin/ (Sinixt slogan). The meaning is “to pierce, strike on the head,” in the context of spearing salmon. It likely derived from the Okanagan-Colville term. At one time, this area had an abundance of salmon.
The town site was staked at the lower end of the Slocan Lake in 1892 following massive silver strikes nearby; the site was conveniently close to three principal ore-producing areas. By the 1900, there were 12 hotels in Slocan; by 1920 there were only 3 hotels left. Slocan became a city in June 1901 and incorporated as a Village in 1958.
It is said that the first men to arrive in Slocan were Billy Clements and his partner Tom Mulvey, who came up the river in a boat in the summer of 1892. They built a log hotel on the site where the Arlington Hotel was later built. Billy Clements died in 1954. Nels Nelson came next, prospecting up and down the Valley and visiting often at the camp of Clements and Mulvey. In 1893, Neil Gething and G. Henderson visited this camp on their way to New Denver, there to build a hotel. It was during this year that Springer Creek was named. Billy Springer found and staked the Dayton claim; the first of its kind up this creek, and since it lacked a name, he gave it his in order to give his claim a definite location.
More history on Slocan can be found here:
– Slocan Valley Historical Society
– Wikipedia
Slocan Facts
1890’s – Mining Rush
1892 – Land Grant to Frank Dick
1892 – Mike Grady, Miner
1895 – S.S. Hunter (first propeller-driven
vessel on Slocan Lake)
1895 – Slocan Railway Constructed
1892 – Lake View Hotel was built
1893 – Walter Clough came to Slocan
1893 – Springer Creek named by Billy Springer
1896 – The Arlington Hotel opens
1897 – C.P.R. Slipway
1897 – First Train came into Slocan
1898 – Slocan’s First Newspapers
1898 – First Bridge Across the Slocan River
1900 – The first Orange Lodge
1900 – First School House
1901 – Slocan becomes a City – Official Letters Patent
1901 – First Mayor – Archibald York
1903 – Slocan-Ontario Lumber Co.
1904 – Waterworks system put in
1906 – Crown Seizes City for Debts
1910 – Merry’s Mill at Springer
1919 – Sawmill at Goat Creek
1921 – First High School Started
1927 – 1928 – Tunnel and Road to Silverton
1928 – Slocan Lake froze over.
1942 – Japanese Internees Arrive to Slocan
1942-1945 – Japanese Internees reside at the Arlington
Hotel, including David Suzuki
1947 – 1949 – First Woman Mayor elected in BC –
Mrs. Emilie Popoff
1955 – SS Rosebery sailed last trip from Slocan to Rosebery
1956 – Iris G christened on Slocan Lake
1958 – Slocan Re-Incorporated as a Village
1964 – Pacific Logging Co built in present mill location
1971 – Triangle Pacific Sawmill built in present location
1985 – Valhalla Park dedicated
1988 – The last Slocan Lake Rail Car Ferry closed
1989 – New #6 Highway completed
1990 – Tipi Camp established on Sandy Beach
1998 – Slocan Rail line removed
2000 – Springer Creek RV Park opens
2005 – Rails to Trails Gazebo built
2006 – New Boat Ramp & Breakwater installed
2006 – Slocan Wellness Center Opened
2007 – Springer Creek Fire Threatens Slocan
2009 – Slocan Village Office Renovated