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    The Way It Used To Be: Stories from a Northern Town
    The Way It Used To Be: Stories from a Northern Town
    The Way It Used To Be: Stories from a Northern Town
    Ebook138 pages1 hour

    The Way It Used To Be: Stories from a Northern Town

    By Diane Solie Smith

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    About this ebook

    You might cry, you will laugh and you just might be left with a sense of wonderment and awe. The saying, "It takes a village" embodies the spirit of the people and stories contained in this publication.

    Learn what life was like in a wilderness gold rush town, isolated in the far north during a time before the town had TV or running water, when dog teams were common and horses and cows roamed the streets.

    Malamute car thief

    Sasquatch hitch hiker

    Cursed gold mine

    Porky assassin

    Wanted- a house husband

    Indian River monster

    Ghost of Christmas past

    The outhouse is behind the shop

    The stories contained in this book tell of everyday people living extraordinary lives during a time and place where your wits and your courage were key ingredients for survival. First appearing in the Atlin News Miner newspaper during the 1970s, these stories entertain, inform, and colorfully depict a time and place like no other.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFathomPublishing
    Release dateOct 4, 2024
    ISBN9781954896697
    The Way It Used To Be: Stories from a Northern Town
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      Book preview

      The Way It Used To Be - Diane Solie Smith

      Editor’s Note

      The stories contained in this publication were written for the Atlin News Miner newspaper in Atlin, British Columbia, during the years 1972 to 1978 by Diane Solie Smith.

      The collection was prepared and organized by Diane’s son, Bradford Davis Smith, for reprint in The Way It Used To Be: Stories From a Northern Town.

      Diane created the original advertisements that appeared in the Atlin News Miner for the Kootenay Hotel and the Discovery Shop that are included in this book.

      The excerpts under the images at the start of each chapter are quotes from Diane’s personal letters written to friends and family from 1967 to 1976.

      The Smiths are a solid part of Atlin. Diane tells her story . . .

      Introduction

      We came to Atlin in July of 1967 looking for something different. Found it, too! We escaped the old office doldrums but often find those mere eight-hour days have stretched to 12 or 14 or more. But it will never be considered a grind.

      Shortly after moving here, Ed and I bought the old Kootenay Hotel. We had a rollicking summer in the hotel business followed soon after by a fire that leveled this old Koot. The next summer, with time in excess, I opened the Discovery Shop. It was called The Bottle Shoppe then because that is about all it contained—old bottles. It was in the judge’s chamber of the Old Government Building which we called home.

      Years before, I had majored in commercial art at university. Then to avoid becoming another starving artist, I switched to engineering and finally put in 16 years as a draftsman [for the US Navy and the Coast Guard]. I learned a lot about plans and forgot a lot about art. But the yen to putter around with crafts never completely disappeared and the Discovery Shop was a reason to try some ideas.

      That first fling at shop business made one thing clear. Atlin visitors needed a place to browse and ask questions. Most people weren’t interested in old bottles, but they were interested in Atlin.

      By the next year, we had put together a rather rustic museum in the old court room adjacent to the shop. The museum brought a lot of visitors and I soon found myself spending as much time guiding tours through the relics as tending the shop which by this time contained a number of hand-made items.

      Eventually, our hope of turning over the museum to the town was realized when a Historical Society was formed under the deft guidance of Shirley Connolly. It was with an audible sigh of relief we relinquished the now greatly-expanded collection of relics to the Society.

      The Discovery Shop quickly grew in volume of contents if not in physical size as more new artists and craftsmen sought outlets for their work. Customers were pleasantly surprised and obviously pleased to find gifts and souvenirs made right here in Atlin.

      In 1974, the shop was relocated to the old Walter Sweet cabin at Third and Discovery Streets and briefly we enjoyed the luxury of additional space. This didn’t last long. The workshop across the road produced more items and more craftsmen needed selling points.

      The Discovery Workshop is specializing in jewelry of jade and gold nuggets, leather ware featuring moose hide shirts and jackets and small gift items. New work includes mitts and hats made of local furs and fur parkas. Probably there will be a Discovery Shop catalogue in print later this year and when that happens, the shop will really be a full-time, year-around job.

      Atlin, British Columbia

      In 1898, two Alaskan prospectors found gold on Pine Creek near Atlin Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Situated in the far northwest corner of the province, Atlin is roughly a hundred miles from Skagway, Alaska and thirty miles south of the Yukon border. The opening of the White Pass & Yukon Railway made Atlin only a two-day journey from Juneau, Alaska. Within months, the area was flooded with an estimated ten thousand prospectors, miners, and merchants.

      At first, the town that sprung up on the shore of the vast lake consisted of a meager scattering of wall tents and false fronts. In only a matter of months with the addition of multiple hotels, eating establishments, food and sundry stores, and of course, bars, the town soon shed its image of gold-camp vulgarity and replaced it with an aura of sophistication and commitment to community.

      Several town fires tested the resolve of the business owners and residents, but each time they rebuilt bigger and better. Gold continued to be plentiful and tourism was added to the prosperous economy by the White Pass & Yukon Railway Company. During the early 1900s, the town settled into a comfortable routine.

      During the great depression and after the signing of the Gold Reserve Act in the United States which effectively banned personal ownership of gold, Atlin’s economy slowed greatly. When World War II came along, the town withered. The men went off to war, tourism completely ceased, and the mining stopped. Families moved away and businesses were shuttered for good.

      Although mining continued on a small scale throughout the decades and tourists trickled back in after the road was completed in 1956, there were few facilities to accommodate them.

      Atlin walked a thin line for its very survival throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s. For years, the town teetered between relevance and ghost town status. But at its very core, there were families that refused to let Atlin become a footnote in a gold rush history book. These were the families who built the town and over the years had insisted on its continued existence. These families were Atlin’s backbone, its guts, its heart, and its essence. And they were patiently waiting for the next boom.

      They didn’t have long to wait. By the late 1960s, Atlin was becoming attractive to a variety of people. Americans came to start over and to escape the turmoil of their own country and the war in South East Asia. Canadians came looking for a safe and inclusive place to raise a family. Adventurers came to try living off the land. Artist and craftsman, inspired by the beauty and bounty, came to stay. For all these reasons, Atlin was experiencing a rebirth, a new gold rush so to speak.

      By the mid-1970s, Atlin’s population had doubled reaching approximately 250 people. Much like in its early years, businesses were opening up all over town. Another grocery store was added and they installed a gas pump giving the town a choice of two stations. The long-dormant hardware store was given new life by new owners who added more clothing and kitchen wares as well as hardware.

      Gold prices were rising and prospecting and mining picked up. People were driving the Alaska Highway and more and more made their way down the road to Atlin.

      A new hotel and small motel were being built, gift shops, and art galleries popped up, A fine community hall was built and new services were added every year. Atlin had its first newspaper in thirty years. This is the time when the stories presented here were written.

      We are always amused when someone writes and asks us where on earth Atlin is. We are hidden away in the wilderness, the most northern town in British Columbia, Canada. We are just thirty miles from the Yukon border in the western part of the province. Atlin always has the misfortune of being hidden under the inserts for Vancouver and Victoria

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