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Over the course of 35 years, prominent artist and organic farmer Jean Spicer (1909-1994) took thousands of photographs of life in and around Nakusp, the Arrow Lakes, the West Kootenay, and beyond. Over the years, her family has donated nearly 1,700 of her wonderful colour slides to the ALHS, and we are happy to present a selection of over 160 of them in this programme!

THE JEAN SPICER COLLECTION was originally presented as our second-ever slideshow all the way back in 2014, and now we’re bringing it to you live on YouTube for the first time! Along with our two original Our Coloured Past shows, many of the gorgeous images seen in this show formed the backbone for our 2019 Our Coloured Past book.

Jean Spicer’s vivid photography captures 35 years of valleys in transition – the last days of the SS Minto, the flooding of the Arrow Lakes, the slow decay of mining ruins in the Valley of the Ghosts, the gorgeous alpine of the Selkirk Mountains and the Slocan, parades, family moments, and – of course – the legendary Spicer Farm she operated alongside her husband Chris as part of their active lifestyle. 

Join us LIVE Friday, Feb. 18, 2022 at 7 p.m. Pacific time (or watch anytime you want thereafter!) on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/GUnDolQh_Q4

Say goodbye to 2021 with our final livestream of the year! The first half of a two-part presentation, FALSE FRONTS AND BYGONE BYWAYS takes you on a freeform journey through the streets, roads, and buildings of the Arrow Lakes and upper Lardeau over the past 130 years. It’s a virtual road trip!  

In Vol. 1, we’ll start you off in Summit Lake and bring you through Brouse and Glenbank all the way to Broadway Street in downtown Nakusp before taking you up to the head of the lake at Galena Bay and Arrowhead. Along the way, you’ll see the evolution and development of some of Nakusp’s most notable buildings and businesses, learn how some of our valley’s roads and streets got their names, and of course enjoy over 125 classic images of our region.

Join us LIVE Friday, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. Pacific time (or watch anytime you want thereafter!) right here on our YouTube channel.

(Don’t forget to come back on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022 for Vol. 2, where we start off in Trout Lake and come back down along the south side of Broadway and the Nakusp waterfront before finishing our journey with the Burton, Fauquier, and Edgewood areas!)

Anyone looking to purchase books from us will find volunteers with our books for sale at a table in the Old Fire Hall in Nakusp on the next two Saturdays, Dec. 4 and 11. Market hours are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

It’s time once again for ALHS Movie Night! Join us as we explore the vaults of Nakusp’s Uyeda family and watch highlights from their amazing Super-16 film collection. Filmed between 1957 and 1978, these movies capture 20 years of Nakusp in a state of transition during its post-war boom and the flooding of the Arrow Lakes.

Other scenic Kootenay towns and locations also make appearances. You’ll see vintage businesses and downtown scenes, historic landmarks, community events, dam construction, familiar faces in their younger days (perhaps even yourself!), the only surviving footage of our village’s famous 1958 centennial “bank robbery,” and the ONLY known footage of Nakusp’s original outdoor arena.

We are honoured and grateful to bring you these films for the first time. We’ve selected the choicest 80 minutes of these films, none of which have ever been seen by the public until now. This is truly priceless footage of moments in time that may otherwise have been lost forever.

Watche it here: https://youtu.be/SV_YVJHsQBg

(Originally recorded in front of a small, socially-distance audience at the ALHS Archives office on Nov. 19, 2021.)