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_ By DAVE JENNESON

Geographically it’s
called the Kootemays.
According to local tour-
ist hype it’s
beautiful border coun-
try?’, but whatever
mame you cheese, it
seems to contaim some
of the most fascinating-
ly withered pockets of

human endeavor any- .

where in British Colum-
bia. .
It seems  strange....we

picture our. province as
bursting with energy, power,
fat salmon and big trees, yet.
when you roll down the long
dry hill into Grand Forks you
see a ‘place where urban
sprawl somehow fizzled and
died about twenty-five years
ago.

It lays before you like some
brittle half-open bloom.Tar-
paper bungalows scat- .
tered across the dry valley
floor, (in accordance with an
odd city bylaw which levies
lower taxes on unfinished
houses), there’s the occas-
ional truck repair shop

shimmering in the heat. The
only shade in town is to be
found along two city blocks, ©
where the leaves hide great
stone Edwardian manses.
the City Hall and a museum.
It’s like a green oasis
sheltering the past, and
indeed, the past seems to

have held more promise than’

the present was able to
deliver....

After that ’s an imered-
ible, three storey commercial
desolation of a place which
offers little or no future to its .
young people and only a
slow, predictable retirement
to its citizens. Tuesday
afternoon, downtown Grand
Forks, nothing moves. The

streets are like a bright, |

empty colour slide. The time
is 2 p.m.. The fire chief:
creeps by in his 'S9 Ford
Fairlane station wagon,
faded to an uneven pastel
red, GFFD hand lettered on
the door. One shakes one’s
head in amazment...are |
these people aware of this
immobility?

If you step out of the

pounding summer sun for a
‘beer,. you'll glimpse other

- facets of the Grand Forks
lifestyle....a few grey-
headed men in groups of two
or three playing cards,
reading the paper, sipping,
in a room that hasn't
changed noticeably in fifty
years.

This would be fine, except -

that there are five such
hotels in the place and their

builders obviously hoped to

erect. more. Imagine their

’

to suddenly walk into 1977 an °
and discover the beverage
room hadn’ t even received a

*Sthe —

dismay if the founders were |

paint job. Sometimes you'll ©

see a few young people,
drinking, playing pool, kill-

ing the afternoon. After a
few minutes: you sense that
they actually need this sort of
do-nothing vacuum to exist
in...either that or they just.
“don’t. know when to ‘get out.

One of the most telling
pieces of evidence is a large
sepia portrait | of the Yale
Hotel in 1902. This. hangs —
inside “the present. Yale
Hotel. The street is bustling
with wagons and dogs,

crowded with. men. wearing
hats. They look proud and
industrious. By their ex- ‘
pressions, they seem to be
deeply | involved in the -
‘serious business of putting a -
town: on the map.

_ PACKED UP -

It’s curious. - Whatever
happened. apparently did so
in the twenties...1 was told
the mining industry fell —
through. But it must have
been more than that, for a
whole generation seems to
have ‘packed up and moved |

No more . proud civic
‘buildings no more big hotels,
no more money. The town .
entered a state of suspended |
animation.

Outside Grand Forks the
same slow crumpling of ;
human industry -has taken
place. Drive up’ the old.
Cascades Highway which .
cuts off atChristina Lake and
winds its gravelly way four
miles to Rossland. At mile
seven, at the bottom of a
shallow valley which. is
actually the U.S. border, is a
‘small ruin. It was allegedly
‘built by a man around 1910;
his wife either died or left
him and now all that remains
is a shapeless pile of silvery
prey logs and a tall stone
chimney. At mile ten is a
‘rambling collection of col-
lapsed buildings on a gentle
yellow hill. It was once called
The Miller Farm, but the
Millers. pulled out twenty
years ago and now it’s ruled
by a gang of gophers and at

least twenty thousand gtass-

hoppers. An ancient Austin
rusts in the shade of. a tiny
creek.

But it scems impesstble
such land could fall to seed
forever
especially in this day and age
when people will invest in
chunks of Arizona. desert,

sight unseen. And indeed, it

hasn't ...2 few lucky and
enterprising souls have
jumped at property deals that
sound like a fairytale: like 80
acres for $5,000.00. And they
are turning this backwater
into what amounts to a small
island of self-sufficiency.

“CHILLBILLY NOUVEAU”

. That's the one thing these

folk have in common. They
‘want to be free of a system
‘they feel may shatter into
economic insanity or be
erased by some _ future
contlict, and they more or
‘less have achieved this. The
lifestyle is a sort of “hillbilly
noveau’’,..a.- ‘combination of |

in the hinterlands, ~

Aa Lasnaus* vate cenansnwrar aS uaiems a Natguua erat Se

ae

milking the goat

best of both worlds.

The logging company re

ated two. years .ago

-out-producing the. Sigeer-
Grand Forks companies two. .

to one. A communal mech--

‘stew or bear’

anic’s shop on the mountain

_isthere for anyone to. tune up’
ea “snowmobile or replace a
‘truck. .
average cost per family. ‘per.
to live in these.

engine... And” the
month,

-oppulent ‘log. homes “year
‘round i i about $40. 00...

‘Still, ‘one “might get athe
idea that. this.a parallel. to

those strange folk: who
scratch out.a living in the
Appalachians and subsist on

food stamps and hog jowls. Sit.

down to'a dinner of ‘grouse —

steak, a
complete choice of vege-

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while
_ listening to Waylon Jennings-
_-on the tapedeck, of teHing ©
the kids to hurry up and feed -..
“the ducks because a message —
has just come: over the CB _
‘that. there’s .a swimming |

party. at 6.0 ’clock. ‘They’ve «

managed to put together the “under. thirty. well educated

addictive’ drug, -

Forks with a kind of amused
else. it’s a supply: depot that. -
doesn’t really © ‘have: to: be:

-tain with bright lights: ea

tmade you feel like you’d

marooned and belated hip-

of
semi-detached homes on your own lot.

allowance. -_

down pereest
:

—_ os wit government grant

Includes all legal and. survey costs

ALM DEVELOPMENT LID.

. 926-0101

tables ° pulled from ‘the

‘ground. less than an hour
ago, and homemade bread so’

delicious ‘that. it’s like some
‘and -you

- begin .to. .wonder whatever
_possesed. you to stay in the.
city: These young people are.

and very aware of what |

» they're doing. oo,

STURDY BREED
“They view. sleepy: Grand

glance. More.:than anything ~
there. It: certainly “isn’t.
wooing them. off the moun- °

wild music... We tried it one.
night....the Russian food

swallowed several small.
boulders, and the nightclub:

sneering at a gtoup of
‘Pies. —

- No, the real fun was on the

our”: 3" “pedroom,

generous appliance -

336,000

McEvoy Agencies Ltd.
call collect’ 802-5966

mountain. Hunting for jack-
rabbits. .at - dusk, playing
cards. and. drinking wine by
‘lantern light, © feeling
continuously sheltered : from
any: ‘sort of pressure. ° oe

It’s a reassuring thing to
know ...while we build our
lives into frenzy here in. the

_ afterwards was desertéd,; \}
except for a few rednecks’

so.

4

TODAY IS GREAT...and we plan on surviving tomorrow, too [Dave Jenneson photo].

city, chasing goals. which.
become. - meaningless _ the.
moment we attain them...
that there is a sturdy breed of
yeoman taking root again in
the country. They are young,
bright, determined, and well.
able to carry on human life in.
case the unthinkable ‘should .
happen...

‘say .

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