Retallack, British Columbia
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Retallack | |
|---|---|
  Retallack Location of Retallack in British Columbia | |
| Coordinates: 50°03′00″N 117°08′00″W / 50.05000°N 117.13333°W | |
| Country |  Canada |
| Province |  British Columbia |
| Region | West Kootenay |
| Regional district | Central Kootenay |
| Area codes | 250, 778, 236, & 672 |
| Highway |  Highway 31A |
Retallack is on the north side of the Kaslo River, west of the junction with Whitewater Creek,[1] in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia.[2] The settlement, on Highway 31A, is about 37 kilometres (23 mi) northwest of Kaslo and 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of New Denver.
In the early 1890s, the place was called Bell's Camp, The Bells, Bellsville, or some variation of the latter. James (Jim) Bell, and his sons John Warren Bell, and James Allan Ward Bell, operated a sawmill and were prospectors and miners. When the Kaslo and Slocan Railway opened in 1895, the siding was called Whitewater Creek or The Bells. The creek was named after the mine.[3]
In 1891, prospectors Eli Carpenter and J.L. (Jack) Seaton discovered a silver-lead ore deposit near the source of Slocan Creek, which triggered the mining boom of the following year.[4] Seaton recovered almost a million dollars in ore.[5]
The 1895 approval for Jim Bell to open a post office under the name Bellona was rescinded, when the Kaslo postmaster informed the postal inspector, "Mr. Bell is an honest man, but he is drunk a good part of his time … I also understand that he can hardly write his own name." Two years later, J. Warren Bell was successful in opening the post office as Whitewater. In 1903, Jim burned to death in a cabin fire, and his sons left the area a couple of years later.[3]