04 Sept. 1999

As you approach Rosebery on the main highway from New Denver, take the first exit and drive straight towards the lake. You will see the trail head and park there.

	After a long car trip you may need a 'biffy break'. About 200 meters along the trail there is the first of several outhouses.
	After passing by the perimeter of the huge log dump, you begin the trail along side the lake. One of the first views is back towards Rosebery and the log booms.
	There are two of these stone structures which block vehicles from passing but allow you to wiggle your bicycle through. Looking down to the lake, you realize you are climbing steadily. The trail rises to pass behind and above New Denver.
	Slides have taken away the rail bed in several places. This is one of the narrow spots where the trail crosses a steep bank down to Carpenter Creek. You might consider walking 'wobbly' children through here.
	There is little remaining that proves you are riding on an old rail bed. Most of the ties have been removed. Occasionally they are seen or the trail is 'washboard' as a result of the removal. This telephone pole with its crossarms is the one of a few sentinels of the communication which ran with the railroad. Along side the trail, telephone wire is still to be seen.
	12 kM from Rosebery finds you at the Cable Crossing. Using the cable car requires a fair measure of strength. Not 'super-human' but still a fair pull to get the car docked.
	Never having seen this setup before, I missed the hook on the steel where you anchor the car. A piece of rope laying on the ground was what I first used! Note the 'hook' location marked on the image.
	Let go the hook and SWOOSH! you roll out to the middle of the span. Watch out the rope doesn't burn your ear! Grab the rope and pull yourself across to the far docking station, secure the hook and you are over. Don't forget to release the car for the next person.
	Self propelled cable car.

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ALAMO SIDING

Alamo was a CPR siding and mining center including a concentrator, a hydro electric generating plant. The population had grown to about 200 by 1904 and included houses, bunkhouses , stores and a post office for the settlement and surrounding mines that were associated with the Alamo. In 1916 Clarence Cunningham bought the Alamo, Idaho and Queen Bess mines located on the mountain above Alamo Siding and consolidated them with other Slocan mines he owned. He also rebuilt the Concentrator and connected it to his mines with an aerial tramway. Cunningham played a large part in revitalizing local mining in his day and he became a well respected and influential figure. He could often be seen riding the trails on his big chesnut horse "Rex". He was ruined by the Great Depression and lost all of his mines and mills but continued to live quietly at Alamo with his faithful housekeeper Mrs. Dowden and his book keeper Mr. Corey. By 1955 a flood had destroyed the railway grade and everything was abandoned. The pile of debris seen here is from this concentrator.

		These pictures are from the Archives and are 100 years old. This the Alamo when it was working at the turn of the century.
		These picture are from the present. There is unbelievable destruction here. The buildings fell in under the weight of the snow.
		These mining building stood empty for many years. Men were employed to snowshoe into the sites and clear the snow from the rooves. When this practice was abandoned, this is the result.

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THREE FORKS TRAILHEAD

At the junction of Kane Creek, north, and Seaton Creek, east, and Carpenter Creek, south, Three Forks was established in 1892 to serve the local mines as the terminus of the Nakusp and Slocan railway (N&S). By 1893 it was a wild and woolly boom town with a population of 2000 people. The first train from Nakusp arrived on October 28 1894. The dignitaries on board that day would have seen the shiny new first class station house, freight sheds, ore bins, sand houses, two round houses, a section house, and several log sidings with a variety of rolling stock. When it became apparent that the Kaslo and Slocan (K&S) narrow gauge railway would bypass Three Forks a 1000 feet above at Payne Bluffs and win the race to Sandon, the N&S was forced to continue its steep and circuitous route south to Sandon. A switchback was built up Kane Creek and Carpenter Creek which crossed seven times. This part of the line was one of the steepest railway grades in North America with a 4.5% average grade. In 1912 when the CPR took over the K&S a large new trestle was built that bypassed Three Forks and the mines were then serviced from New Denver and Kaslo. No trace of the townsite remains.

This picture taken in 1915.

In 1955 and the trestle was still standing although almost all the buildings had disappeared.

PERSONAL NOTE:

As a young man between University sessions, I worked at Three Forks in 1955 when the three creeks went into major flood status and washed out the rail line and several bridges. I worked as a labourer for the Bridge Crew stationed at New Denver. Torrential rain had caused the flooding, and was still occuring as this story unfolds.

Pete, the 'big boss' ran out of the New Denver office and hollered at me to get a case of dynamite. I gingerly picked it up and very carefully lowered it into the open back of Pete's pickup. "Get in!" he roared and we raced from New Denver to Three Forks. The road was gravel surfaced and mostly washboard. I took furtive, frightened glances over my shoulder out the rear window as that box of dynamite danced all over the back of Pete's truck.

Pete braked to a stop in a shower of gravel close to the bridge where a huge pile of trees and stumps had washed down the creek and were threatening the support structure by damming the raging creek. "Pack that dynamite down there by the pilings!", Pete yelled to me over the roar of the water and boulders flowing in the creek. Hanging on to that dynamite for dear life, I made my way down the steep, slippery bank to where he wanted it and gently deposited it on the ground. Heaving a sigh of relief, I turned to see Pete racing down the slope brandishing a shovel. He raced up to the wooden box of dynamite and with a swinging motion akin to a golfer, sliced off the top of the box!

Despite Pete's best efforts with the dynamite, the bridge supports were lost and the bridge collapsed.

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All the images in this section were provided by a CANON A50 digital camera.
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