Whale of a Tale  The photo shows Alfie Albo cruising up the Arrow Lake from Syringa Creek in June, 1952 in the Aldon. The boat was named for Alfie and Don Ventura who helped Alfie get the boat. Alfie bought it for $400.00 and had the cabin built on it (it started it's life on the Thames in England as an open boat). He bought it at Crescent Beach on Kootenay Lake around 1940, give or take a year, from a man named Ivor Fosheim who said he had been with Roald Amundsen on an expedition, so I had to look into that. This is what I know for sure so far: Ivar Fosheim was born in 1864 in Ron, Norway, and lived in Valdres, Norway. He came to Canada in 1919, landing at Ellis Island, New York, on 24 June aboard the ship Bergensfjord and went to Calgary, Alberta. He settled at Crescent Beach on Kootenay Lake, BC and died in the Trail (BC) Hospital on 18 April, 1944.
      From 1898 to 1902 he, along with Otto Sverdrup, charted a huge area of the Arctic during the Sverdrup Expedition (also known as the Second Fram Expedition). During this expedition they charted more new land (160,000 square kms) than any other polar expedition in history. They originally planned to sail the Fram up the west coast of Greenland as far as possible and then use dog sled to go up along the north coast and then down along the east coast. But they got iced in early and stayed iced in for 4 years, so they turned their attention to Ellesmere Island instead. Fosheim Peninsula on Ellesmere Island is named after Ivar.
      I was in touch with the Tromsøe Museum in Norway, and they said they have no record of him ever having been on an expedition with Raould Amundsen, but the woman who edited Ivar's diary was away for a couple months and the fellow said he would check with her when she returned. Ivar's obituary did say he was on two polar expeditions, so I'm still looking into that. Whale of a Tale Alfie Albo and Chris Trkla in front of the Columbia Garage (the Shell station) in Rossland in 1936. The building behind them has been added on to and is now apartments (the last building before the rock bluff). The car is a 1931 or 32 Chev. Chris was on his way to Bralorne and was flat broke, so Alfie lent him $15.00 and a tank of gas. Chris and his partner were from Montenegro. They went to Bralorne and turned that $15.00 into over $1 million and bought hotels, one of which was the New Grand Hotel in Nelson, which they renamed the Lord Nelson.