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Castlegar
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Some 27km north of Trail on Hwy 22,
CASTLEGAR
is a strange diffuse place with no obvious centre, probably because roads and rivers - this is where the Kootenay meets the Columbia - make it more a transport hub than a community. In its time it was famous for its immigrant
Doukhobor
or "Spirit Wrestler" population, members of a Russian sect who fled religious persecution in 1899 from Russia and brought their pacifist-agrarian lifestyle to western Canada. By the 1920s BC had around ninety Doukhobor settlements, each with a co-operative, communal population of around sixty. They arrived in Castlegar in 1908, establishing at least 24 villages in the area, each with Russian names meaning things like "the beautiful", "the blessed" or "consolation". Accomplished farmers, they laboured under the motto "Toil and a Peaceful Life", creating highly successful orchards, farms, sawmills and packing plants. Although their way of life waned after the death of their leader Peter Verigin in 1924, killed by a bomb planted in his railway carriage, the Doukhobors' considerable industry and agricult-ural expertise transformed the Castlegar area; many locals still practise the old beliefs - Doukhobor numbers are around 5000 across the region - and Russian is still spoken. These days there's also a breakaway radical sect, the Freedomites, or Sons of Freedom, infamous for their eye-catching demonstrations - of which fires and nude parades are just two - against materialism and other morally dubious values.
Much of the community's heritage has been collected in the Doukhobor Village Museum (May-Sept daily 9am-5pm; $3.50; tel 365-6622), just off the main road on the right after you cross the big suspension bridge over the Kootenay River. A Doukhobor descendant is on hand to take you through the museum, which houses a winsome display of farm machinery, handmade tools and traditional Russian clothing that's intriguing as much for its alien context as for its content. For a further taste of Doukhobor culture, visit the evocative Zuckerburg Island Heritage Park off 7th Avenue, named after a local teacher of Doukhobors who built a log Russian Orthodox Chapel House here: it was bought and restored by the town in 1981, and is reached by a ninety-metre pedestrian suspension bridge.
Castlegar's
infocentre
(Sept-June Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; July & Aug daily 9am-5pm; tel 365-6313,
www.castlegar.com
) is at 1995 6th Ave off the main road as you leave town for Grand Forks. There are some half-dozen motels in and around town: the best
motel
- small, and with a nice view - is the
Cozy Pines
on Hwy 3 on the western edge of town at 2100 Crestview Crescent (tel 365-5613; $40-60). Closer in, the modern and attractive
Best Western Fireside Motor Inn
, 1810 8th Ave at the junction of hwys 3 and 22 (tel 365-2128 or 1-800/499-6399; $60-80), is a touch more expensive. Three kilometres out of town to the west on Hwy 3 is the
Castlegar RV Park and Campground
, 1725 Mannix Rd (tel 365-2337; $15-20; April-Oct), with rural setting, separate tenting area, free hot showers, laundry and restaurant. There are also a regional and a provincial park
campsites
in the vicinity:
Pass Creek Regional Park
, which has a nice, sandy beach (tel 365-3386; $12; May-Sept), 2km west off Hwy 3A at the Kootenay River Bridge; and the
Syringa Provincial Park
(reservations possible,
$15; mid-May to mid-Sept), 19km north of Hwy 3 at Castlegar on the east side of Lower Arrow Lake. For cheap
eating
,
CafA© Friends
back in town at 1102 3rd St has good home-cooked basics. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Canada,
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