The intriguing story of British Columbia’s most productive silver mining region and the vibrant communities that built up around it in the late 1800s.

Mining Camp Tales of the Silvery Slocan tells the often-overlooked story of British Columbia’s silver rush and its accompanying boom towns. In the 1890s, mining camps like Sandon, Three Forks, Whitewater and their neighbours, New Denver, Silverton, Slocan City, Kaslo and Nakusp, thrived. Prospectors and miners from Idaho, Montana, and other mining centres arrived in droves to reap the silver harvest. Capitalists flooded in from Spokane, Seattle, Vancouver, and from investment centres across North America and the world.

At its height, the silver rush ushered in a frenzy of activity, where “cities” sprang up out of nowhere, cultures clashed, greed and racism prevailed, law and order was a matter of perspective, and yet, somehow, people still united in song, dance, and a spirit of community. Although the boom era was short-lived—as plummeting silver prices, labour disputes, natural disasters, and the discovery of Klondike gold severely dampened the spirits of the Silvery Slocan—the rush left a legacy that endures to this day. This book opens up a wealth of historical facts, anecdotes, and archival material on a chapter of mining history that has been largely forgotten until now.

Peter Smith is a lifelong history buff, award-winning author, and retired civil servant. He holds a post-graduate degree in Folklife Studies from the University of Leeds (UK), and has published articles in British Columbia Magazine and the Silvery Slocan Historical Society newsletter. In 2020, he won the BC Historical Federation’s Community History Award for his extensively researched first book on BC’s silver rush.

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“By far the most detailed and accurate account of the Silvery Slocan mining rush ever written. Highly entertaining too.”
—Greg Nesteroff, historian, journalist, and co-author of Lost Kootenays

“In a hidden British Columbia valley there was a decade when silver was king. Through lively anecdotes and exhaustive research, Peter Smith has written a story worth telling of The Slocan in the West Kootenay.”
—Lynne Bowen, award-winning historian, journalist, and author of Whoever Gives Us Bread: The Story of Italians in British Columbia

“Peter Smith is a wonderful storyteller, who has pulled together many historic threads to produce a coherent, nicely illustrated, and very interesting history of the ‘Silvery Slocan’ in an entertaining and descriptive way. Combining Slocan events with a wider economic view, this book will delight history buffs!”
—​​Henning von Krogh, author of five books on the history of the early Slocan

“Rescued from obscurity, Smith’s tales from the Slocan boom hit the right notes for anyone interested in BC’s history. But its appeal is broader—the thrill of staking claims, the herculean labour, the greed, and the danger combine to make this a very human drama.”
—Aaron Williams, bestselling author of Chasing Smoke and The Last Logging Show

“A colourful, compelling narrative, Mining Camp Tales of the Silvery Slocan pulls readers deep into the glory days of British Columbia’s silver mining boom and the sheer grit and gumption it took to be part of it. Thoroughly researched and a must-read for anyone who loves the history of this province.”
—Katherine Palmer Gordon, author of The Slocan: Portrait of a Valley and the award-winning This Place is Who We Are