Seriously Moving Images

This interesting amateur film footage, shot by Francis Barrow, shows a trip to the Kootenay Lake and Lardeau area in the West Kootenay region, around 1939.  The video copy shown here has been edited to highlight three sequences.

The first section (0:10 – 1:16) comprises scenes from a train journey on the CPR’s Kettle Valley Express, from McCulloch (southeast of Kelowna) to Nelson.  There are good shots of winter scenery, and of some very large steam locomotives.

The second section (1:16 – 2:28) shows glimpses of the voyage up Kootenay Lake by sternwheeler, with stops at Kaslo (1:28), a beach landing (1:33), Argenta (1:44), and Lardeau (2:21).  Waiting at the Lardeau stop is a small train pulled by Motor Car M600 (a Ford Model B Truck on flanged railway wheels), which carried passengers and freight on the CPR branch line between Lardeau and Gerrard.  Here’s a clearer image:

The third section (2:28 – 3:32) shows the CPR sternwheeler Moyie docked at Lardeau, and then departing for the return voyage south.

Francis J. Barrow (1876-1944) and his wife Amy (Bradford) Barrow (1880-1962) emigrated to Canada at the turn of the century and looked for land in the Kootenays.  They lived in the Gulf Islands before settling in Sidney in 1906.  Mr. and Mrs. Barrow spent many summers cruising the West Coast in their boat Toketie.  During these trips they recorded and collected First Nations culture and artifacts, some of which they later donated to Canadian and British museums.  The BC Archives holds the diaries, logs, and movies of their coastal voyages.  To see archival descriptions of the Barrow films, click here.  The Barrow papers (on microfilm) are described here.