Picture Perfect History

The view of Teck (the smelters) from
the top of "Black Mountain"

While it has a pretty interesting history, my hometown of Trail BC is not known for being the most aesthetically pleasing place to visit. The area became famous for mining way back in the 1890s when gold and copper were discovered on Red Mountain. In 1895, a smelter was built to treat the precious metals/ores. A few years later the smelter was sold and over the years, the smelters were expanded to treat different ores, such as lead and zinc. While the area prospered due to the high demand of refined ores and employment rates of the smelters, the pollution from the smelters destroyed nearly all vegetation in the area. No joke folks. When my parents were growing up in this town, there were few trees to be seen.  In fact, my dad and I climbed a small mountain today that he grew up calling, “Black Mountain” because there was nothing but rock that covered it so it looked black from a distance. Today Black Mountain is green and full of life thanks to the strict pollution laws that Teck has to abide by.

Even though Trail is a much greener city then it was way back when the smelters destroyed the trees and wildlife, the actual town and buildings set within Trail are not the nicest to look at. The downtown is full of empty shops and run-down buildings that are in serious need of a face-lift. Apparently there are big plans for the future of the downtown area with lots of renovations to be done to spruce the place up a bit. While I look forward to that development, in the meantime, the city has put out some money over the years to add beautiful murals to some of the sides of the buildings. Each mural represents a part of the city’s heritage and over the years I have come to really appreciate these beautiful paintings created by Tyler Toews and StevenSkolka of Canadian Murals.

I went around town today and took my own pictures of each mural because I wanted to post them and share them with my readers and anyone who may stumble upon this blog.

This picture I had to take from the Canadian Murals website
because they are doing major renovations on a nearby building
so the mural is being blocked currently with huge dumpsters
and trucks. But it's super awesome!

The Kootenay Hotel

Honestly, I can't find any info about this
sternwheeler mural. Is it a boat bringing in ore?  

Disaster cleanup after another flooding of the
Columbia River. The river is now controlled by a
series of dams, but the city flooded regularly before
the water was controlled. 

One of my favourites - this mural represents all
of the ironworkers and hardworking men who
worked the smelters.

This huge mural is the biggest one in Canada by this team
of artists. It represents the wealth of the water. 

I can't get this picture to rotate! I love the baby sturgeon and
wish I could show them better!

Trail has a rich history of hockey, including winning 2 World
Championships by the Trail Smoke Eaters.