Wynndel

Wynndel ( ) is an unincorporated community adjacent to Duck Creek, east of the Kootenay River, in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The locality, on BC Highway 3A, is by road about north of Creston and southeast of Nelson.

First Nations and European explorers The Lower Kootenay Band of the Ktunaxa Nation have occupied the region from time immemorial. Tribal members would migrate north annually and set up camp on the Wynndel flats to harvest wild berries, hunt, and later graze cattle. While surveying the Dewdney Trail in 1865, the government expeditionary party crossed the Purcell Mountains via Duck Creek. The completed trail forded the Kootenay River about west of today's Wynndel, travelled northeast and then southeast via present day Wynndel and Creston, before following the Goat River valley northeastward. By 1867, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) post of Little Fort Shepherd (Flatbow) had been established immediately south of Wynndel on the trail. This fort was abandoned around 1870.

Name origin A claim that Wynndel was named after one of the early fruit-growers in the district is disputed, because no evidence indicates such a person existed. A more suspect theory is the honoring of a NWMP officer named Wynn, but no officer by that name ever served with the force. Even more spurious claims have been suggested. As a surname the spelling is rare, whereas Wyndell as a given name is more common. The latter, an early alternate spelling for the community, is still sometimes mistakenly used. In earlier train timetables, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) opted for Wynndell, but a newspaper wrote Wyndell. For several years, the alternative spellings of Wynndel, Wyndel, Wyndell, and Wynndell remained in common usage. In pronunciation, locals emphasize the first syllable, whereas outsiders often prefer the second.

Railways During construction, the CP rail head passed northwestward toward Kuskonook in September 1898. The Wynndel vicinity was not a stop on the local service beginning that October or the Fort Macleod one beginning that December.

The building of the Bedlington & Nelson Railway (B&N), a Great Northern Railway subsidiary, faced opposition from CP. In July 1899, the Privy Council granted the B&N running rights on CP track northwestward from the Wynndel junction. Reaching Lizard Creek (a tributary to Duck Creek west of the CP track) that month, the B&N rail head faced an attempt by CP to obtain an injunction, claiming the work would damage an embankment supporting the CP track. Displeasure with the high-handed grading of the B&N across his mine claims prompted O.J. Wigen to briefly block the tracklaying in November. That December, the Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed Wigen's injunction application, and the B&N assumed possession of the completed line from the main contractor. The route followed today's Lower Wynndel Rd (low road).

In July 1900, the B&N began limited services. That November, the daily service to Kuskonook via the junction began. Assumedly, the connecting junction stations opened at this time. In February 1901, the court awarded Wigen $350 in damages against the B&N. That August, B&N's operations north of the junction were suspended. Soon, there was little activity north of Creston. Certainly by February 1904, the three times weekly mixed train ran no farther north than Creston.

In early 1905, the respective junction stations were renamed Wilkes, probably after Fred Wilkes, a CP telegraph linesman from Fernie. The change to Wynndell a couple of years later, may have loosely derived from Wilkes or Wigen. Wynn is a runic letter in Old and Middle English representing the W sound and a dell is a valley.

In June 1913, on completion of the depot building, Duck Creek became a flag stop. In the new year, Duck Creek formally replaced Wynndel junction as the stop, and the unused station building was relocated to Duck Creek. The two places were apart. The CP section crew was occasionally augmented by an extra gang. In 1915, CP installed a phone at the station and erected a new freight shed. In 1917, CP built a fish ladder at the Duck Creek culvert.

In 1920, an extra gang replaced the track through Duck Creek with heavier steel. During the next year, Duck Creek became a scheduled regular stop, the catcher pouch was removed, and the rail yard held parked railway cars from the district. In 1923, CP enlarged the siding capacity. The next year, a fire spread to the station, destroying the building. A boxcar provided temporary storage space until a larger building, which was mainly for freight storage, opened in 1925. In 1927, CP renamed Duck Creek as Wynndel and Wynndel siding as Loasby. Clarence McLean Loasby was a longtime yardmaster at Sirdar.

The stop was northwest of Creston, and southeast of Sirdar. Passenger service ended in 1964. The abandoned station was dismantled in the early 1980s.

GN Train Timetables (Regular stop or Flag stop) Year Mile 1901 1904 1905 Ref. Creston Jctn. 38.4 Wilkes 38.4

CP Train Timetables (Regular stop or Flag stop) Year Mile 1903 1905 1909 1912 1914 1919 1929 1932 1935 1939 1943 1948 1953 1955 1960 1963 Ref. Wilkes Jctn. 383 Wilkes 384 Wynndel 384 Duck Creek 385.2 Wynndel 385.2

Rail accidents 1906: A train, which wrecked at a rock slide, fatally crushed a crew member. Months later, a train fatally struck a track walker.

1907: A brakeman died in a train accident.

1927: A freight train fatally dismembered an inebriated individual sleeping on the track.

1938: When a 13-car freight train derailed, two cars rolled down a embankment and four cars lay zigzag across the track.

1941: A rockslide caused a locomotive, tender, and two cars to derail.

1946: A freight train struck the rear of a truck at a railway crossing, carrying the vehicle .

Trains fatally injuring straying livestock prompted CP to fence one side of the track in 1913. However, such livestock deaths continued.

Agriculture Settling in the mid-1890s, in 1900, O.J. Wigen marketed his surplus strawberries to customers at Cranbrook and launched Wynndel as a strawberry growing centre. The next year, he cleared land for the first orchard. By 1905, the exceptional quality of Wigen's commercially grown strawberries had become established. By 1909, his cultivation of over was very profitable. He became known as the strawberry king.

In 1913, the Co-Operative Fruit Growers of Wynndel was formed. That spring, nearly a thousand fruit trees were planted. One day that summer, 148 crates of strawberries were loaded onto the passenger train for expedited delivery. In 1915, the first full boxcar load of strawberries was shipped out, and the season total was 7,762 crates. In 1916, Wynndel withdrew from the Fruit Growers Union in the Creston Valley. The strawberry harvest was 11,018 crates, comprising nine carloads, in 1916, about 6,500 crates in 1918 and 9,000 in 1919. During the 1910s, attempts at tomato growing proved unviable. However, O.J. Wigen grew bumper potato crops.

In 1923, Elias Uri took over as manager of the fruit co-op from founder O.J. Wigen. After storm damage the next year, many orchards were not replanted. In 1926, a 400-ton capacity ice house and dedicated railway siding were installed. The next year, a precooling plant opened, comprising three precooling rooms. The facility processed three loaded iced cars daily. By 1928, of strawberries were harvested annually.

In 1930, the first Wynndel fall fair was held. In 1932, 19,775 crates of strawberries and 2,000 of raspberries were shipped. The next year, the co-op erected a new warehouse. In 1934, work began on the Wynndel end of the dyking project, finishing about six months later. At Wynndel, one part was high, and Duck Creek was diverted. Drainage pipes also handled irrigation. The dyke stretched to Creston. Also in 1935, the co-op precooling plant capacity was enlarged from four to seven carloads. The berry harvest comprised 26 carloads of strawberries, 1 of raspberries, 2 of cherries, and 2 of raspberry/cherry mix, a 25 per cent increase over the 1934 crop total.

During World War II, berry demand was high. About 15 tons of the 1939 crop went to the UK for making jam. In 1947, a large modern packing house was erected, with refrigeration capacity for 36,000 boxes of apples.

The larger poultry farms were Abbott 1946–1961 and Thompson 1945–1967. In 1967, a lightning bolt ignited straw that destroyed the two-storey building containing 4,000 birds and the granary.

In a period of expansion during the 1950s, growers produced a total of 1,500 tons of potatoes each season. In 1972, unable to survive financial losses, the fruit and potato packing plants closed.

The dyking of the flats triggered a gradual switch to grain crops, which later yielded better returns than the more perishable produce. The Midland and Pacific grain elevator, completed in 1937, ceased operations by the 1980s, and was demolished in 2013.

By the 1980s, only three commercial berry growers remained. Most of the orchards had disappeared.

Lumber In 1909, J.J. Grady sawmill established a sawmill. In May 1911, Murphy Bros. bought the 30,000-foot-daily capacity mill but resold to J.B. Winlaw in the fall. In 1914, the son of O.J. Wigen opened a mill, commonly called the Monrad Wigen sawmill and/or box factory. The next year, a large extension was added to the box factory building. During the spring high water, logs were towed to the bay and hauled by horses to the mill. In 1918, Wigen built a tramway to transport logs from the slough to the mill. Under construction since the prior year, the new Winlaw sawmill opened in 1919. That year, the Wynndel box factory (Monrad Wigen) made over 100,000 crates, and the mill boarding house opened.

In 1920, both mills ran at capacity, the Winlaw bunkhouse was extended, and Wigen installed an overhead sprinkler at his mill, which minimized damage during a fire months later. The Homeseeker's, Washum and Stokes, and the Russian were smaller mills briefly operating around this time. The daily capacities of the Winlaw and Wigen mills were 30,000 and 15,000 feet respectively. During spring, logs were floated down the Goat River to the Winlaw mill pond. In 1923, a Winlaw mill worker sustained a crushed foot in machinery, requiring an amputation below the knee. The next year, Monrad Wigen set up his portable sawmill at Lizard Creek, and three million feet of lumber burned in the Winlaw yard fire. The Winlaw office building, destroyed in a 1925 fire, was rebuilt the following year.

In 1927, fire destroyed four million feet of lumber in the Winlaw yard. The 1928 spring flooding submerged the Winlaw sawmill burner. In 1933, the Winlaw mill recommenced after a four-year shutdown. In 1934, the box factory reopened after a similar closure. In 1937, a fire completely destroyed the Winlaw sawmill plant and some lumber. Monrad Wigen bought this land, erected a new mill, and began operating the following year. In the early 1940s, a bandsaw replaced the circular saw. At that time, almost a hundred mills existed in the Kootenays. After the consolidations of the 1960s only three remained: Creston Sawmills, Wynndel Box, and Huscroft.

In 1947, Monrad Wigen erected a new mill, opening the next year. During the 1950s, the company installed a new planer, converted the sawmill and planer mill to electric power, installed a gangsaw, remodelled the sawmill, and added a progressive dry kiln. Jack and Bob, Monrad's sons, were involved in the business and assumed the management in 1971. In 1992, a new and larger gangsaw was installed. After 2000, a complete upgrade of the mill machinery was undertaken. In 2011, an outside CEO was appointed to restructure the boutique business. Employees number about 100. In 2014, Wynndel Box & Lumber adopted WynnWood as a trading name. In 2016, Canfor purchased the business.

Early community