Greenwod city i Kootenays i Kootenay Boundary i British Columbia i Kanada

Arkiv:
Länk: Greenwod

In 1886 several mining claims had been staked in a narrow gulch ten miles north of the mouth of Boundary Creek. The ore was high in copper. Ten years later more claims had been staked in the area. These claims gave rise to the city of Greenwood. In 1895 a merchant named Robert Wood erected a log store and named the region Greenwood.

By 1896 there were three hotels, a general store, a livery stable, two assay offices, a mining broker, an opera house, and a dozen other establishments. Greenwood became an incorporated city in 1897. The population climbed to 3,000 by 1899 and a railway called the Columbia and Western Railway reached Greenwood from the east. In 1899 a fire struck Greenwood which gutted several businesses.

The BC Copper Company smelter began operation in 1901, servicing ore from the Mother Lode Mine and other mines in the area. Greenwood was the supply center for surrounding camps such as Providence, Copper, Deadwood, Wellington, Central, Skylark and others. The city became the seat of government for the Boundary with one hundred firms in the business district. Greenwood had a newspaper called the ”Times” by 1906 another paper called the ”Greenwood Ledge”.

By 1910 the boom had passed and Greenwood's population was 1,500. At the end of World War I, the demand for copper dropped, and by 1918 the copper market was dead,and the smelter in Greenwood lay idle. The following year it closed down permanently. The collapse of the smelters led to close of mines around the vicinity of Greenwood. Greenwood was on the decline after this period.

In 1942, 1,200 Japanese Canadians were sent to Greenwood as part of the Japanese Canadian internment. Among those interned at Greenwood were Isamu and Fumiko Kariya and their son Yasi, the grandparents and uncle of NHL star and Hockey Hall of Fame member Paul Kariya; his father Tetsuhiko (T.K.) was born in internment.