The western Kootenay region of British Columbia, where the city of Nelson is situated, is part of the traditional territories of the Sinixt (or Lakes) and Ktunaxa (Kutenai) peoples.
Gold and silver were found in the area in 1867. Following the discovery of silver at nearby Toad Mountain in 1886, the town's population grew quickly, leading to incorporation in 1897. Two railways were built to pass through Nelson. Due to its location near transportation corridors, Nelson grew to supply the local mining activity and soon became a transportation and distribution centre for the region.
Nelson was named in 1888 after Hugh Nelson, then Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.[2]
The town built its own hydroelectric generating system.[3] English immigrants planted lakeside orchards, and Doukhobors from Russia, sponsored by Tolstoy and the Quakers, tilled the valley benchlands. The Doukhobor museum is located nearby, close to the neighbouring town of Castlegar.
Nelson 1917-1920 used Single transferable vote (STV), a form of proportional representation, to elect its councillors. Councillors were elected in one at-large district. Each voter cast just a single vote, using a ranked transferable ballot.
During the Vietnam War, many American draft evaders settled in Nelson and the surrounding area. This influx of liberal, mostly educated young people had a significant impact on the area's cultural and political demographics.
Nelson's mountainous geography kept growth confined to the narrow valley bottom, except for certain hillside structures such as the local High School and the former Notre Dame University College (NDU) campus. Throughout the '60s and '70s, when more prosperous cities were tearing down and rebuilding their downtowns to the design of the time, Nelson merchants 'modernized' their buildings with covers of aluminum siding.
Baker Street
In the early 1980s, Nelson suffered a devastating economic downturn when the local Kootenay Forest Products sawmill was closed. Downtown merchants were already suffering from the opening of a large, regional shopping centre on Nelson's central waterfront, the Chahko Mika Mall. At the time, Victoria and Vancouver were experimenting with historical restorations of their oldest areas, with some success.[citation needed] To save downtown and Baker Street from blight, Nelson quickly followed suit, stripping aluminum facades and restoring the buildings to their original brilliance. Local designer Bob Inwood, one of Nelson's many American immigrants, played a major role as a consultant. By 1985, Baker Street was completely transformed. Affirmation of the street's success came in 1986 when Steve Martin chose to produce his feature film Roxanne largely in Nelson, using the local fire hall as a primary set and many historic locations for others. More broadly, the transformation marked the beginning of Nelson's ongoing transition from a resource-based town to an arts and tourism town. A walk down Baker Street through the Historic District is now one of Nelson's promoted visitor activities.
Geography
Climate
Nelson has a humid continental climate (KöppenDfb) with four distinct seasons. Winters are cold and snowy while summers are warm and drier with cool temperatures during the night.
Climate data for South Slocan (~20km West of Nelson)
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Nelson had a population of 11,106 living in 4,948 of its 5,314 total private dwellings, a change of 5.1% from its 2016 population of 10,572. With a land area of 11.93 km2 (4.61 sq mi), it had a population density of 930.9/km2 (2,411.1/sq mi) in 2021.[5]
Nelson's poverty rate has been ascertained to be more than twice the provincial and national averages.[6]
Ethnicity
Panethnic groups in the City of Nelson (2001−2021)
Traditionally, the economy of Nelson and area has been primarily resource based (forestry, in particular). This sector still represents a component of the area’s employment. Nelson is also a provincial administrative center for the Kootenays, and a number of regional and district offices of the provincial government have been centralized in Nelson, as well as some Federal offices. Tourism has been of growing importance to the city.[12]
There are many fine-craftspeople living in the Nelson region, and the city’s retail sector includes outlets for sales of their creations.
In recent decades, Nelson and its region had been noted for illegal marijuana production, with The Guardian reporting in 2010 that:
Nelson was able to make the transition from a typical rural lumber town into a thriving arts and mountain sports hotbed, due in part to the wealth generated by marijuana growers. If one were to have spent the last three years in this idyllic mountain hamlet, the economic crisis would have been barely noticeable.[13]
Nelson has several retail outlets for natural foods, including a year-round market specializing in these products. A local news source claimed the Kootenay Country Co-op is "the largest independent member-owned natural food store in Canada and a respected player nationally in organic retail circles."[14] The Save-On-Foods in Nelson is that company's leading store for organic and natural foods.[15]
Nelson has benefited from art-education opportunities for many decades. While high-school-level art classes had existed previously, in 1960 the post-secondary Nelson School of Fine Art opened, shortly to change its name to Kootenay School of Art. After this closed in 1977, it was succeeded in 1979 by offerings of the University of Victoria-sponsored David Thompson University Centre, located in buildings of Nelson’s former Notre Dame University. In 1991, a new independent institution featuring fine crafts opened, Kootenay School of the Arts (which in 2006 was absorbed by Selkirk College, and renamed Kootenay Studio Arts). In addition, Selkirk College offers another respected department, its School of Music & Media, in the former Notre Dame buildings.
The independent artists-run Oxygen Art Centre developed out of the Nelson Fine Art Centre Society (founded in 2002) by former writing and visual-art faculty from Kootenay School of the Arts. In 2005, the Society opened the Oxygen Art Centre in downtown Nelson, where classes, exhibitions, and residencies are offered.
Attractions
In 1998, Nelson was highlighted as the "Number One Small Town Arts Community in Canada" by the publisher of The 100 Best Small Arts Towns in America,[18] and is home to a large and diverse artisan community.[18]
The annual Artwalk, a display of artwork at various venues around town, features local talent where trippers and artwalkers (as the locals call them) can get an up close and personal look at the studios and creative processes of local artisans. July, August and September mark three months of exhibitions throughout the downtown core in variety of galleries and local businesses. Each month has a separate grand opening, (usually the first Friday evening of the month), which includes refreshments, musicians, pan-handlers and artwork for locals and visitors to enjoy as they stroll through downtown Nelson.
Nelson Marketfest
The Nelson Farmers Market, located at Cottonwood Falls Park, takes place every Saturday from May through October. The Downtown Farmers Market happens on Baker Street every Wednesday from June through September. Market Night, a lively nighttime street market in the heart of Nelson's downtown, happens twice each summer. The markets all offer regional farm produce, delicious foods, and a variety of locally hand-crafted products.[citation needed]
Two local hiking trails are popular. The Pulpit Rock Trail offers a short but somewhat challenging hike that ends with a view of the city. After Pulpit Rock the trail continues up the spine of Elephant Mountain (as the locals call it) to more postcard views, and eventually to the radio towers which are visible from everywhere in the city. Hikers venturing beyond Pulpit Rock should have basic wilderness gear and exercise common sense. Public access to the Pulpit Rock trail has been restored with the opening, in the spring of 2009, of a new access point several hundred metres west of the old trail head, which was on private land.[citation needed]
In the winter, skiing and snowboarding are Nelson's primary outdoor activities. Thirty minutes south of town is the Whitewater Ski Resort, which provides access, (via one triple chairlift, one double chairlift, one quad chairlift, and a handle tow), to 396 vertical metres (1,299 ft) of beginner to advanced terrain. The resort also provides access to hundreds of kilometres of off-piste skiing and back country touring. In 2012 Nelson and Rossland, a small city southwest of Nelson, were jointly voted the best ski locales in North America by the readers of California-based Powder magazine.
Mountain biking is part of the local culture, and Nelson offers a wide variety of MTB-oriented trails for all experience levels.
Rock climbing is also a popular summer activity. Kootenay Crag, Hall Siding, Grohman Narrows and CIC Bluffs are popular city crags. Slocan Bluffs and Kinnaird are in nearby Slocan City and Castlegar. 2003 saw bouldering take off in Nelson, with extensive new development of bouldering areas in Grohman Narrows and nearby Robson.
The "Big Orange Bridge" carries Highway 3A over the Kootenay Lake (West Arm) just north of downtown.
Highways 3A and 6 pass through Nelson, while a scheduled commercial airline service is available at the West Kootenay Regional Airport in Castlegar, approximately 43 kilometres (27 mi) southwest of the city. Trail Airport is another airport which is also nearby, while Nelson Airport is several blocks away from downtown Nelson. Public transit in Nelson is provided by the West Kootenay Transit System, which runs several routes within the city and to neighbouring communities.
Both Level 2 and Level 3 (DC fast-charging) electric vehiclecharging stations have been installed in the city. A carsharing service is available in the city through the Kootenay Carshare Co-operative
Nelson is served by the freight-only Kootenay Valley Railway, an internal business unit of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Nelson is the historic headquarters of the CPR Kootenay Division, serving as the meeting point of the CPR Boundary subdivision running towards Castlegar, BC, and the CPR Nelson subdivision running towards Cranbrook.
Nelson is home to the Tenth Street, and Silver King campuses of Selkirk College, which absorbed Kootenay School of the Arts as a department, renamed Kootenay Studio Arts.
Kootenay Columbia College of Integrative Health Sciences has three campus locations on Baker Street in Nelson.
The Nelson Daily News was a local newspaper which began publishing in 1902. In 2010, it was announced the paper would shut down following a final edition to be published July 16, 2010.[20] The closure occurred shortly after the Nelson Daily News' acquisition by Black Press, which purchased the paper from Glacier Media Inc.[21][22]
Black Press owns the Nelson Star, now published weekly.
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