Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/170490
Boundary DeSTInATIOn ABUNDANCE Sun-drenched Grand Forks serves up rolling mountains, a hearty bowl of borscht, and a peaceful respite from big-city life. by DAnIelle eGAn photography: MIChAel BeDnAR I n Boundary Country, just east of greenwood, highway 3 meanders south between Phoenix Mountain and hardy Mountain, then turns east and suddenly a spectacular stretch of valley appears, capturing the fleeting light and warmth of the setting sun. This is grand Forks, sun-bleached after a long, lingering summer. named for the fork of the two rivers—the granby and the Kettle, which converge on the eastern edge of town—grand Forks is a small sleepy city, population almost 4,300. nestled among rolling mountains, grand Forks is located near Christina Lake, a halfdozen wilderness parks, and offers many recreational options—from boating to biking trestle rail trails. its growing agri-tourism industry, its rich history as a mining boomtown, and its unique community of agrarian-based russian settlers known as the doukhobors, make this a great place to stick around for a few days. After a daylong drive from vancouver, my travelling companion derek Maryanovich and i stop at grand Forks Station neighbourhood Pub & Columbia grill to satiate our appetites and get a sneak-peek at the 16 area's history. The pub is a restored 1899 Canadian Pacific railway station with many photographs depicting grand Forks in its early 1900s heyday, when it boasted the largest copper smelter in the British empire. The lion's share of ore came from nearby Phoenix, a boomtown with 1,500 to 2,000 citizens, which sat atop Phoenix Mountain. Mining ultimately fizzled after the First world war and by 1921 the granby smelter had been totally dismantled. Phoenix became a ghost town almost overnight, but grand Forks survived, thanks in part to thousands of doukhobors, who began mining the valley's rich soil. Tomorrow we'll dig deeper into the history. now, we check into Johnny's Motel, on the eastern banks of the granby river, a stone's throw from downtown and just north of the fork with the Kettle river, which snakes along the southern edge of town. i'm not expecting much heritage cachet, but it turns out the original owners, John and gertie goffinet, used materials salvaged from the ghost town of Phoenix and abandoned railway trestles to build the motel's foundation in 1952. B rIT IS H C olUMBIA MAgAZI NE • FAll 2013 • The Kettle River, which converges with the Granby River in Grand Forks, is lined with cottonwood, maple, and larch trees.