New Denver

New Denver is a village of about 500 people (2011) in the West Kootenays of British Columbia on the east shore of Slocan Lake. It hosted an internment camp for people with ancestry in enemy nations during World War II; some attractions in the town relate to that time.

Understand
New Denver was founded as a mining town in 1892, and briefly known as Eldorado City before being renamed after Denver, Colorado.

During World War II, New Denver became a Japanese Canadian internment camp. Not long after the outbreak of hostilities and Japan's attack on Canadian troops in Hong Kong in December 1941, men of Japanese descent between the ages of 18 and 45 were sent to labour camps in the Interior of British Columbia or farther into Eastern Canada. Also, approximately 1,500 women, children, and elderly men were sent to the "Orchard", a small section of New Denver set up to house them. New Denver's Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre is dedicated to the history of the 27,000 Japanese Canadians who were interned by the Canadian government and is a National Historic Site.

In the 1950s, children of Freedomites, a Doukhobor extremist group, were removed from their parents and sent to residential school in New Denver. The Freedomites refused to send their children to school because of their religious beliefs.

Get in
The only really practical way of getting to New Denver (and most other places in the West Kootenays) is by private vehicle of some kind. There is very limited public transit in the region and only one major airport, which is in Castlegar.

By car
It's about a 2-hour drive south of Revelstoke which includes a free ferry ride across Arrow Lake (Columbia River) between Shelter Bay on the north shore and Galena Bay on the south. Take Hwy 23 south to the ferry and on to Nakusp where it's Hwy 6 to New Denver.

Get around
Since New Denver is a small village, there is no need to drive anywhere. Park your vehicle somewhere and wander around. The village is divided by Carpenter Creek with most of the business district on the north side and some of the parks and gardens on the south. Other than adding to your pleasant walk, this shouldn't be a problem.