The dramatic view of Sandon today is the one you get as you enter the town by the only road. Carpenter Creek, strewn with boulders and broken timbers, runs down the middle of a narrow valley with, inexplicably, the old City Hall building standing almost alone beside it. Surrounded on all sides by forested mountains and isolated in a deep, blue gloom during the winter months, it is a forlorn, fascinating place, with the snow settling in earlier and staying later than in other nearby towns like New Denver and Kaslo. The narrow valley evident heading into the right distance indicates the presence of Sandon Creek, which joins Carpenter Creek in the middle of the old townsite. Mount Cody looms in the background.

(painted in 2002)

Note from Diana Domai: "This is a photo taken at the funeral of my husband's grandfather, in Sandon on January 23, 1943, temperature -29 degrees F. He was only 61 years of age when he died. My husband's mother always said she felt he died of a broken heart. Everything was taken from him, when the internment took place. Prior to the internment to Sandon he was a very successful fisherman from Steveston, B.C.

"Kyujiro Domai was born on 14 May 1881 in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. He was a fisherman who emigrated to British Columbia in 1901. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1904, three years after arriving in Canada; he had to become naturalized in order to get a Fishing License [although he could not vote--ed.] He left his wife and two daughters behind in Mio village, Wakayama, Japan and came to Steveston to fish. He bought a salmon trawler and fished in the Gulf Islands. Kyujiro sent money home to his wife and two young daughters. When his daughter Hisae came to Canada at the age of eighteen years in 1933 to live, she felt she didn't know her father because he had been living and working in Canada so long. His fish trawler, which was his home as well as his livelihood, was confiscated at the outbreak of the war. He had slept, eaten and worked on his boat. It was a terrible shock for him to be taken away from the coast and interned in the ghost town of Sandon, B.C. He died in Sandon at the age of 61years, not that long after the Canadian Government sent him there along with his daughter Hisae and grandson Kyosuke (Kiyo). His son-in-law, Nobuo was sent to a road camp near Jasper, Alberta in 1942 but was in Sandon in 1943 when his father-in-law Kyujiro died of rheumatic fever."

Sandon softball team 1943. Nobuo Domai is in the front row, far right. The Asahi team in Vancouver was one of the stars of the semi-pro league in the city before the First World War. There are a number of sites referring to their recent induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Both photos courtesy of Diana Domai. The Domais were subsequently moved to Lemon Creek.

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Sandon, 1968, with Carpenter Creek flowing in the foreground. The building on the left, the Hunter-Kendrick block built just after the 1900 fire, has been restored and houses the visitors centre and mining interpretation centre. The Virginia Hotel has disappeared. B.C. government photograph.

From Kay Thornton, 2023: I have been trying to find some information on a building and the proprietor who once lived in Sandon BC.  His name was Cosam Bigney and he ran the Sandon Bottling Co on Cody Ave.  this would be circa 1901-2, previous to that it was run by Fitzgerald and Day, late 1800’s to when they sold the business to Bigney.
I am trying to locate where the building stood, any pictures of it and possibly pictures of Cosam Bigney himself.

Cosam Bigney is one of the most elusive people I have ever tried to research.  He moved from Sandon around 1902 to Merritt BC where he built a house and opened up another bottling depot.  The house is now known as the Baillie house, after the family that took over it after Cosam’s nephew  died.  It also acts as the town tourist information building.
 
I do have some clips from the local paper in Sandon.  These are taken from the Paystreak Newspaper of the time.  He appears in one advertisement as C.M. Bigney which I will assume is a printing error because his name was Cosam Archibald.  I have also found him mentioned a Cosam H. Bigney.

From Hal Wright via Greg Nesteroff: I spoke with Veronika Pellowski, author of "Silver, Lead and Hell" yesterday to see if she had more info from the research she had done when writing her manuscript.  On page 24 of her book (see attached below) she mentions a Cosmi A. Bigney who started as an employee of Fitzgerald and Day (Sandon Bottling Works) and then bought the operation in 1900.  She thinks he operated it until about 1910.  I wonder if Cosam and Cosmi are one of the same person or relatives.  If Bigney left in 1902 there is a conflict of dates.  Veronika is going to see what she can find and will let you know if she comes up with anything.  

I know it is somewhat grey as to where Reco Avenue turned into Cody Avenue.  My opinion has always been that Cody Avenue was the continuation of Reco Ave east of the K&S Railway Station.  The provincial archives may have the tax roll records from the City of Sandon.  If so, the Bigney name (or Fitzgerald and Day) may show up in the relevant years.  I believe there were 84 surveyed lots on Cody Avenue plus unsurveyed locations occupied by squatters on the upper end of Cody Avenue.  For example, the New York Brewery was at the east end of Sandon beyond the surveyed portion.  With enough research, I think it is possible to come up with an exact location.

I do have a "Sandon Bottling Works" fizz bottle given to me by the late Eugene Petersen.  It has a broken neck but the etching is in good shape.  We display it in the Sandon City Hall building.

Note from Kjell Lennartsson, 2017: I'm from Sweden; I'm 67 years old theater actor, now retired and have time for searching my grandfather. I wonder if you have time for helping, I search my grand father. He works in Queen Bess Mine Camp near Sandon in British Columbia between 1916 -1919, which was what I know about him. After the latest letter from him 1920 he become silent or disappeared. I wonder if you have some contact that could help me and maybe will help me for that and have some knowledge about this historical time. Can I find some register of the mineworkers this time? Where? Or if you have an idea where I can find some date about him. So I can get something about him, or what happen him. I will come to this area, Slocan Valley, in this summer around 20june - 5july. Just for have looks were he live from 1912 to the last date of his letters. I will be very pleased if someone could or will help me. If you can, or if you know some other person who can know something about this time of mining and workers. And if there are someone who are interesting in it. Also if you know some person who are interesting for guiding me in the history of Sandon and the miners workers who lived there 1914 - 1920. I know few thing about my grandfather, for ex. He hurt or crush one of his knee so he was in a hospital in Ainsworth for a while, that was 1919 in an accident like 'mine collapse'.

The locomotive at Sandon, photographed by Bob Maruyama