...they would often hang out at the union hall and build rock walls. Sort of like being in prison, making little rocks out of big ones. In any event, they managed to build some really nice rock walls and stairs around the union hall. Apparently, the walls were all done in the 1950s. This bronze plaque is on the end of a concrete and rock wall which extends from the building at the entrance.
Building rock walls is not an unusual pastime in Trail. One of the oldest residential areas in the city is above downtown, build on a very steep slope. Since most of the residents of the area a century ago were Italian, they felt right at home and proceeded to build miles of rock retaining walls in order to terrace the land on which they then built their houses. There has even been a book written about Trail's rock walls, entitled
Set in Stone, by Eileen Truant Pedersen
(ISBN 9781553831952).
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