These walls were constructed between the early 1920s and the mid 1960s, many of them make-work projects, a legacy of the
Dirty Thirties. They show varying methods and styles of construction which changed with the times. Some were dry laid, without mortar, while most were set in mortar. The walls employing larger rocks indicate their construction in later periods, when more and larger equipment became available to the stone masons.
The city has recently placed ten bronze plaques at strategic points throughout the city which indicate the date of construction of particular walls and the names of the stone masons who laid them. This is a wonderful way to commemorate these stone masons from yesteryear and the legacy they have left behind for future generations.
West Trail is a community of predominantly Italian immigrants who came to Trail in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to find work at the Trail Smelter, the first incarnation of which was built in 1895. The smelter, much renovated and enlarged, is still there, as are the descendants of those first immigrants. Many of those Italian immigrants were stone masons whose handiwork can be seen in the stone walls throughout the city. The greatest concentration of stone walls is in West Trail itself, as it is built up the hillside above town and required much terracing in its construction.
This six foot tall rock wall wraps around the corner of Austad Lane at Binns Street at the western edge of West Trail. Built in 1960, the stone masons who were involved in its construction were Michele Guercio, Francesco Bernava and Antonio Iachetta. This is another of the seemingly ubiquitous dry laid walls in the community which uses no mortar.
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