Thirteen km. east of New Denver, Sandon became the center of what was the richest silver-lead producing region in Canada. Alternatively known as the "Silver City" or the "Heart of the Silvery Slocan", Sandon was set in a narrow gulch surrounded by high, steep mountains, split by the fast-flowing Carpenter Creek, which flowed through the centre of town under its main street.
Vast amounts of galena ore were discovered here by Eli Carpenter and Jack Seaton in 1891, inducing prospectors to flock from around North America to test their luck in the Slocan. By 1895 Sandon was a bustling town and the terminus of 2 railways. Incorporated as a city on January 1, 1898, Sandon for a few years had more than 5000 residents, several brothels and a booming economy. The Kaslo & Slocan Railway connected Sandon with nearby Kaslo, on Kootenay Lake to the east, while the Nakusp & Slocan Railway, a Canadian Pacific subsidiary, arrived at about the same time from New Denver to the west. In 1900 the city was almost leveled by a large fire which destroyed much of the city. With the mines producing abundantly and silver prices high, the city rebuilt with nary a second thought.
While Sandon sprang into being shortly after the discovery of galena ore in the hills above, a formal cemetery was not established until 1898, at just about the same time the city, then with a large and mushrooming population of miners, business owners and "
Ladies of the Evening", was incorporated.
Few burials have taken place here in the last century, indicative of Sandon's quick decline following the decline of silver prices associated with World War I. Today, while a (very) few markers are still to be found in the cemetery, several old wooden markers have been salvaged from the cemetery and are presently displayed in the collection of the
Sandon Museum.
Sandon Cemetery
This historic cemetery was established in 1898, the same year that Sandon was incorporated. Before that people buried their dead in the countryside, usually close to the place where they had succumbed.
Most of those early graves have now faded into history. The "Western Federation of Miners", a powerful union in Sandon, was instrumental in providing burials for the numerous young miners who died of accidents related to their occupation.
Many headboards bear the inscription "W. F. of M.", testimony to the hazards of early mining. Most burials were of people with no immediate family and the variety of their names shows the diverse ethnic backgrounds of those who came to this mining boomtown.
Here on the frontier however, anyone with means would send their deceased relatives back to their homes, often far away. Other well to do people buried their dead at New Denver and Kaslo, places considered more permanent and respectable than rip roaring Sandon.
The existence of several graves of infants also attests to the harshness of front1er life. Few burials occurred after 1920, although some graves of Japanese Canadians who died during their wartime evacuation to Sandon in the 1940s are located at the extreme western boundary.
This pioneer cemetery is cared for by Friends of Sandon and the Sandon Historical Society. Its restoration has been financially assisted by the British Columbia Heritage Trust.
From the Heritage marker at the cemetery