Julia Greenlaw and Diana and I walked the kilometre north from the Lemon Creek trailhead on the Slocan River "Rails to Trails" (turn west onto Kennedy Road, just south of Lemon Creek, and go straight down to the parking space) to this remarkable spot, especially remarkable because until a few years ago, none of us knew it existed. None of us knew there had been a large native population in the Slocan Valley - the Sinixt people - building pit houses here 3000 years ago. Cole says the Sinixt are the most easterly group of the Interior Salish. The largest pit, from about 700 BC, is 23 metres across (above: Julia and Diana are standing in it - hard to get the size of it in a photo).
This and several smaller house pits were abandoned after several hundred years, then reoccupied and re-abandoned several times. Major archeological disputes about why? and when? abandoned. But by 1890, because of epidemics at least, there were almost no Sinixt left in the Slocan Valley when the miners came.
The Slocan River "Narrows" at the pit-house site was a bountiful salmon-fishing spot. Now, with the Columbia River dammed, there are no more salmon but it's still a beautiful, tranquil spot to visit on foot, by bicycle, or by canoe (from Slocan City, as we did last summer and will again). Note for canoeists: easy to put out here and carry the canoe up the short trail to Lindsay Road.
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