Tarrys is an unincorporated community spanning both shores of the

Kootenay River The Kootenay or Kootenai river is a major river in the Northwest Plateau, in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Montana and Idaho in the United States. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, the l ...

in the

West Kootenay The Kootenays or Kootenay ( ) is a region of southeastern British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Kutenai First Nations people. Boundaries The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay ...

region of southeastern

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. The location, on BC Highway 3A, is by road about northeast of Castlegar, and southwest of

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

Name origin & Tarry family

In 1896, James & Lydia Tarry, and children, settled on their Riverview Ranch. By 1901, their orchard comprised 500 fruit trees, half apple and the rest cherry, plum, pear, and peach. James was a justice of the peace (JP) and president of the West Kootenay Farmers' Institute. Possibly on the stepping down of his father, Frank Tarry became a JP in 1914. On his death in 1917, James was the owner of the largest cleared ranch in the Kootenay Valley.

Railway

In 1906, Tarry Siding, also called Tarrys' Siding, Tarry's, and Tarry, opened on the

Columbia and Kootenay Railway The Columbia and Kootenay Railway (C&KR) was a historic railway operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. This route, beside the unnavigable Kootenay River, linked Nelson, British Columbia, Nel ...

. The

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

flag stop was northeast of Thrums, and southwest of Glade. Passenger service ended in the late 1950s.

Doukhobors

During 1910–1925, over 30

Doukhobor The Doukhobours or Dukhobors (russian: духоборы / духоборцы, dukhobory / dukhobortsy; ) are a Spiritual Christian ethnoreligious group of Russian origin. They are one of many non-Orthodox ethno-confessional faiths in Russia a ...

families settled.
1911: Uninsured Doukhobor sawmill at Tarry Siding burned to the ground. Rebuilding was immediate to complete the

tie contract.
1927: Storekeeper was convicted of

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

.
1932: Tarrys Doukhobor Society built a community hall.
1949:

Freedomites The Freedomite movement consists of a split-off of the Doukhobors, a community of Spiritual Christians began a mass migration from Russia to Canada in 1898. The Freedomite movement first appeared in 1902 in Saskatchewan, and later in the Kootenay ...

burned down the new $85,000 Tarrys school.
1958: Children found a cache of blasting fuses and detonator caps at the Freedomite settlement.
1962: Freedomites dynamited West Kootenay Power and Light infrastructure.

Glade Ferry

From the 1910s, the Doukhobors operated the original ferry to serve their settlements on the south shore of the river stretching as far south as Tarrys. Being no schedule, users would yell for the

reaction ferry A reaction ferry is a cable ferry that uses the reaction of the current of a river against a fixed tether to propel the vessel across the water. Such ferries operate faster and more effectively in rivers with strong currents. Some reaction ferri ...

if on the opposite bank. When the Brilliant Dam opened in 1944, the service ceased because of the reduced current. Subsequently, crossings depended upon a community-owned rowboat, and later a privately owned barge and tug. In 1955, the province installed a three-vehicle

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

, and moved the landing downstream to the population centre. The vehicle capacity increased to five, and then eight in 1980. Glade Ferry Rd. parallels the highway southwest for from the Glade junction. Geographically, the ferry is northeast of Tarrys Rd. and northeast of Tarrys fire hall. The 10-vehicles/48-passenger ferry operates under private contract with the

British Columbia Ministry of Transportation The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is the British Columbia government ministry responsible for transport infrastructure and law in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is currently led by Rob Fleming. The ministry is resp ...

and is free of tolls, as are all inland ferries in BC.

Present community

Tarrys Fire Department, staffed by volunteers, owns a small fleet of fire trucks. Directly opposite is Kalesnikoff Lumber, the largest industry. However, this sawmill regards itself as being in Thrums, indicating the unclear boundary between the communities, or that Thrums is a generic name for the area that stretches north to Glade.

References

{{reflist Settlements in British Columbia