UNIQUE CEREMONY

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 January 1928, Page 2

UNIQUE CEREMONY

A LONELY CENOTAPH. VANCOUVER, December 14. ; Perhaps the most unique of Armistice Day celebrations was that which took place at the abandoned town of Phoenix, in the Selkirks, close to the international boundary. When the war broke but, Phoenix, a very rich copper mire, had passed its peak, but many of the remaining young men shouldered the Empire’s burden. At the end of the war an imposing Cenotaph was erected on a rocky eminence overlooking the camp, and on it were inscribed the names of those who went overseas.. Nowadays the only occupants of Phoenix is a white-haired janitor whose business is to look after the remaining nine buildings, pending their demolition. But Phoenix was not forgotten on Armistice Day. A pilgrimage was made to the Cenotaph from the neighbouring town of Grand Forks, headed by the Mayor. About a hundred people climbed the mountain side, and grouped themselves round the Cenotaph for two minutes of silence and the Last Post, in honour of the community which had mixed a hundred million tons of ore and, in its declining 'but still cheerful days, had sent its last men to fight in the Kootenay Battalion of British Columbia.