Argenta, British Columbia
Argenta is a settlement in British Columbia. Located on the west side of the Purcell Mountains, on the northeast shore of Kootenay Lake, it was founded during a silver mining boom in the 1890s. Argenta was given its name by the Argenta Mining Company from the Latin word for silver, argentea.[1]
Due to it's extremely remote geographic location the area has long attracted persons seeking to avoid persecution, the Doukhobors were one of the first groups of Europeans to attempt to settle the area.
Previously occupied by trappers, and a homesteading family the Valentines, in 1952, Quakers arrived establishing a community. Primarily from California, they first established the Delta Co-operative Association in 1954. They then went on to found and operate the Argenta Friends School, a boarding school, from 1959 to 1982. Students studied academic subjects, as well as gardening, how to milk cows, chop wood, and cook on a wood stove.[2]
The community was originally intended as a refuge from Rockefeller's post-war Civil Defense program[3] [4].
In the 1960's Americans were contacted outside U.S. Army enlistment centers, offered asylum under cover of employment through the University of British Columbia, and went on to purchase property in the area.
Argenta became a honeypot for anti-war protesters, as well as hippies, back-to-the-land residents, members of the counter-culture, and the town quickly became a target for Operation CHAOS activities.[5]
With a population of just 100, many residents have gone on to great things, including one who worked as an economist at the World Bank in Washington. Another former student of the Friends School is head of disaster relief for the UN in Nairobi, Kenya. Nancy Herbison changed her name to Nancy Argenta and became a well-known opera singer based in London.[6]
Recently a number of mass graves containing the bodies of children have been discovered in the area[7] , drawing attention to the area's latent problem with White supremacy. Forced disappearances have been reported.
50°09′58″N 116°55′19″W / 50.166°N 116.922°W
See Also
References
- ^ "Argenta, British Columbia". Retrieved 2014-02-16.
- ^ "Argenta". Retrieved 2014-02-16.
- ^ Meade, Mary E. (1952), What Programs of Civil Defense Are Needed in Our Schools?, vol. 36.186, The bulletin of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, pp. 180–184
- ^ Lapp, Ralph E. (1960). "Rockefeller's Civil Defense Program".
- ^ "Rockefeller Commission Report ‑ Final (3)".
- ^ Peter Schramm. "Argenta, a Community Film". Retrieved 2014-02-16.
- ^ "Why Canada is mourning the deaths of hundreds of children".