The Great Depression of the 1930s was a prolonged period of economic strife across Canada and the world. This History Buff is a snapshot of the crisis’s impact in Nelson.
High unemployment was one of the most consistent issues throughout the Depression. Early in the crisis, city officials started planning out relief work that could be given to the unemployed, including fire risk management and snow shovelling. Federal and provincial grants later provided municipal works funds for roadwork and retaining walls. The grandest of these projects was the Civic Centre in 1935. Once completed, its auditorium, rink, gyms, and halls became important sources of entertainment for the town, even as the Depression slogged on.
Many of those unable to afford living in Nelson moved to “Cottonwood City,” a shack village located outside city limits by Cottonwood Creek (the area now occupied by the Ymir, Perrier, Cottonwood, and Kline roads). Single men were inhabiting the area as early as 1931, and families started moving in around 1933. Cottonwood City became home to several hundred people, living in their own constructed residences and managing their own affairs. The community continued well after the Depression ended.
As the crisis intensified, starvation became a real risk for thousands of people. Those with homes coped by growing as much of their own food as possible. Governments eventually co-operated to provide relief across jurisdictions, but these agreements broke down and changed often. Xenophobia, racism and discrimination against Canadians from other provinces grew as governments looked for any reason to cut people off of relief. Strict legal requirements meant that non-conformist groups like Doukhobors were often denied aid.
Some of society’s most vulnerable were the thousands of unemployed and unhoused people who travelled across the country via railways looking for work, food, and shelter. In Nelson, the first known “jungle” (homeless camp) popped up in 1930 in the CPR flats, where it was easier for people to come and go off of the slowed trains. After travelling days without eating, new arrivals would often beg for food or spare change from city residents. Many Nelsonites helped the best they could by providing meals or safe places to sleep, often in exchange for odd jobs. However, anger and distrust towards the unemployed meant helping them could carry social backlash. Desperation-driven crime, such as theft, fuelled prejudices further.
The first city-organized relief for the transitory population began on July 1, 1931, with the opening of a soup kitchen in the armoury (where Kutenai Place is now). Administered by the city and jointly funded by the provincial and federal governments, the armoury kitchen provided two meals per day and bare minimum sleeping quarters. The program quickly grew to serve hundreds each day. Organizations like the Salvation Army and local churches also worked to address the need.
Provincial and federal authorities worried that the massive unemployed population could favour political movements like communism. This resulted in the establishment of hundreds of relief camps across the province. These were designed to both care for the thousands of young, largely single men and keep them away from the province’s centres. First managed by the provincial and then the federal governments, the camps provided basic necessities in exchange for physical labour, most often the building and maintaining of highways. Local relief camps worked on major projects like the Nelson-Kaslo, the Trail-Castlegar, and the Gray Creek-Kuskanook highways, as well as the stretch between Nelway and Nelson.
The relief camps were constantly dogged by complaints of poor living conditions, inadequate management, and accusations of slave labour (under federal management each man was paid a shockingly low 20 cents a day). For those who refused to live in the camps, all other government aid was cut off. Even the armoury kitchen was shut down in 1933 to funnel men into the relief camps. Strikes and walkouts were common but were mostly ignored by municipal authorities.
The dismal era of the Great Depression is long past, but as we live through a cost of living crisis, its lessons remain relevant. Social safety nets, intergovernmental co-operation, and kindness towards the most vulnerable remain as important as ever.
Tressa Ford is archives assistant at the Nelson Museum, Archives and Gallery. History Buff appears monthly.
