Grohman Canal

AT WORK ON THE CANAL

            The provincial government has awarded Sinclair & Co., of Victoria the contract for digging the canal to connect the upper Columbia lake with the Kootenay river.  The distance to be excavated is about a mile and a half, and is all shovel and scrapper [sic.] work.  The contractors will employ from 130 to 140 men and a few teams on the work.  About half the men are Chinese, sent up from Victoria, who are paid $1 a day and ‘grub’ themselves.  The canal is not intended to benefit navigation, but is a drainage scheme.  The supposition is that the waters of the upper lake will flow through the canal into the river, thereby draining the thousands of acres of fine land on the lake’s border.