51

About a week after our tour, the Creston Museum received an exciting donation: a 1941 Massey-Harris self-propelled combine that George Ramseier brought into the Creston Valley to work his reclaimed land on Nick's Island. This was the first self-propelled combine in the Creston Valley.

52

In 1986, Clarence Christenson, Margaret Rogers and Jim Griffith wrote a history of Reclamation Farm. They were among the few remaining members of that original group of farmers who came to Creston in 1929. They wrote: "Today, the farmers are rather complacent about the dykes. This is mainly because most of the 'old timers' have gone and the new generation has not realised how much effort, blood, sweat and tears have gone into those dykes."

This may not be quite true; we talked to many second-generation reclamation farmers, and their memories of the dyking efforts, the floods, and the struggle remain very strong. Most of them, however, recall events with a laugh; perhaps the realities of the fight have faded over time.

The evidence of this history that has been left on the land is also very clear, but these marks, too, are fading with time. Indeed, in some places - where dykes are washing away, for example, or on the Creston Valley Wildlife Area land - indications of the struggle to tame the Kootenay River are being erased by the river's efforts to reassert itself.

The Farmer's Almanac has predicted that the winter of 2003-2004 will be one of record snowfall. Already, in early December, we have seen heavy snow falling several times, and local residents are saying that there has been more snow fall so far this year than there was in 1997, the last year the dykes were tested.

The farmers will be preparing. The struggle continues.