Photo: Contributed

For the small Kootenay town of Fernie, The Great War was more than a battle in a distant land.

The First World War not only claimed the lives of Fernie residents who went off to battle, it threatened the very fabric of the community itself.

Some 100 years after the final shot was heard, author Wayne Norton chronicles the trials and tribulations of the B.C. city in his book Fernie at War: 1914-1919.

The British Columbia Historical Federation awarded Norton with the Community History Award which recognizes local and community history.

Fernie at War explores what it meant to live in the town during the confusing and divisive years of the Great War and its aftermath.

As a resource-based economy with unusually large and varied immigrant populations, and exceptionally high recruitment levels, Fernie was profoundly affected by conflicting impulses of labour, loyalty and ethnicity.

Demands for internment of enemy aliens, resistance to prohibition and moral reform, the consequences of natural and man-made disasters, the unprecedented banning of recruitment, and the western labour revolt were all issues that contributed to a war-time experience for Fernie that was more dramatic and more revealing of underlying tensions than that of any other Canadian community.

The public is invited to Norton’s presentation at the Greater Vernon Museum & Archives 3009 32nd Ave. for a concise and in-depth presentation on Fernie at War and history pertaining to Vernon on Saturday, Oct. 6, at 1 p.m.

Admission is by donation. Space is limited and re-registration required by calling 250-542-3142.

Books will be available for sale and signing.