CASTLEGAR, Canada -- Tucked into the green valleys of southeast British Columbia, a handful of century-old brick houses are mute witnesses to an old way of life.

Once these were home to Doukhobors, Christian pacifists who fled the religious persecution of Russia's 19th-century czars and ended up in this far corner of Canada.

About 6,000 Doukhobors settled here, near the communities of Castlegar and Grand Forks, in the early 1900s and established dozens of villages where they lived communally. They made bricks and built their houses; cleared the forest and planted fruit trees; broke sod and grew their vegetables; and spun wool from sheep into modest, plain clothing.

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If you go: Castlegar

• Museum: The Doukhobor Discovery Centre is a reconstruction of a typical Doukhobor village of the early 1900s. The museum in Castlegar, B.C., includes two traditional-style houses and outbuildings, furnishings, handicrafts and historic photos. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily from May 1 to Sept. 30. www.doukhobor-museum.org or 1-250-365-5327.
• Doukhobors: The largest Doukhobor group is the Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ, centered in Castlegar and Grand Forks in southeast B.C. See www.usccdoukhobors.org for Doukhobor history and events. The website www.doukhobor.org has extensive background.
• Information: Tourism B.C. (Kootenay-Rockies region); visit the Web site or 1-800-435-5622.

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For decades, the valleys (across the border north of Spokane, Wash.) echoed to the sound of the Doukhobors' Russian language and plaintive singing of hymns and psalms.

Fast-forward to the 21st century. For a casual visitor, the Doukhobor heritage isn't immediately obvious. North America's estimated 30,000 Doukhobors -- most of whom live in British Columbia -- now blend into Canadian society.

Yet the cultural heritage endures, if you take the time to look beneath the surface. In the small towns of Grand Forks and Castlegar, vinyl-table cafes serve borscht (the traditional Russian beet soup) and rib-sticking pierogi. School kids chat in Russian, thanks to language-immersion programs in public schools. Russian surnames abound, such as Davidoff and Popoff. You might see older women wearing the traditional headscarf or, if you're lucky, hear a Doukhobor choir singing, a cappella, in Russian.

For a visitor, though, the best way to get a taste of Doukhobor heritage is at one of the museums in the region.

On a driving trip in southeast British Columbia, I wandered from ski resorts to old mining towns, from hot springs in the forest to Nelson, the surprisingly cosmopolitan hub of what's called the West Kootenay region. The town of about 10,000 is blessed with lovingly preserved 19th-century buildings, comfortable hotels, good restaurants and a countercultural/outdoorsy vibe. Being a big fan of small-town museums, I also ended up at the Doukhobor Discovery Centre in the nearby town of Castlegar.

The museum is a reconstructed Doukhobor village showing what life was like in the early 1900s. Tall brick houses, with narrow windows and broad porches, perch on a bluff above the Columbia River. Each such house would have been an extended-family home to dozens of men, women and children.

For curator Larry Ewashen, the museum has been a labor of love for 17 years and a way to connect to his Doukhobor heritage.

Walking through one of the houses, 70-year-old Mr. Ewashen points out the kitchen's traditional clay and brick oven, the wood table for simple meals and rows of small bedrooms upstairs sparely furnished with handmade wooden beds and stools. A few handwoven rugs, some almost a century old, hang on the walls; rugs were traditional presents for newlyweds.

Life was always austere for the Doukhobors -- the name means "spirit wrestlers" -- who emerged in Russia in the 1700s as dissidents from the Russian Orthodox Church, renouncing the church hierarchy, rituals and icon worship. They shunned meat (many remain vegetarians), alcohol and smoking. Those who settled in British Columbia in the early 1900s worked in the fields, in a jam-making factory or brick factory that the industrious Doukhobors established near Castlegar.

Outside authority, both of church and state, traditionally was disdained. As pacifists, Doukhobors refused military service.

Their Christian services are held with no ostentation and no clergy; Doukhobors sing psalms and hymns or say their own prayers by a table set with bread, salt and water, representing the simplest staffs of life.

While Doukhobors sought a peaceful and secluded life, they sometimes clashed with the outside world. Thousands of men burned their weapons in an anti-military protest in Russia in 1895, touching off tensions that eventually led to the mass exodus to Canada. The 19th-century Russian novelist and philosopher Leo Tolstoy championed the Doukhobors and helped pay their way to Canada; a statue of Tolstoy stands behind the museum in Castlegar.

Nowadays the Doukhobor Discovery Centre fosters cultural pride through its displays and activities, from special exhibits and festivals to a community garden.

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