Land of Thundering Snow

On March 4, 1910, Canada’s deadliest avalanche hit the Rogers Pass.

First, a non-fatal slide came down in the late afternoon off the slopes of Cheops Mountain. It buried the Canadian Pacific Railway line, stranding passengers bound for Vancouver, but no one was hurt.

While those stranded waited at the Rogers Pass Station, east of the avalanche, a work train from Revelstoke was sent in to help clear the way. They arrived at the east side of the avalanche and worked away all day attempting to remove the snow and debris.

Then, close to midnight, another massive slide hit, this time from the other side of the valley off the aptly named Avalanche Mountain.

This slide was deadly. Fifty-eight men—long-time Canadians and new immigrants—were buried and killed.

A travelling exhibit from the Revelstoke Museum and Archives explores the avalanche history of our region. Land of Thundering Snow runs in the Montebello Gallery at R.J. Haney Heritage Village and Museum until September 18.

 

Text courtesy the Pique Newsmagazine. Article by Alyssa Noel.  January 21, 2021.
Photo Credit: Revelstoke Museum and Archives

Click here to see  the online exhibit: 
https://www.digitalmuseums.ca/funded-projects/land-of-thundering-snow/

Pass the Popcorn ~
The Salmar is open!

Imagine a community coming together to create a living memorial to the soldiers who had not returned from war. The date was 1946. The group was the Salmon Arm Community Association.

The idea was to raise money for a community arena, but how? Members of the newly formed Association decided to get into the movie theatre business. 

 Ground Breaking for a new theatre 

In May 20121 the Salmar celebrated 72 years “in business for the community” and its story is the feature of a new exhibit in the Montebello Gallery at R.J. Haney Heritage Village. A 35 mm Kineton projector, theatre seats, popcorn, movie posters, and photographs document the Salmar legacy.

From the first movies shown in a Quonset hut to a present day multiplex theatre with raked seating- our little community association has invested its profits locally in projects and scholarships for youth. This exhibit runs until September 2021.

 Construction underway

 And the theatre opened in May 1949

Can you dig it? 
Shuswap mining history

Six years after the Cariboo Gold Rush begins miners head for the Big Bend on the Columbia River via Shuswap Lake. A year later, the Columbia Gold Rush is officially a bust and miners are bitter. They call it the Big Bend Bilk.

But not everyone gives up. In 1866, 80 die-hard miners winter over at Scotch Creek on Shuswap Lake. They have seen the coarse pellets and nuggets found 10 miles from the creek’s mouth. So begins the story of mining fever in the Shuswap. . .

This exhibit explores the history of placer and hard rock mining in the Shuswap.

Artefacts from “Jolly” Jack Thornton’s Sunset Mine Claim on Mt. Ida, a miner’s pump, rocker and assaying equipment from other claims accompany stories in photos captured over the last century. Thanks to a partnership with Jim Cooperman, author of Everything Shuswap, and the North Shuswap Historical Society, a mining timeline lays out their quest.

As Salmon Arm Board Member Mary Lou Tapson-Jones was fond of saying, “There are traces of gold throughout the Shuswap but no one has found the mother lode yet. . .”

Catch a fever and learn to pan for gold outside the Montebello Museum.

Click here for access to  a summary of the Scotch Creek Gold Rush by Jim Cooperman author of Everything Shuswap.

photo credit:
Rex Lingford, circa 1909-1914
Jack Thornton's mine - one of the Sunset Group of Claims on Mt. Ida

Or Watch the interview with Larry Speed

on a tour of what remains of Scotch Creek's mining history:

 

Video Courtesy of environmental activist and author  Jim Cooperman,