Pass the Popcorn~ 
The Salmar turns 70!

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 2019 the Salmar celebrated 70 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 2020.

 Construction underway

 And the theatre opened in May 1949

Slxlxaya:

Stories  of the Secwepemc Culture

Travelling exhibits are the best! They come carefully packed and, although you know the contents beforehand, they are still a surprise. 

This month a travelling exhibit, Slxlxaya Stories Box, was installed at the Gallery in the Montebello Museum. It travelled all the way from the Salmon Arm Arts Centre. The box contained art and the stories that inspired First Nations and Metis artists from this area.

The exhibit was inspired by the Neskonlith Knowledge Keeper and Salmon Arm Museum Cultural Advisor, Louis Thomas.

 Louis Thomas and Curator Tracey Kutschker listen to one of the Chiptekwila on a tablet

Thomas had a dream to teach the Secwepemc history to all Shuswap children, share Secwepemc legends and knowledge with the wider community, encourage understanding between the settler and Indigenous cultures, and promote the health of our environment.

The exhibit features the art of Hop You Haskett, Maria Thomas, Pierce Johnny, John Sayer, Alexus Lee, Diane Jewell, Cade Hawkins-Bara, and Lottie Kozak.

 

Slxlxaya (family stories) and Chiptekwilah (legends) are told by Mary Thomas, Anna S. Michel, Joseph Michel, John Sayer, Lawrence Michel, Louis Thomas, Kenthen Thomas, Randy Williams, and Hop You Haskett. Singers include: Melpatkwa and Skewaw Matthew. Recordings are courtesy of the CBC and Voice of the Shuswap.

Self-taught woodcarving artist Hop You Haskett created the beautiful trunk to carry the art and sound recordings.  Lottie Kozak is a skilled carver who is particularly concerned about the health of the salmon in the BC Interior. 


This exhibit runs from June 24 to September 20, 2019.

 

Artists from left to right:
Cade Hawkins-Bara, Desiree Alexis Roy, Pierce Johnny
Maria Thomas, John Sayer, Diane Jewell

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,