Latest Museum News

I apologize for not posting for awhile. We've been very busy with events and programs. Last Saturday, we had the Grand Opening of our New Gift Shop. If you haven't seen it, you'd be surprised at the variety of items for sale here. I (Cathy English, Curator) was in Victoria for a meeting to plan for the Free Spirit Conservation Tour to be held here October 22 to 24 this fall. The Royal BC Museum and BC Hydro Power Smart are presenting a traveling version of the Free Spirit BC exhibit currently on at the Royal BC Museum. The exhibit will showcase BC's rich history of the past 150 years and more, and show us how to preserve the province for the next 150 years and more through careful use of our resources. Watch for more details as we get closer to the event.

I also led a Cemetery Walk this week. The next two are scheduled for July 10 and August 19 at 7 pm. There are many interesting people buried in the local cemetery, including Douglas Hector, son of Sir James Hector, who discovered the Kicking Horse Pass (James Hector is the one who got Kicked by the Horse!) There are victims of two unsolved murders in the cemetery - Jennie Kiobara, a prostitute who was murdered in 1905, and Frank Julian, who was supposedly murdered by the mafia in 1910.

This week, Service BC was celebrating the 150th anniversary of Government Agents in BC. My Brown Bag History talk on Wednesday focused on Government Agents from Revelstoke, then on Thursday, I led tours of the historic Revelstoke Court House.

I will be continuing Brown Bag History this summer as Brown Bag Picnic, and we will hold it outside in the Heritage Garden whenever weather allows. The sessions will be held on July 2, July 16, July 30, August 13, and August 27. I will repeat some of my previous talks, as voted on by the regular Brown Bag participants. The topics will include: World War I Internment Camp, Big Bend Gold Rush, Downtown Revelstoke, and Mount Begbie. Those sessions all got 4 or more votes. The fifth session will be one of the following topics: Disasters on the Columbia, Farming, or Unsolved Mysteries. Which one would you choose?