Monday, April 28, 2008

Welcome to our Blog

Revelstoke Museum & Archives now has a blog! Curator Cathy English (that's Me) and other staff will use this blog to update you on museum and archives events and news, and we'll throw in tidbits of local history.

To start you off, I'll tell you how Revelstoke got its name. The original town site name was Farwell, after the original property owner and townsite developer. The Canadian Pacific Railway ended up in a legal battle with Farwell after ownership of the property, and they petitioned the Post Office department to legally change the name to Revelstoke, in honour of Edward Baring, First Lord Revelstoke, of England. Lord Revelstoke, as head of the Baring Bank, had bought enough shares in the CPR company to enable them to complete the trans-continental railway. The name change took place in 1886.