Cemetery Walk

I will be leading the first cemetery walk of the season on Thursday, June 18 at 7:00 pm. Meet at the Cemetery gates (Highway 23 North across from the Frontier) or call the Museum at 250-837-3067 to arrange for a ride. The tour takes about an hour-and-a-half, and we look at about 20 sites, and talk about the history of the cemetery. The oldest gravestone that we have been able to find is that of Louise Beavo, who died in 1892. If you look at her marker, it will say 1893, but it was over a year after she died before her marker was placed, and they got the year wrong!

We also visit the graves of two murder victims. Jennie Kiobara was a Japanese prostitute who was murdered in 1905. The newspapers of the day described the crime in grisly detail, but had little sympathy for the victim, because of her occupation. Her grave marker was paid for by Wah Chung, the owner of the house in which she lived. Wah Chung was under suspicion for a while, but was never charged. Her murder was never solved, although a story is told that a man confessed to the crime on his deathbed. The other murder victim was Frank Julian, or Francesco Juliano, who came to Revelstoke from Italy via Chicago and San Francisco. He was one of Revelstoke's early Italian citizens, and had a farm near the Illecillewaet River as well as a home on Second Street East. In 1910, he was found murdered on his farm property, killed by a blow from an ax. On his forehead was a black cross, etched into his skin with acid. The murder was believed by everyone, including the police, to be a mafia slaying. His murderer was never found.