Monkeys and Tarantulas

Ok, I left the last blog with a bit of a cliff-hanger, so I will explain. What do tarantulas and monkeys have to do with hotels in Revelstoke?

In 1905, Mrs. MacDonnell, wife of the manager of the Revelstoke CPR Hotel, was unpacking a carton of bananas from Mexico when out crawled a tarantula. Someone managed to capture it and it was kept in a jar on the front counter for the amusement of the guests.

And the monkey? Well, it was an unexpected guest in the dining room of the City Hotel, which opened in 1899 on First Street West, where Mount Begbie Brewing Company is now located. The members of a travelling circus were staying at the hotel and the troupe's monkey managed to get out of his crate and make his way to the dining room. He made a good meal out of leftovers from people's plates, and at the time that he was caught he was trying to take the stopper out of a bottle of ketchup.

The talk on Revelstoke hotels included several fires, many of which were deliberately set. In at least two of these cases, people died when they were caught in the fires. None of the arsonists were ever caught. I also talked about the Climax Hotel (yes, it was as bad as it sounds!) where a man died in the early 1900s after being hit by the hotel manager. There were several contradictory stories about what actually happened, and due to a lack of evidence, the manager was not charged with the man's death. There was also a story about the Salvation Army singing outside of the Climax Hotel. The hotel manager came out with a hose and soaked the poor missionaries. The Climax Hotel burned down in 1916.

For more information on this subject contact us at the Revelstoke Museum @ revelstokemuseum@telus.net