Monday, October 26, 2009

Porcupines and Policemen

At Revelstoke Museum and Archives we have Revelstoke newspapers on microfilm from 1890 to 1965. It is always a lot of fun reading the early newspapers. The writing styles were quite florid, and there didn't seem to be any publication bans. There are plenty of amusing stories to be found, such as this one from the August 7, 1912 issue of the Revelstoke Mail-Herald. One can't help wondering why the man thought it was a good idea to kick the animal when he thought it was a bear!

The article is entitled: “A Peculiar Adventure"
"A police officer and a well-known government employee of Revelstoke, met with a peculiar adventure on Tuesday evening last, within the city limits.
"Walking home about 11 pm, one of the friends wheeling a bicycle, and both engaged in an animated conversation, the attention of the alert-eyed officer was attracted to the movement of some wild, brown creature rustling its way through the grass along the roadside. The silent night resounded with the quick call: “A bear, a bear” and whilst the constable pulled his gun, the other fellow stepped over and gave bruin a playful little kick. It was a bear, but of the electric variety, and there was a scene of great excitement as the venturesome kicker danced round the road with no less than eighty-four porcupine quills sticking into his foot and leg. The startled constable got in a pot shot at the fleeting animal, but the bullet went right through the steel quilled one without apparently damaging it, and found a safe billet in the tyre of the bicycle which exploded with a noise like thunder, the double report bringing the night patrol hastily to the scene.
"The quills were removed at the Revelstoke hospital, and the two nimrods continued the movement homewards, arriving safely without any further adventures.
"The wounded hero of this incident was very reticent when our reporter tried to interview him the following morning, but the quills were there to speak for themselves, and all we succeeded in learning was that next time he ran across a porcupine there would be no kick coming so far as he personally was concerned.”

Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Holten Family

We recently added a fan page for Revelstoke Museum and Archives, and we are already up to 70 fans! I now feel obliged to update the blog more often, to give our fans something to read. I can't promise daily or even weekly blogs, but I'll do what I can.

I'll tell you a bit about one of my favourite Revelstoke families: The Holten Family. Charles Holten came to Revelstoke around 1885, and was one of the first to investigate mining prospects in the Lardeau region south of Revelstoke (around Trout Lake, Ferguson, and that area.) He and his partner Thomas Downs located the Silver Cup mine, one of the most successful in the region. They sold it for a nice bundle and both settled in Revelstoke. Charles Holten was an original director in the Revelstoke Water, Power and Light Company which was organized in 1896, and in that capacity he supervised the construction of the first water mains for the city. He was an original partner with Thomas Downs and William Cowan in the establishment of the Enterprise Brewery in 1897. Enterprise Brewery continued in operation until 1955. In 1897, Charles Holten had a beautiful home built on First Street, at the crest of the hill. The house was built for his bride, Lyda Edwards, who had come to Revelstoke in 1894 with her family. The Holtens became the elite of Revelstoke society and their home was the setting for many social events. Charles Holten died on October 13, 1918 and Lyda lived until 1942. Their two sons, Charles and Drennan, passed away without leaving any family.

Now for the interesting part. Charles and Lyda both reinvented themselves in one way or another. Charles was born Karl Hultengren in Sweden on October 20, 1865. In the census records available, he does not give his ancestry as Swedish, and does not say that he was born in Sweden. His age is always different in each of the records as well. We really don't know why he didn't want to be Swedish, but we haven't come across any particular scandal that would indicate why he changed his name and nationality.

Lyda, on the other hand, has a scandal attached to her family. When she came here in 1894 as a young woman, she was with her parents Charles and Mary Edwards, her brothers Jim and Eddie Edwards, and her young niece Mary Edwards (Jim's illegitimate daughter.) Records show that the legal surname of Jim, Eddie, Lyda and young Mary was Silcott. Craven Silcott, the father of the three siblings, was from a distinguished Ohio family. Craven was working as cashier in the bank of the House of Representatives in the United States, when he disappeared along with a substantial amount of money. Some stories said that he had fled to Quebec with his French Canadian mistress, while other stories indicated that he had reunited with his family and they had gone to Mexico, after which no trace of them was found. What we don't know is whether Charles Edwards and Craven Silcott were the same person, or whether Mrs. Silcott had remarried. The Charles Edwards who came to Revelstoke in 1894 claimed that he had once been an Australian sea captain. It's an interesting story, especially the way in which a family who had fled a scandal ended up at the top of Revelstoke society.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Heritage Interpretive Panels


I'm part of a committee in charge of creating heritage interpretive panels to be placed along the biking/walking trail from the Community Centre to the Illecillewaet River. A couple of years ago, a panel about Farming in Revelstoke was placed along the walking trail a short distance along from the Worker's Memorial. Currently, we are working on panels about Sternwheelers, the Forest Industry, the Railway, and First Nations. It's a good opportunity to share the rich history of this region with locals and visitors alike. Today we were talking about the Railway panel and brainstorming ideas about what elements should be in the panel. We talked about the impact of the railway on Revelstoke, and how it has defined this community. Revelstoke was once one of the major centres in the interior of the province, and that was because of the importance of Revelstoke as a railway divisional point. Revelstoke connected the east-west traffic of the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline with the traffic from the south along the Columbia River. Because of this connection, Revelstoke was made a customs port, even though we are close to 200 miles north of the American border.


In early tourism brochures, Revelstoke was cited as one of the easiest points to reach. Nowadays, it is considered difficult to reach, because of our distance from an international airport. We also talked about the number of Royal Visitors that came to Revelstoke in the days when they made their trips across the country by train. The Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VIII, visited Revelstoke in 1919 and 1927. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) visited in 1939 as part of their cross-country trip, and Queen Elizabeth II visited as Princess in 1951 and as Queen in 1959. Revelstoke is no longer as likely to see a Royal Visit as current trips are planned around the international airports.


The development of road travel and air travel in other parts of the province had an impact on Revelstoke's development. While the rest of the province was being opened to road travel in the 1920s and 1930s, Revelstoke lagged behind, because the Big Bend highway from Revelstoke to Golden was not completed until 1940. Even then, it was a treacherous highway, and could not be kept open in the winters. It was not until 1962 that the Rogers Pass highway was completed.
The photograph at the top of this post shows the Revelstoke CPR yards around 1912.
On another note, we invite everyone to join our fan page on Facebook. Fans will be eligible for special discounts and offers, and will be the first to know about upcoming museum events.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Williamson's Lake and Rotary

This coming Saturday, October 10, is the 80th Anniversary of the Revelstoke Rotary Club. The Brown Bag History topic this week will be on the connection between Rotary and Williamson's Lake. I will also be a guest speaker at their Anniversary Banquet this coming Saturday. They are having the banquet on the exact anniversary date, and they are recreating the original banquet menu! It should be a great evening!

Soon after the Rotary club formed in the fall of 1929, they looked for a community project that they could put their money and volunteer effort into. They decided to take on the upgrading of Williamson's Lake, the small lake just south of town that had been the local swimming hole since the 1890s. The lake was named after Mr. A. Williamson, who established his farm along the lake. It was well used, but had never been developed until the Rotary Club took it on. They held a big fundraising dance in March of 1930, then in May of that year began going out to the lake to begin their upgrading work. That first year, they installed two piers, one with a platform and spring board, built several rafts, brought in 200 loads of sand, cleared 250 feet of beach, built a combined boat house and girls' dressing room and made countless other improvements. They took over the running of the Annual Swimming and Diving Meet, and hired a lifeguard and swimming instructor. The Rotary Club continued this commitment to Williamson's Lake until after the Centennial Pool was built in 1971. Although the City of Revelstoke now maintains the lake, the Rotary continues to be involved, and this year they provided a new dock.

For close to 40 years, the Rotary held a Carnival to raise funds for the Williamson's Lake project. Their first carnival, held on Labour Day in 1930, raised the astounding amount of $1,396.26. $823.54 of that amount was earned from ticket sales for the raffle of an Oldsmobile Sport Sedan.

A newspaper article in June of 1937 poked good-natured fun at the Rotary members who headed out to Williamson's Lake to rake in truckloads of gravel and sand which were hauled out by truck. The Rotary Club members were all local businessmen, and the newspaper made sure to point this out: "Visitors at Williamson's Lake on Wednesday were amazed to see a bank manager, a druggist, a dentist, a lawyer, the theatre proprietor, the jeweller, CPR officials and local merchants and professional men in shirt sleeves and overalls trying manfully to swing shovels and rakes in the approved manner...It would have gladdened the heart of anyone accustomed to this kind of work to see the businessmen trying to keep their brows mopped between shovelfuls...Citizens who hear their banker groan as he sits down or find the theatre manager too stiff to walk up to the balcony, or the dentist unable to bend over, will understand that these things are suffered for the sake of improving Williamson's Lake."

Congratulations to the Revelstoke Rotary Club on their 80th Anniversary, and thanks to all of the members who have provided such outstanding service to this community!