Mattie Gunterman

This past Wednesday, I spoke about Mattie Gunterman at Brown Bag History. Mattie was a truly remarkable woman who lived in Beaton, south of Revelstoke from the late 1890s until her death in 1945. She grew up in Wisconsin, then travelled to Seattle, Washingon at the age of 17. She married William Gunterman in 1891 and their son Henry was born in 1892. Mattie wanted to leave the damp climate of Seattle to ease her worsening lung condition, so the family decided to visit Mattie's cousin in the small mining community of Thomson's Landing, later known as Beaton. William and Mattie, along with 6-year-old Henry and their dog Nero, walked a total of 600 miles, with Will looking for work in sawmills along the way. They arrived in Beaton in June of 1898 and decided to settle there.

Mattie had learned photography from an uncle back in Wisconsin, then received further lessons from Will's brother-in-law, including the art of developing of her own photographs from her glass slide negatives. She began chronicling the life of her family through her photographs, and continued to develop her photographic skills when the family settled in Beaton. Will found work in area logging camps, and Mattie and Henry often went along, with Mattie and Will soon becoming popular camp cooks. Mattie's photographs portray her love of the outdoors, and her connection to her chosen community on the Upper Arrow Lake. Mattie loved to appear in her own photographs, and developed a method for doing this. She used a long piece of rubber tubing attached to her camera’s pneumatic shutter at one end with a rubber bulb at the other. By squeezing with the hand or stepping on the bulb, the shutter would be released and an exposure made at any distance within the tube’s length of the camera.

Will's original occupation in Seattle had been as a candymaker, and he practiced his art in Beaton, providing candy for all of the local children at Christmas time. He shared his skills with Horace Manning of Revelstoke, and provided Manning with the recipe for the famous Manning's Broadway chocolates. Will had not originally been too pleased to be relocating to the isolated community of Beaton, but he did so knowing that Mattie was delighted with the semi-wilderness of the area, and that her health improved greatly in the new environment.

Henry Gunterman stayed in Beaton for most of his life, and raised his family there as well. In 1961, he was visited by Ron D'Altroy of the Historic Photographs divsion of the Vancouver Public Library. Henry helped Ron look for his mother's glass negatives in an old woodshed, and they found them in a box covered with packrat droppings. Henry donated the photographs to the Vancouver Public Library, where they were carefully cleaned and catalogued. The collection is still available at the VPL and many of the photographs were reproduced in the book "Flapjacks and Photographs" by Henri Robideau. You can view the photographs on the Vancouver Public Library website: http://www3.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/spe/histphotos/

SS Minto

The Brown Bag History talk yesterday was on the S.S. Minto, a paddlewheel steamer that was part of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Inland fleet. The S.S. Minto operated on the Arrow Lakes between Arrowhead and West Robson from 1898 to 1954 and there are still plenty of people around who fondly remember travelling on her.

Otto Estabrooks, captain of the S.S. Minto in 1947 told some of his adventures to E.L. Affleck, author of "Sternwheelers, Sandbars, and Switchbacks" As Estabrooks remembered, “My own major brush with an eddy occurred many years later on the MINTO, in the narrows between the two lakes. With the stern caught in an eddy and the bow in a fast running current, both pressing hard in opposite directions the boat turned with breathless speed to crash against the sharp rocks of a granite bluff opposite. Here destiny had provided a big log caught on the rocks against which the boat made a spectatular crash landing without doing any damage to the hull. Had the log not been there, I cannot say what would have happened, but one thing is certain, the boiler was too close to the contact point for comfort. That one never took liberties with steam boilers was a maxim.” Estabrooks had many other stories of his time as a steamboat captain in the interior of British Columbia.

The Canadian Pacific Railway finally made the decision to retire the S.S. Minto in 1954, after the boat had logged over 2,500,000 miles in its 56 years of operation. The last run of the Minto took place on April 23, 1954, and all of the staterooms were fully booked. One of the passengers was Mrs. Olive Maitland of Winnipeg, who had ridden on the maiden voyage of the Minto back in 1898. Residents all along the Upper and Lower Arrow Lakes came out to bid farewell to the Minto.

The Minto was sold to the city of Nakusp for $1, but they could not maintain it, and it was finally acquired by John Nelson of Galena Bay. He brought the Minto up to his property, but never had the money needed to get the sternwheeler navigational again. After John Nelson's death, the boat was towed into the middle of the lake and burned in August of 1968.

Plans for 2010

We have lots of events and programs coming up for this year. To begin with, we are collecting stories on behalf of the Revelstoke Olympic Committee for the Revelstoke Torch Relay Story Contest. Submit a story of 1000 words or less on Winter Fun in Revelstoke, Past, Present or Future, and be eligible for cash prizes. Stories must be submitted to the museum at revelstokemuseum@telus.net by 5 pm, Monday, January 18th.

There are a few significant annivesaries in 2010. This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Farwell townsite, and the 125th anniversary of the Driving of the Last Spike. We will be holding a Farwell Tea on March 6th to begin our celebration of these events.

The Brown Bag History series commences on January 13th with a talk on the SS Minto, and we are adding a new program beginning January 20th. The "Memories" evenings will give everyone a chance to share their stories of the history of this region. The series will kick off on January 20th at 7 pm with "Memories of Arrowhead," led by former Arrowhead resident Sherrian Van Goor. Whether you lived there and have stories to share, or whether you just want to come to hear everyone else's stories, you are welcome.

100 years ago on March 4, 1910, Canada's largest avalanche disaster occurred at Rogers Pass when 58 men were killed. There will be a series of events this year marking this tragic event. Here is the schedule of events planned by the committee:
January 21, 2010: Avalanche safety awareness film night—Lessons from 1910, Revelstoke United Church at 7:30 pm.
March 4, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. 1910 Avalanche Memorial Service at Grizzly Plaza.
March 4, 2010 at Noon: Opening ceremony for a special exhibit on the history of avalanche safety in Canada at the Canadian Avalanche Centre.
August 13 – 22, 2010: Railway Days History Field Trips to Rogers Pass National Historic Site.
August 13, 2010: Opening ceremony for a special exhibit at the Revelstoke Railway Museum.
August 14, 2010: Opening ceremony for a special exhibit at the Revelstoke Museum & Archives.
August 15, 2010: Memorial Service at the site of the 1910 slide in Rogers Pass National Historic Site.

Call us at the museum at 250-837-3067 for any information on these events or to find out how you can get involved.