Columbia Park Street Names

Today in Brown Bag History, we were talking about street and place names. It's a very broad topic, so we focused on names in the Columbia Park subdivision. The name Columbia Park dates back to 1898 when the Dominion government granted 7 villa lots to a local committee for park purposes. When Revelstoke was incorporated in 1899, Columbia Park was turned over to the new city. Many of the street names in the area come from early farmers in the area. Oliver Henry Allen had a brewery on the river bank where the Trans-Canada Highway bridge is now. Hugh Allen Smythe, W. Maddocks, Job Maley and Jock Malcolm were all early farmers in the area. George Laforme was a miner and packer in the Big Bend region, and also had a farm where he grew strawberries and other crops.

Cleland Road is named after James Cleland, who wife was the sister of farmer Jock Malcolm. Cleland had farmland in the area but was also a Revelstoke policeman, and later chief of police from 1916 until his death in 1920. Cleland was only 40 years old when he died of influenza. Although 1920 didn't see the number of flu deaths that occurred in 1918 and 1919, it was still considered serious enough that only 10 people were allowed to attend his funeral. This wasn't the end of tragedy for the Cleland family. In June of that same year, 1920, James Cleland's 14 year-old daughter Marjorie died in a boating accident on the Columbia River. Four young people were boating in high water and attempted to "jump" over the breakwater when their boat overturned and all of them drowned. Marjorie's body was finally recovered in August and she was buried beside her father. That same month, a serious fire on the Cleland farm almost destroyed the family home. Mrs. Cleland and her remaining children moved to South Africa, where they had other relatives. Several years ago, some of the South African relatives visited the museum and learned more about the family's time in Revelstoke.