Sturgeon in the Columbia

Here's another story from the Brown Bag History talk I'll be giving tomorrow, May 21st at 12:15 pm:

At the end of August in 1918, an employee from one of the mills was fishing, and thought that he had caught his line on a log. After an hour, he realized that it was probably a very large sturgeon, and went to look for help The two men worked until dark, then secured the line to a float in the log. The next morning, he came back with three other men. After a long struggle, they managed to get the sturgeon to the surface, and the original fisherman, Warren Andrews, shot the sturgeon with a rifle. The sturgeon nearly swamped the boat before they got him into shore. The sturgeon measured 8 feet, 3 inches and weighed 230 pounds. It was 3 feet, 6 inches in circumference. The newspaper reported: "Naturally, Mr. Andrews is proud of his remarkable feat, and besides holding the proud distinction of catching the largest fish in the interior of the province, is being sincerely thanked by many residents of Arrowhead and Revelstoke for the huge sturgeon steaks which he has generously distributed."

Don't forget, we're looking for recipes for our 50th Anniversary cookbook that we're producing this year. Whether it's a recipe for sturgeon steaks, or for your favourite dessert, or your grandmother's bread recipe, we'd love to include it.

Upcoming Events and Water Snakes

Join us at the museum on Saturday, May 24th from 2 to 4 pm for a seminar on "Basic Landscape Design and Water Wise Gardening" with Garden Expert Don Burnett from Byland's Nursery in Kelowna. Sign up by calling the museum at 837-3067. Cost is $16. The event will begin with a slide presentation, then we will move outside to the Heritage Garden for some hands-on advice.

We are gathering recipes for a community cookbook to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Revelstoke Museum & Archives Association. Anyone and everyone is invited to participate. We are especially hoping to find recipes from pioneer Revelstoke families. Send them to us at revelstokemuseum@telus.net before the middle of June.

We are in the process of expanding our Gift Shop. Stop in and see our new products.

I am working on my next Brown Bag History presentation for Wednesday, May 21st at 12:15 pm. My topic is "Curator's Favourite Stories," which means I can talk about whatever I want! One interesting story I found came from a letter to the editor of the Revelstoke Herald of August 31, 1901. The writer was complaining about a nasty surprise he received from the water tap one day: "Recently a water snake emerged from the water tap, at which I was filling a glass to drink from. The reptile was of the thickness and length of an ordinary lead pencil, with distended jaws and wriggling fiercely in the soda water bottle, to which I transferred it. It did not present an inviting addition to the drinking water supply of the city." The writer was concerned that he might have to switch to whiskey instead of water as his beverage of choice. Join us on the 21st for more stories.

Chinese Legacies

I am currently working on a joint project with the Revelstoke Railway Museum entitled "Chinese Legacies." We will each mount an exhibit on this theme. The Railway Museum exhibit will look at the role of Chinese workers in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and it will open on Friday, August 15 around 7 pm (after the Railway Days official opening.) The Revelstoke Museum & Archives exhibit is focused on the Chinese community in Revelstoke and it opens on Saturday, August 16 at 11:00 am. I am the researcher and curator for both exhibits and it has been a fascinating job uncovering this history. It is difficult finding accurate information on the number of Chinese who worked on the railway - I have seen numbers ranging from 7,000 to 15,000, and the number of deaths range from 600 to 2,200. This is a very difficult number to pin down, because their deaths were not registered.

Many Chinese people settled in Revelstoke after railway construction, and until the 1920s, they made up about 1/10th of the local population. In the 1901 census, there were 114 Chinese residents in Revelstoke, and only one of them was female. Half of the men were married, but their wives were still in China. Many of them were never able to bring their wives or children over because of the head tax that was imposed on Chinese immigrants.

Watch this blog for ongoing updates on the exhibits. The exhibits will be in place for two years after the opening date, so plan to attend.

Welcome to our Blog

Revelstoke Museum & Archives now has a blog! Curator Cathy English (that's Me) and other staff will use this blog to update you on museum and archives events and news, and we'll throw in tidbits of local history.

To start you off, I'll tell you how Revelstoke got its name. The original town site name was Farwell, after the original property owner and townsite developer. The Canadian Pacific Railway ended up in a legal battle with Farwell after ownership of the property, and they petitioned the Post Office department to legally change the name to Revelstoke, in honour of Edward Baring, First Lord Revelstoke, of England. Lord Revelstoke, as head of the Baring Bank, had bought enough shares in the CPR company to enable them to complete the trans-continental railway. The name change took place in 1886.