Glimpses of the Past: February 26, 2026

By Ben Smith, Collections Manager, Revelstoke Museum and Archives

The new Revelstoke Post Office was declared ready for occupancy on February 23, 1926, and has been home to Revelstoke Museum and Archives since 1974. Happy Birthday to our beautiful home. Revelstoke Museum and Archives Collection, P-491.

130 years ago: Kootenay Mail - February 29, 1896

Four men danced with mortality under the ice. One Wednesday, while cutting ice on the Illiecillewaet for F. McCarty, William Fleming and his men slipped through their cut and were consequently nabbed by the river. Only after an immensely difficult scrimmage with the water, did every man fortunately return to land.

120 years ago: The Mail Herald - February 28, 1906

The Victorian Order of Nurses was an organization founded by philanthropist Isabel Marie Marjoribanks Hamilton-Gordon or Lady Aberdeen, in 1896. It strived to provide visiting nursing services in isolated areas with limited personnel. In this week, an eastern lady patron had been appointed to Revelstoke Hospital, her arrival was still expected.

110 years ago: The Mail Herald – February 26, 1916

The front page contained a great deal of war news, including the names of 23 new recruits, and a letter from the front from Dave Orr, who described a narrow escape from a German shell. A packed audience attended a patriotic rally Rex Theatre to stimulate recruiting, and the Red Cross Society held a Tea which raised $55.80 for their war efforts.

100 years ago: The Revelstoke Review – February 24, 1926

The new Post Office met the approval of Resident Architect Brown of Victoria, who conducted a formal inspection in the presence of Contractor Miller of the Inland Construction Company on February 23. Mr. Brown approved of the building in every particular, and declared it ready to open for business. Happy 100th Birthday to this beautiful heritage building that has been home to Revelstoke Museum and Archives for 51 years.

90 years ago: The Revelstoke Review – February 28, 1936

It was determined by the City Engineer that the current City Hall Building was in need of replacement. The building at the same location of the current City Hall was built as a schoolhouse in 1891 and moved to that location in 1903. The building supports and beams were failing, and the building was beginning to shift. The engineer said that the building was too old to warrant repair, and encouraged the city to find other quarters soon.

80 years ago: The Revelstoke Review – February 28, 1946

.Rev. A.H. Orthner, pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance of Revelstoke, announced the upcoming. opening service of their new church on the corner of Kootenay and Third Streets, on Sunday, March 10th. Rev. and Mrs. Orthner had arrived in Revelstoke in 1944 and had been conducting services in a house on Douglas Street.

70 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 1, 1956

Two Revelstoke ski jumpers took “B” class honours at a ski tournament in Edmonton. Erland Wolds and Bruce Carlson both essayed to Alberta’s interior on their own accord, hoping to return with some adequate representation for Revelstoke, and I believe they did just that. Carlson executed a staggering 151 foot jump.

60 years ago: The Revelstoke Review – February 24, 1966

Talented pianist drops into Revelstoke. If you’re reading this thinking, I’ve never thought to intentionally watch anyone play a piano, you are shorting yourself of a terrific experience. Richard Gresko, a well-known Canadian pianist, demonstrated his affinity for Russian classics, like the Mussorgsky. Go to the next piano recital you hear about, I dare you!

50 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 1, 1976

Before Dairy Queen, we had Tastee-Freez, a burger/ice-cream, snow-cone one-stop shop, located where Emo’s Restaurant is now. Over the first weekend of March, it celebrated its opening for the season with a burger special…75 cents a burger. Is this news? No. Is it history? Not particularly. Just a bitter reminder of what was taken from us.

40 years ago: The Revelstoke Review  - February 26, 1986

Tony Volpatti poses with the trophies he’s earned in his career as a Cross Country racer, on his Honda CR500. The sport was similar to Motocross, but had a more difficult track. Just 8 months earlier, Volpatti won the Canadian Championship in the 1985 Cross-Country Junior Over 200 National competition in Calgary.

30 years ago: The Revelstoke Review – February 27, 1996

A Revelstoke fan was arrested after chucking an entire garbage can onto the ice at the Revelstoke Grizzlies’s play-off game against the North Okanagan Kings. A fight had just broken out on the ice over how a Kings player had made contact with the Grizzlies’s goalie, and next thing you know, 10 pounds of plastic was soaring over the shielding. I underestimated the purpose of the frisbees. 

20 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 1, 2006

If you’ve been to our museum, or you’re on your way right now, then you are bound to be familiar with our model of the S.S. Minto, the paddlewheel steamer that once plied the Columbia. Within this week was the model’s inauguration into the museum’s collection, and into our main gallery space. It is still there, because we love it, and because we are not equipped to move it.