Glimpses of the Past: March 12, 2026

By Jaimie Reynolds, Volunteer, Revelstoke Museum and Archives

John McInnes, Grant Gunnarsen, Larry Nelles, Nolan Stringer with trophy for winning high school meet in Rossland, 1956. Revelstoke Museum and Archives Collection P-6901.

130 years ago: Kootenay Mail – March 14, 1896

Dr. Gatewood, “Dentist”, was going to be in Revelstoke at the Victoria Hotel around March 16th. He was prepared to do all kinds of dental work. It was up to his patients whether or not they could trust a dentist performing dental work at a hotel!

120 years ago: The Mail Herald – March 14, 1906

The C.P.R arranged to send a special train from Montreal to Vancouver to carry Prince Arthur of Connaught, across the continent on his trip home from Japan and the east. The special train was going to pass through Revelstoke at 11am on April 2nd.

110 years ago: The Mail Herald - March 11, 1916

An early morning fire on Mackenzie Avenue caused much damage to local businesses. The fire broke out about 2:30am and burnt until 9am, destroying the Ideal Cigar and Pool Room, the Ideal Barber Shop, the McRae Mercantile Company’s gent’s furnishing store and partly destroying the Sugar Bowl Candy and Ice Cream Parlors. The cause of the fire was unknown, and from the firemen’s perspective, the hardest blaze to fight that had ever occurred in Revelstoke.

100 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 10, 1926

At a session of the Board of Trade in Revelstoke, it was decided that arrangements would be made to send two delegates to ‘address’ the Okanagan Valley boards of trades about a highway route. It was hoped that they would be able to solicit their support to the movement already afoot in Revelstoke for the opening of the trans-provincial highway via the Columbia River route to Jasper and Edmonton.

90 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 13, 1936

Multiple railway men had a miraculous escape from injury following a train derailment at Griffin Lake. Their freight train hit a mud and snow slide, with the engine and nine cars leaving the rails and the engine making a nosedive down a 100-foot embankment, coming to a stop after it had nosed through the icy lake. The fireman and trainman both jumped out in time, and the engineer was dug out of the engine after about half an hour.

80 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 14, 1946

At a public meeting in the King Edward Hotel, it was the unanimous wish of those present that the Revelstoke public library be re-established. The meeting had been called by the Revelstoke Parent Teachers’ Association. Room facilities would most likely be available at the Civic Centre through the courtesy of the Kinsmen, and it was hoped that the library would be in operation soon.

70 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 15, 1956

John McInnis accepted the jumping award for his Revelstoke ski team as winners of the competition held in connection with the West-Kootenay inter-high school meet in Rossland on March 3rd. His teammates were Grant Gunnarsen, Nolan Stringer and Larry Nelles. John outdistanced all competitors to win the individual jumping award with 223.1 points.

60 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 10, 1966

A wildlife film of unique interest was presented to the community. “Call of the Monashee”, set in the rugged alpine scenery of the Peters’ Lake area in the Monashee Mountains, focused on the unspoiled mountain wilderness few had seen in person. Featured in the film was an excellent array of wildlife, including deer, caribou, cougar, pika and marmot.

50 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 10, 1976

In honour of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, 250 students and staff from Farwell School were running laps in the school’s activity room. As a mathematics project, the students figured out that 25 laps made 1 kilometre, and that the distance from Revelstoke to Montreal was 4, 160.24 kilometres. Therefore, in terms of running the equivalent distance in laps, the kids were hoping to make it to Montreal by Spring Break.

40 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 12, 1986

After a three-year absence, the Revelstoke Secondary School Curling Leage was back in the running. A local team placed first in the ‘B’ event during league play with other community high schools. It was hoped that the curling league would be a revived tradition for R.S.S.

30 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 13, 1996

Revelstoke’s Community Futures Development Corporation was considering setting up a Community Foundation. At the time of print, they were in the information stage of the project. Kamloops and Vancouver already had community foundations that could be used to fund community projects, and it was hoped that Revelstoke’s good community spirit would make the establishment of a foundation a possibility.

20 years ago: The Revelstoke Review - March 15, 2006

A sixteen-year-old may well have been the luckiest teen in Revelstoke! Chad Lecompte opened a carton of chocolate milk and heard it go “Mooo!” Upon opening it up completely, he found a tiny noise-maker and a message saying he had won $10,000 in the BC Dairy Foundation’s annual MooYouWin contest. Who knew a carton of chocolate milk could be so lucky?