Glimpses of the Past: April 30, 2026
By Laura VanZant, Assistant Curator, Revelstoke Museum & Archives
Christmas Seals campaign kick-off, 1952. Revelstoke Museum & Archives, P-3787.
130 years ago: Kootenay Mail, May 2nd, 1896
Exciting news! Arrowhead was to have its own post office, under the direction of Postmaster G. Newman.
120 years ago: Revelstoke Mail-Herald, April 28th, 1906
The Revelstoke Sawmill Company was making trial runs of its machinery in the hopes of opening at full capacity on May 1st. The mill in the Big Eddy was said to be the best yet built in British Columbia, and its position alongside the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway was lauded as a great advertisement for the lumber industry of Revelstoke.
110 years ago: Revelstoke Mail-Herald, April 29th, 1916
Fantastic news, the linen shower mentioned in this column two weeks ago was a success! 242 articles were donated to Queen Victoria Hospital, a response “so much greater than was anticipated.” A full list of contributors was included in the newspaper.
100 years ago: Revelstoke Review, April 28th, 1926
Baron Byng of Vimy, the Governor General of Canada, and Lady Byng passed through Revelstoke on their way to Vancouver Island. They had been travelling through Canada, but were to return to the old country shortly. The article notes that Lord Byng’s infected foot, which had been giving him trouble throughout the journey, was much improved.
90 years ago: Revelstoke Review, May 1st, 1936
Local hockey fans H. Pulley, P. Dean, Hugh Mulholland, and Bert Daniels traveled to the coast this week to watch some friendly post-season games in Vancouver. Facing off were the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Chicago Black Hawks. In the 1935 - 1936 season the Leafs finished 2nd in the Canadian Division, ultimately losing the Stanley Cup to the Detroit Red Wings in 4 games. No report on which team the lads were cheering for.
Revelstoke Review, April 25th, 1946.
80 years ago: Revelstoke Review, May 2nd, 1946
A mud and rock slide near Illecillewaet tied up traffic on the main line for 12 hours. Two pusher engines, with local engineers C. W. Mervyn and Douglas Fraser aboard, were derailed, but all crew members escaped without injury.
Directly under this news item was an article with the headline “CPR Launches Safety Drive.” The first annual Safety Month began with a nation-wide address from Vice-President W. M. Neal, urging employees to do everything possible to attain their goal of having no accidents in the month of May 1946.
70 years ago: Revelstoke Review, May 3rd, 1956
Revelstoke had the highest incidence of tuberculosis in the province. A 5 day free chest Xray survey was coming to town to determine who in Revelstoke had TB, and whether the figure was higher or lower than previously reported. The article noted that the intensive Xray program was the policy of the provincial health department in regions with high rates of TB, and the goal was to see 100% attendance and testing of people over age 15 in the region. The Xray machine itself was paid for by Christmas Seal funds.
60 years ago: Revelstoke Review, April 27th, 1966
The dugouts at Recreation Parks were being returned to shape after suffering collapse during the winter from the snow. The Public Works department was restoring the dugouts and making other improvements in anticipation of the opening of baseball and softball season.
50 years ago: Revelstoke Review, April 28th, 1976
The local legion hosted a ping-pong tournament! Jim Buhler won first place out of 23 total competitors. The event was a great success, and the legion hoped to have more tournaments of this caliber in the near future.
40 years ago: Revelstoke Review, April 30th, 1986
After two weeks of protests and negotiating, the school board and teachers reached an agreement and voluntary services, such as coaching, resumed at Revelstoke Secondary School. The teachers had been negotiating salary with the school board for several weeks before resorting to withdrawing voluntary services, and were overwhelmingly in favour of returning to these services once an agreement had been reached.
30 years ago: Revelstoke Times Review, May 1st, 1996
The provincial government was contributing $50,000 for a bike path on the Greenway. Their contribution would cover costs of the path from Griffiths Road to the Fourth Street bridge, and would improve access for cyclists from Columbia River Park, Arrow Heights, and South Revelstoke neighborhoods to the downtown core.
20 years ago: Revelstoke Times Review, April 26th, 2006
An unidentified vandal broke the head off the Lake Revelstoke Dragon Boat Society’s new craft. The boat had been freshly delivered to Revelstoke, and had not even been launched into the waters of Lake Revelstoke yet.