Glimpses of the Past: July 23, 2026

By Brennan Patry, Archival Assistant, Revelstoke Museum & Archives

130 years ago: Kootenay Mail, July 25, 1896

C.P.R. workers were busy with building and repairing bridges and tracks around the area. There were 300 cars carrying all different kinds of freight in Revelstoke. The Illecillewaet bridge was finished the day of publication, and the railroad track was expected to be complete within the next two weeks.

120 years ago: Revelstoke Mail-Herald, July 25, 1906

Quite a few arrests had been made in the last week. There was a large need for laborers in the area, which made it unexpected that many men were getting arrested for “being a menace to society.” It was thought that the authorities should have been trying harder to get rid of these men.

110 years ago: Revelstoke Mail-Herald, July 22, 1916

Fred Young & Co. had an ad for ladies’ shoes selling for $4-$6. Boys shoes cost $3-3.50. While these were normal price, what is interesting is the adjacent ad for the Oriental Hotel boasting nightly rates of $1. For one pair of ladies’ shoes, you could get 4 to 6 nights at a hotel.

$3 - $6 in 1916 is between $74.24 and $148.49 in 2026. $1in 1916  is approximately $24.75 in 2026.

Oriental Hotel, ca. 1910. Would you pay $1 to stay here? P-1128

100 years ago: Revelstoke Review, July 21, 1926

After getting some much needed rain, two forest fires near Revelstoke were finally under control. The two fires were on Mount Revelstoke and Boulder Mountain. A large fire in Beaton was under control after the rain as well. Thanks to the wildfire fighters, Revelstoke had the least amount of damage from forest fires in the province.

90 years ago: Revelstoke Review, July 24, 1936

A group of men were excavating a basement on First Street where the new Revelstoke Garage was to be build when they found alcohol bottles. There were two bottles of brandy and eight of beer. The men drank the beer and brandy and stated that age does improve the quality of alcohol. The age of the alcohol at this time was unknown.

80 years ago: Revelstoke Review, July 25, 1946

Horace Manning received a letter from a woman named Clara who had visited Revelstoke a few weeks prior. The letter thanked him for his hospitality. Clara had been travelling through Revelstoke with a few friends when they stopped into Mannings store and he had given them ideas of places to see in town and things to do. Clara was from California and an employee of the U.S. Navy.

70 years ago: Revelstoke Review, July 19, 1956

A man riding his motorcycle through Revelstoke on his way to Golden stopped at a local garage to fill up on gas. The next morning the workers at the garage were surprised to see the man filling up on gas again. The man was even more surprised! He asked the workers if he had been there the day before or if he was going crazy. Shortly they realized the man had pulled over somewhere along the Big Bend the night before to camp and accidentally drove back into Revelstoke thinking he was going towards Golden.

60 years ago: Revelstoke Review, July 20, 1966

At a city council meeting it was discussed that a letter was to be written and sent to all residents outside of the city limits between the Illecillewaet River and Downie Street. The letter was for the extension of city boundaries. The area they wanted to expand to was well populated and there had already been multiple attempts to expand the limit to these areas.

50 years ago: Revelstoke Mail-Herald, July 21, 1976

The Sandman Inn opened in Revelstoke, and although it was not fully operational it was accepting guests to stay and the café was open for business. This was the 14th Sandman opened and the 15th and 16th were in the works. The Sandman Inn was created to appeal to families that were looking for ‘modest luxury’ and commercial travellers needing a place to stay.

40 years ago: Revelstoke Review, July 23, 1986

19,033 people had visited the Revelstoke Dam by mid-July. The tourists that came through were from all over Canada. U.S. visitors mainly came from the states of Hawaii, California and New York. There were many overseas tourists as well from England, Switzerland, Australia and many other places around the world.

30 years ago: Revelstoke Times Review, July 24, 1996

The Nels Nelson trail was officially open! The trail was named after local ski jump champion Nels Nelson and was created to connect the town to Mount Revelstoke and acknowledge Revelstoke’s ski jumping history. From the trail you can see the judging tower, which is all that is left from the ski jumping days.

20 years ago: Revelstoke Times Review, July 19, 2006

The Revelstoke Aquaducks had a great turnout for their swim meet. Over 260 participants were involved along with family and coaches. With the swim meet and summer tourism, every hotel had their No Vacancy signs lit up showing just how popular Revelstoke was that weekend.