Local History

Volunteer university students Keagan Edwards of Port Moody (top) and Holly O’Neil of Maple Ridge search for artifacts at the site of the First World War Monashee Internment Camp east of Cherryville. (Roger Knox - Morning Star)

WATCH: Digging into history east of Cherryville

Abbotsford anthropologist and team search for indications of what life was like

 

Soldiers crawling through a trench filled with mud and water at the Canadian Battle Drill School at the Coldstream Ranch. In the background, instructors watch over the proceedings. (1944 GVMA #11805)

Field trips dig into North Okanagan history

Museum hosting summer events at historically-significant locations

 

Skip Bartholomew’s sons, Stephen, current production manager (left) and Josh, current controller (C) with current Wayside owner Neil Perry. Overlooking tables of memories that have been collected and preserved over the past 100 years.

PHOTOS: A century of service from Wayside in Vernon

The press and printing company, founded by Harold George Bartholomew, turns 100 in 2021

 

Back by popular demand for the summer is Spallumcheen’s Historic O’Keefe Ranch’s Yoga With Goats program. (Contributed)

Okanagan yoga going to the goats

Furry four-legged creatures take part in one-hour yoga lessons with you at Spallumcheen’s O’Keefe Ranch this summer

Back by popular demand for the summer is Spallumcheen’s Historic O’Keefe Ranch’s Yoga With Goats program. (Contributed)
Highway 97 being converted to four lanes in April 1990. This photo taken in Lake Country. (Greater Vernon Museum and Archives Photo #14025)

HISTORY: How the old Highway 97 in Lake Country got new name

Pelmewash Parkway recognizes the First Nations history in Lake Country

Highway 97 being converted to four lanes in April 1990. This photo taken in Lake Country. (Greater Vernon Museum and Archives Photo #14025)
It was 25 years ago Monday – April 5, 1996 – that Vernon’s Gakhal family was gunned down in their Okanagan Avenue home by the estranged husband of one of the daughters. (Morning Star - file photo)

Vernon’s darkest hour reaches 25 years

Monday, April 5, marks 25 years to the day that eight members of a Vernon family were murdered in their Mission Hill home

It was 25 years ago Monday – April 5, 1996 – that Vernon’s Gakhal family was gunned down in their Okanagan Avenue home by the estranged husband of one of the daughters. (Morning Star - file photo)
The earliest known drawing of Woodside Farm in the 1850s. (Contributed - Sooke Region Museum)

Woodside sold: Sooke couple buys Western Canada’s oldest working farm

South Island’s Woodside Farm is the oldest continuously operated farm west of the Great Lakes

The earliest known drawing of Woodside Farm in the 1850s. (Contributed - Sooke Region Museum)
Noah’s Ark, a onetime fixture at the old Adventureland park in Lake Country, will become a fruit and nut concession on the Okanagan Rail Trail in 2022 after the Gaudet family picked up the former attraction for free from longtime Oyama orchardist Alan Gatzke. (Facebook photo)

Lake Country ark attraction to become rail trail concession

Gatzke Orchards floats Noah’s Ark from Adventureland to Gaudet family for fruit/nut stand in 2022

Noah’s Ark, a onetime fixture at the old Adventureland park in Lake Country, will become a fruit and nut concession on the Okanagan Rail Trail in 2022 after the Gaudet family picked up the former attraction for free from longtime Oyama orchardist Alan Gatzke. (Facebook photo)
Former Fulton Secondary School teacher and football coach, and former Canadian Football League offensive lineman Roger Scales had some CFL memorabilia sent to him to autograph, courtesy of a dermatologist in Utah. Scales, who spent 10 seasons in the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts and Edmonton Eskimos, played college ball at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. (David Myers photo)

Vernon football player’s card pops up in Utah dermatologist’s hands

Roger Scales’ 1970s Toronto Argonauts card now hangs signed by the player in David Myers’ office

Former Fulton Secondary School teacher and football coach, and former Canadian Football League offensive lineman Roger Scales had some CFL memorabilia sent to him to autograph, courtesy of a dermatologist in Utah. Scales, who spent 10 seasons in the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts and Edmonton Eskimos, played college ball at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. (David Myers photo)
Close up of the inscription on murdered Nurse Mildred Neilson’s monument that has been standing in a Burnaby cemetery for 95 years. She was shot to death in Trail on Feb. 6, 1925. Trail citizens were so upset they raised over $1,200 (around $18,000 in today’s world) to send to her parents for burial and this granite monument. Photo: Trail Historical Society

The story of unrequited love and murder in the Kootenays, 95 years later

Check out the Trail Times every Thursday for another historical story featured in Trail Blazers

Close up of the inscription on murdered Nurse Mildred Neilson’s monument that has been standing in a Burnaby cemetery for 95 years. She was shot to death in Trail on Feb. 6, 1925. Trail citizens were so upset they raised over $1,200 (around $18,000 in today’s world) to send to her parents for burial and this granite monument. Photo: Trail Historical Society
Alice Lee, left, and Gilda Koenig with the Vernon and District Family History Society raised funds and got donations to put up a pair of commemorative rock monuments for people who died in the Vernon-based B.C. Provincial Home for the Aged between 1948 and 1961. <ins>The rocks were put in a row where 41 people from the home are buried, and to stop people from driving over the graves as a shortcut through the cemetery.</ins> (Roger Knox - Morning Star)

Vernon volunteers protect graves with unique row at cemetery

Engraved rocks commemorate some who died in Vernon’s B.C. Provincial Home For Aged from 1948-1961

Alice Lee, left, and Gilda Koenig with the Vernon and District Family History Society raised funds and got donations to put up a pair of commemorative rock monuments for people who died in the Vernon-based B.C. Provincial Home for the Aged between 1948 and 1961. <ins>The rocks were put in a row where 41 people from the home are buried, and to stop people from driving over the graves as a shortcut through the cemetery.</ins> (Roger Knox - Morning Star)
Métis Week is celebrated annually in Golden and Area A, with the Métis Society proclaiming Nov. 15-21 Métis Week for 2020. (Davene Dunn photo)

Métis Week declared in Golden and Area A

The week will aim to educate locals on Métis culture and heritage

Métis Week is celebrated annually in Golden and Area A, with the Métis Society proclaiming Nov. 15-21 Métis Week for 2020. (Davene Dunn photo)
Jack Vellutini, 100, is still making sweet music. Photo: Submitted

Music stirs memories as Trail serenader nears 101st birthday

Jack Vellutini gave his brass instruments to Trail up-and-comers so the legacy of music can live on

Jack Vellutini, 100, is still making sweet music. Photo: Submitted
A plaque is erected at Vernon’s MacDonald Park at what was once the site of a First World War Internment Camp from 1914-1920. The 100th anniversary of the end of the camps is Saturday, June 20. (Roger Knox - Morning Star)

Okanagan internment camps shut down 100 years ago

Vernon and District Family History Society to commemorate end of internment operations

A plaque is erected at Vernon’s MacDonald Park at what was once the site of a First World War Internment Camp from 1914-1920. The 100th anniversary of the end of the camps is Saturday, June 20. (Roger Knox - Morning Star)
In the early days of construction the highway was built by hand. (Photo is courtesy the Beaver Valley and Pend d’Oreille Historical Society)

Blasting through the West Kootenay

80 years ago; ‘Pretty near all the people from Fruitvale were working on it’

In the early days of construction the highway was built by hand. (Photo is courtesy the Beaver Valley and Pend d’Oreille Historical Society)
The avalanche of 1910 killed 58 people. (Submitted by Revelstoke Museum and Archives P257)

110 years ago the mountain fell down on Rogers Pass

The avalanche of 1910 is still Canada’s worst avalanche disaster

The avalanche of 1910 killed 58 people. (Submitted by Revelstoke Museum and Archives P257)