Who Keeps Our Stories?

How often have you heard people say, "I wish I'd asked my grandparents about what life was like when they were young, but now they're gone and it's too late."

The same regret might be expressed about a community. How much do we know about the beginnings of the town in which we live? Why it is here and where did its inhabitants come from? Fortunately, most communities are able to answer those questions because a few people have saved objects, documents and photographs which tell some of the stories of the past, but there are always many unanswered questions and stories which might never be heard.

When someone takes a photograph of a group of friends in the street or a newspaper is reporting a local eventthey are preserving the past for the future. Fortunately, newspapers in B.C. have for many years been required to send a copy of each edition to the Legislative Library, thus ensuring that the newspaper past is preserved. Personal photographs are different. They may be preserved in a family collection for decades, but too often when the last family member is gone, the relatives from far away see no value in these photographs and the dump becomes the recipient. Fortuately these have occasionally been found by others who realise their value and pass them on to the local archives.

It is a popular idea that archives are dusty and dull, but it is important that they not be dusty and they are anything but dull! Exciting detective work to discover information about places, dates and people for example, discovers fascinating connections between photographs and events, all adding to the local story.
How many of us have collections of family photographs without names or places on them? We all knew who the people were and where and when they were taken at the time, but thirty or forty or a hundred years later memory may not be as clear, so making a note in pencil on the back of the photograph helps future family members and archivists!

Collecting and receiving donations of photographs, documents and other items is only part of the story. Once saved, they need to be preserved, documented and scanned or photographed and this is where museums and archives do their part.

The museums and archives in this region are assisted through the Regional Cultural Plan of the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, but museums, archives and galleries, particularly in small communities, still rely on volunteers to help in many ways.

The Valley Museum and Archives and its volunteers are working to make more of our archives available for public access in the future but for now, settlerseffects.ca has many interesting photographs of the area. Others may be seen at the railway station in McBride.
Marilyn Wheeler ©2011

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO ...

One hundred years ago, November 20th, 1911, a small ceremony took place which foreshadowed the opening up of central British Columbia to the rest of Canada. A brief item in the Fort George Herald reported that the rails of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway passed into British Columbia on November 20th, 1911, at 8:34 Pacific Standard Time.

This was one of the first events which now, one hundred years later, are worthy of being noted. For years, work had been taking place surveying, clearing, levelling, filling and blasting in wild and rugged conditions through the Yellowhead Pass, and into what became the Robson Valley. When all was prepared the real excitement of achievement came when the tracks were laid and modern transport could be established.  By July 1912 the "Pioneer," the impressive looking tracklayer, had completed laying the rails to Tete Jaune. Two months later in the first week of September, a regular service of three trains a week was inaugurated  between Edmonton and Tete Jaune Cache. The Fort George Herald of September 7th reported that the trains were complete with "dining cars and all regular conveniences."

When the Foley Welch and Stewart steamships had finished freighting railway workers and materials on the Skeena River, the railway contractors dismantled them at Vancouver and shipped them on the Canadian Pacific to Calgary, up to Edmonton on the Grand Trunk, west to the end of steel and finally by horse power to Tete Jaune where they were reconstructed.  May 2012 is the centenary of the launching of sternwheeler steamships Conveyor and Operator at Tete Jaune.

In spring 1913 the rails reached the large railway construction camp at Mile 90, also planned as a divisional point on the railway. It was established as a town and officially named McBride on July 1st, 1913. This was considered McBride's birthday and was celebrated with enthusiasm by early residents.  By the end of August 1913, the rails had reached Dome Creek to the west, and passenger service was established through
what became the Robson Valley. It continues to this day - three trains a week, each way.

By rail or road visit an elegant legacy of the railway, McBride's heritage railway station, open daily year-round, and see Valley Museum photos and murals about the railway.

Marilyn Wheeler,
November 2011