MUSEUM NEWSMarch/April/May 2016

Message from the President

On the 17 March the Princeton & District Museum & Archives Society held its Annual General Meeting with a record turnout of nearly 70 people. The Museum Board was honoured and encouraged by the huge show of support that included members of the Stout family who have given so much both historically and financially to the Museum. Members’ trust in the Museum’s leadership was evidenced by the fact that the entire Board was re-elected. We had one vacancy last year, which has now been filled with the election of John Henry as a Director. After all his hard work in the Pollard Collection over the past year, he is a most welcome addition to the Board.

During the coming year I look forward to working closely with our dedicated Board and with our hard-working manager, Robin Irwin.

As you can see in the “Museum News” section, we have had a very busy and successful year. The amount of summertime activity was particularly amazing given that we had only two students working at the Museum (we had applied for five!). We are hoping for more students this year so we can increase both the quantity and the quality of our activities. During the rest of the year we will again keep the Museum open on a part-time basis, offer historical presentations as well as continuing the sorting and cataloguing work being done by Board members and volunteers.

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The Princeton Museum, 167 Vermilion Avenue Princeton BC | 250-295-7588 | princetonmuseum.org

Princeton & District Museum & Archives

Message from the EditorsThis spring sees a big uptick in Princeton’s

awareness of its Museum. Our AGM brought over 70 citizens out – we picked up

many new members and several new

volunteers. Way to go, Princeton! A core of dedicated volunteers is the lifeblood of any

Museum. The summer ahead of us looks bright

indeed. With students on summer grants

coming to help us, and the planning of summer programs for kids underway, the

Board (with our new addition of John Henry) feels ready for the challenges.

We’re planning a Board Retreat in April.

We’ll spend a day looking at this year’s targets, and we’ll share “blue sky” visions of where we

think the Museum might be in five or ten years. Lynn Wells of Hedley, an experienced

leader, will facilitate our Retreat, and we’ll

report back to you all in the next issue of the Newsletter. Wish us well!

Jon Bartlett & Rika Ruebsaat, Editors

OUR BOARD 2016President – Rika Ruebsaat

Vice President - Tip AndersonPast President – Bob Wicks

Secretary – Marjorie HollandTreasurer – Martin Hough

Directors – John Henry, Jon Bartlett, Kathy Clement, Terry

Malanchuk, Evelyn McCallum, Lori Weissbach

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

STORY OF COPPER MOUNTAIN HOUSES When I was a youngster I remember seeing the town of Copper Mountain perched on the mountainside as we drove the Hope-Princeton Highway. At the time I thought it would be wonderful to live so high up in the mountains. Little did I realize that many years later those houses I saw would be scattered throughout the Okanagan-Similkameen. The underground mine at Copper Mountain closed in 1957 and reopened as an open pit mine in 1960. The Town of Copper Mountain was abandoned just before this and its houses were sold cheaply and distributed throughout the area. Some are in and around Princeton but some went as far afield as Okanagan Falls. Last autumn I happened to meet Eleanor Walker in Penticton whose parents were Laurence and Isabella Vader of Copper Mountain. She told me of her mother’s stories about the moving of the houses and sent me an account of houses coming to Okanagan Falls told by Trevor Jones and Ray Edmonds in February 2000. Here is their story.

~Rika Ruebsaat

“The houses were owned by the Allenby Mining Company. I, Trevor Jones, was informed of the sale in 1957 by a Mr. Lewis from Hedley, who was in charge of selling them. Muriel and I went up there to see them and make a purchase. When I got back home I contacted Mrs. Isabella Vader and they went up and made a purchase. The people that bought the houses are as follows:

Trevor Jones – 1; Laurence and Isabella Vader – 5 or 6; Fred Phelps – 1; Lyle Badgley – 1; Ray Edmonds – 1; Charles Yule – 1; Adolph Lorenze – 1; Mrs. Katherine Bell – 2;

The United Church in Okanagan Falls bought the Copper Mountain Scout Hall to add onto their church. The buyers of these houses met in my garage (Shell Service on Highway 97) to arrange the moving of these houses to Okanagan Falls. I was elected to find someone with the equipment to transport all fourteen of them. Princeton Movers required $1000 per house. I contacted Bassett Transfer and came to an arrangement of $400 per house, provided they were all raised up ready for removal under these terms. I guaranteed all the houses would be ready for transport. We had to deal with West Kootenay Power and BC Tel to lift the wires. I was able to convince West Kootenay we could do this if they could loan us the special poles. We received the poles with a lecture on their proper use. As we had to jack up the houses we needed a truck to carry the blocking up to Copper Mountain and back to Okanagan Falls. I asked Ray Edmonds about his truck and he agreed if I put a licence on it, which I did. Mel Robertson also drove a truck for the blocking. The gas for those trucks was supplied by Bassett Transfer. Some of the houses had to be partially dismantled and the roofs lowered. All the houses were moved without incident – a good move all around!”

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We thought it would be interesting to know who got married in and around Princeton 100 years ago. Interesting to note, too, how many descendants of these married couples still live in the area. Our thanks to Lori Weissbach for gathering this information.

PRINCETONWilliam B HACKER & Jeanne TRIDARD - 5 April

George HANSEN & Margaret Getzel ALEXANDER – 28 DecemberCarl M HAYWARD & Catherine A NORMAN - 22 July

John W HUEY & Mildred I SCHISLER - 15 JuneLeon E MARSTON & Edna LYALL – 31 May

William McQUISTIN & Dorothy M IMPETT – 12 JuneJohn J E NEGREAN & Dora KINNISON – 28 August

Robert H NEIL & Emilie OTTA – 3 FebruaryAnson M POTTER & Lois G SINGLETON – 10 April

George H SHELDER & Nellie DAILEY - 5 October

TULAMEENErnest C RICE & Euphemia A RABBITT – 4 July

HEDLEYLawrence S MORRISON & Phebe ROBERTSON – 25 January

Information from Royal BC Museum Archives

1916 Marriages in the Princeton Area

Schulli Double Wedding - Princeton BC

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We have had a busy year with lots of visitors (about 2500 during 2015), many special events and several new exhibits. Our volunteer base is growing with over 2000 hours of volunteer time being put in during 2015.Exhibits The hospital exhibit featured historical hospital equipment used in the past. At times the artefacts looked more like instruments of torture than like instruments of healing. The exhibit of Boy Scout artefacts brought back memories for many visitors. In the days before electric refrigerators, perishable food was stored in cupboards cooled with large blocks of ice. The ice was cut at Otter Lake and was brought to communities in the area. The exhibit of ice harvesting equipment showed how this was done.In January the Museum had an exhibition of photographic portraits taken by Princeton’s retired veterinarian, Allan Gill. The photos featured a number of Princeton residents, all with interesting, photogenic faces and all with fascinating life stories to tell. The opening of the exhibition was a rich social event where people who hadn’t seen one another in ages got to catch up.Education Last summer the Museum was blessed with two enthusiastic, hard-working students, Cache Cook and Hayden Zieske. They did an excellent job receiving our summer visitors and were a real hit with the many children who attended our summer camps. All three camps were full to overflowing and we had a waiting list. Incorporated in to the camps’ learning environment was a Species at Risk outdoor exhibit provided by the BC Royal Museum.The Museum’s educational resources were further shared with the many students who came to explore. Students from Ms. Nelson’s grade one class, from Ms. Lowe’s Kindergarten class, Mr. Palmer’s Grade ten class and students from the West Point Grey Academy all came to mine the historical riches found in our Museum. The New Beginnings group as well as the Sparks (junior Girl Guides) also explored the Museum.Special Events During the summer we were lucky to have eight palaeontology researchers doing field work in and around Princeton. They were most impressed by the Museum’s fossil collection and the four PhDs in the group very kindly offered to give a free talk here at the Museum in August. There were over 70 people in attendance, the talk ran for over two hours and the question and answer session ran until after 9 pm.In October the Museum again hosted Joe Smuin giving one of his delightful presentations about the Kettle Valley Railway. The event was held at Riverside and the large audience particularly enjoyed Joe’s superimpositions of “then” and “now” photographs along the railway line. Last fall New Star Books published Museum Board members Jon Bartlett’s and Rika‘s book, Soviet Princeton: Slim Evans and the 1932/33 Miners’ Strike. In November Jon and Rika presented the story of the strike complete with Power Point archival photographs and songs sung during the strike. The book is shortlisted for two prizes: the Haig-Brown Prize and the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing.Professional Development Our Museum Manager, Robin Irwin, has been busily expanding her skill set. Last fall she attended the BC Museums Association conference in Vancouver. In June she attended two workshops, one at the Museum of Anthropology on organizing museum collections and one on tourism hosted by the Thompson Okanagan Tourist Association. In the near future Robin and the Board will call on the expertise of Penticton Museum archivists to help us improve the organization our collection.

MUSEUM HAPPENINGS