travel with care

 

January 21, 2021

Our modern-day paramedic services are incredible advanced, from the receiving of calls and the dispatching of help, to the aid received at the hands of well-trained crews, to the rapid transportation by ground or air to an appropriate care facility. This sophisticated system evolved over many years.

November 27, 1913, dawned with much excitement. After two years of effort by the Girls Hospital Auxiliary, Vernon finally had a new, horse-drawn ambulance.

The members of this organization, under the direction of President Madge Burnyeat, were able to fundraise $950 with support from the community for this much-needed vehicle. 

 

The Girls Hospital Auxiliary of Vernon standing beside the ambulance they were able to purchase for the Vernon Jubilee Hospital in 1913.

“It will be of inestimable value in handling critical cases for the hospital,” reported the Vernon News. 

The invention of the first modern ambulance is credited to Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, a surgeon in Napolean’s imperial army, who designed a lightweight, horse-drawn wagon that could move rapidly across the battlefield in the late 1700s.

Here’s an interesting sidebar—the highest medical honour that can be bestowed by NATO is known as the Dominique-Jean Larrey Award, and is giving in recognition of a significant and lasting contribution to NATO medical support or healthcare. In 2012, it was awarded to Canada for the establishment and command of a multi-national medical unit at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, between 2006 and 2009.

Despite the passing of around 130 years since Larrey’s invention, the ambulance purchased by the Girls Hospital Auxiliary was remarkably similar in function to those used by the Napoleonic army. The horse-drawn wagon had room for a driver or two in the front, and plenty of cabin space for the patients and their attendants.

The Girls’ Hospital Auxiliary (now known as the Vernon Jubilee Hospital Auxiliary) was started in 1907. The first purpose of this organization was to sew and mend hospital linens. By 1924, the group was made up of over 320 members—but only nine of them regularly attended meetings.

Today, the Hospital Auxiliary, which still consists of a mostly female membership, continues to enhance patient comfort and, by extension, provide important emotional care.

Gwyn Evans

WIld nights at the Kal

 

January 15, 2021

The Vernon Winter Carnival is beginning in just over two weeks, and for those of us who have been starved for a change—albeit a safe one—to our repetitive lockdown lives, it couldn’t come too soon.

This year’s Carnival theme of “Wild West” fits in quite well with our mandate here at the Greater Vernon Museum and Archives.

While this area was home to the Indigenous Syilx people for centuries, the place that came to be known as Vernon began as a small, sleepy “cow town”. 

 

The Kal Hotel, the year it opened in 1892

Many of the stories preserved within our walls tell of life back in its frontier days.

The hub of social activity in Vernon during this time was the Kalamalka, or Kal, Hotel. This impressive piece of architecture was built in 1892 by the Land and Development Company for a cost of $19,000. The new hotel was named in honour of local indigenous chief Kalamalka (this being the anglicized spelling and pronunciation). The hotel’s interior was complete with a billiard room, bar and ladies parlour, while the exterior boasted tennis courts and a vegetable garden.

In his book “Valley of Youth,” colourful local historian and photographer C.W. Holliday describes the Kal Hotel as the local social centre of Vernon, saying that “here one might meet celebrities and interesting people from all over the world.” One of the favourite places for locals and visitors alike to relax was the hotel’s cozy lounge, where they could gather around a large open fireplace and enjoy a favorite drink carried over from the bar on cold winter nights.

Despite the tendency for the hotel to be considered the go-to spot for “festive and convivial gatherings,” the wife of the hotel’s first manager, Mrs. Meaken, ran a tight ship. If she felt the evening’s proceedings were becoming too disorderly, she had the disturbing habit of appearing in the doorway of the billiard room dressed in her nightgown. “Gentlemen,” she would say sternly, “it is time to go to bed.” A gloomy silence would then descend over the room, as the men packed up and shuffled home. No one, it seems, ever refused her orders.

Another story recalls Mr. Meaken, who, unlike his wife, was said to be meek and mild, took full advantage of the Missus being out of town and had a little too much to drink. While under the influence, he had the brilliant idea of bringing a horse in from outside and riding it around the billiard table. One can only imagine what Mrs. Meaken would have thought if she had seen this spectacle.

Holliday is careful to add that although these stand-out moment’s in the hotel’s career naturally stick in his memory, most of the time the gatherings were quiet and composed, and this Wild Western hotel was exactly what it claimed to be—a comfortable family venue.

For more tales of Vernon’s “Wild West”, join us for the GVMA Winter Carnival event, Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…

Gwyn Evans

meanwhile, back at the RancH…

sharing history through community 

vernon winter carnival virtual event

 

MEANWHILE, BACK at the RANCH…   February 9, 2021 at 7 PM

Take a Virtual Trip back in time through the Wild West and ranchlands of the North Okanagan. Interpretive guides and special guests will tell tales of life back on the early ranches of the valley through streaming video, on-location film clips, and multi-media displays.

Learn more about the early relationships between the settlers and the Syilx Indigenous First Nation. Find out about the Syilx and settler women who made this place home, and the fur brigadiers, gold rushers, cowboys, and bank robbers who made this place wild.

Join us and special musical guest, Duane Marchand, for this virtual event!

Visit the Vernon Winter Carnival website for more info and tickets.

 

 

GET TICKETS TODAY!

 

Tuesday, February 9, 2021 – Virtual Doors Open at 6:30 PM.
Register by 6:45 PM. Event begins at 7 PM sharp.  

WE RESPECTFULLY ACKNOWLEDGe

Greater Vernon Museum & Archives is located on the Ancestral, Traditional and Unceded Territory of the Okanagan Nation and the Syilx People.

virtual trip along the trestles

 

January 14, 2021

Well, two weeks in and 2021 has already been quite the year.

From an ongoing global pandemic, to Black Lives Matters protests, to the very recent attack on the US Capitol, we are living through historic times.

While this might be “interesting” in retrospect, living through historic times can also be mentally and emotionally exhausting.

If you’re feeling that way, perhaps you’d like to journey back 40 years to 1980 and travel the trestles of the Kettle Valley Railway high above Myra Canyon.

If so, click on this link & enjoy the trip!

 

 

the more things change…

 

January 11, 2021

Time passed strangely in 2020.

It felt like both the slowest and fastest year, with long periods of time spent following the same routine, in the same environment, day-after-day, while a decade’s worth of monumental historical events were occurring concurrently around the world.

Working in a museum in some ways can cause one to lose a sense of linear time.

Sometimes, after working in the archives all day, for example, one might almost expect to see horses and buggies, instead of car, trundling up and down the streets.

 

Looking East over Vernon in 2921 

With this skewed sense of reality, 100 years ago might not seem like such a long time, but a lot has changed in Vernon since then. Our city in 1921 would be almost unrecognizable today.

In 1921, B.C.’s population has just reached over half a million. Meanwhile, Vernon was home to a mere 3649 people. Washing machines cost between $20 and $30, and Fruitatives-which contained a small amount of strychnine-and Minard’s Liniment were touted as cure-alls.

Bags of oats cost $0.35 and tins of salmon could be purchased for 10 cents. The year’s model of Hupmobile was sold at the Vernon Garage, while the Megaw-Smithers Motor Company competed with Chevrolet’s FB-50.

“The Molly Coddle,” “Lessons in Love,” and “Made in Heaven” played at the Empress Theatre, while hosted speakers presented on important topics such as the League of Nations, Bolshevism, and using alfalfa as a cover crop.

As sternwheelers plied the waters of Okanagan Lake, a nearby neighborhood was finally granted a name. Following a public competition, Mr. W.L. Forrester was awarded $25.00 for proposing the name “Bella Vista” for the new development overlooking the lake. 

In 1921, Vernon hosted its first May Day fete and ball. Organized by the women’s institute, the program at Polson Park was complete with maypole dances, children’s sports, refreshments, balloons, a hayseed band, a parade, and the crowning of May Queen Helen Cochrane.

In October, a new flour mill was opened by the Okanagan Farmer’s Milling Company on 32nd Street, and, in November, poppies were sold and worn for the first time.

Although a lot might have changed in 100 years, some things have remained the same. Vernonites grumbled about a lack of parking and the high-cost of rent, advertisers made outlandish claims, classes were overcrowded, coddling moths plagued farmers, and poppies were pinned on jackets and sweaters in remembrance.

In a year that has been often termed “unprecedented” , it may (or may not) be reassuring to keep in mind that old adage:  “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Gwyn Evans

the queen’s visit

 

January 4, 2021

Happy New Year from the staff, board, and volunteers of the Greater Vernon Museum & Archives!

Did you, perchance, take some time over the holidays to binge watch some programs like, say, The Queen’s Gambit or The Crown?

While we don’t have any local footage of chess tournaments in the North Okanagan to offer (not to say there weren’t riveting local competitions!), we do have wonderful, clear footage of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Vernon in 1959. 

Enjoy!