Analyzing the Babine Lake Mammoth
Fifty years ago, on June 30th 1971, the following headline could be found over a small article buried on page 13 of the Smithers Interior News: “Mammoth found in mining dig“. Despite not being considered front page news, the discovery of a mammoth skeleton at the Noranda Bell Mine site on the Newman Peninsula of […]
The Glentanna School
The following was written by Tony L’Orsa, and is republished here with permission from the author. It is a continuation of his work exploring the history of local rural schools. To read Tony’s post about the Driftwood School, also celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2020, click here. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the […]
Recollections on Driftwood School at 100 Years
The following story was written by Tony L’Orsa, and is republished here with permission from the author. This year (2020) marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of both Driftwood Creek and Glentanna schools. A bit of history and a few pictures of the former Driftwood Creek schools are presented below to commemorate these events […]
Are you missing a family photograph?
***November 10th 2020 update: this call to retrieve photos has now ended. Unclaimed photos will be discarded. If you sent a photograph to be published in the Interior News prior to 2003 and have never received it back, we may be able to help! While cleaning out our storage space, we recently came across two […]
6th Annual Cemetery Walk: October 17 & 18 2020
****October 16th update: All spots for all walks are now filled. Only those preregistered will be able to join us, thank you for your interest! Our annual Cemetery Walk returns for its sixth run in October 2020, featuring new stories of past Smithers residents. The walk will run: October 17th at 11am October 17th at […]
Unearthing natural history in the Bulkley Valley
Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park is one of the richest fossil beds in British Columbia, and also boasts the title of most northerly fossil site of Eocene insects in North America. Besides insects, both terrestrial and aquatic plants have been found, as well as rare vertebrate fossils. Radiometric analysis performed on volcanic ash found in the […]
BV Museum AGM September 21st 2020
The annual general meeting of the Bulkley Valley Historical & Museum Society will be held on September 21st at 4:30pm at the Old Church in Smithers. All materials for the meeting will be made available in advance via email. Printed copies will be available upon request from the museum office. Due to physical distancing requirements […]
A Century of Service: the Bulkley Valley District Hospital Auxiliary
This June marks the 100-year anniversary of the Bulkley Valley District Hospital Auxiliary. This volunteer-run society, which has provided financial and material support to the Hospital since its beginning, may well be the oldest service organization in the Valley. The official centennary celebration has been postponed due to COVID-19, but we at the Bulkley Valley […]
Asian Heritage Month: Mah Yoke Tong and the Smithers Bakery
This blog post marks the close of Asian Heritage Month, which celebrates and commemorates Canadians of Asian descent. We have chosen to focus on the Smithers Bakery, which was run by Mah Yoke Tong from 1919 until his death in 1955. His great-nephew Mah Wing Shek then took over the business until its sale in […]
Newspaper Supplements: A Peek into the (Recent) Past
Although our doors are currently closed to the public, the staff of the Bulkley Valley Museum are still hard at work preserving our community’s heritage. Recently, we rediscovered a collection of over 125 newspapers from Smithers and the Bulkley Valley area. Many of these were supplements to the Interior News, while others were independent […]