Nurse, Teacher, Veteran: The Life of Emily McLaughlin

May 10th – 16th 2021 is Nurses’ Week in Canada, with May 12th internationally recognized as Nurses’ Day. Many dedicated and hardworking nurses have called Smithers home over the decades – from those who served at Smithers’ first hospital in 1921, to those working the front lines during the Covid-19 pandemic today. We have chosen […]

Family Day FUN for 2021 – Take Home Activity Kits

Already have your kit? Watch the instructional videos! The Province of British Columbia has provided the Bulkley Valley Museum and Smithers Art Gallery a grant in support of our free, community Family Day activity. To learn more visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/celebrating-british-columbia/bc-family-day

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 […]