55 YEARS AGO:
A most successful Playday was enjoyed by the Gordon Creek Riding Club at the Club grounds, with twenty-six contestants participating in the day’s events, which included Junior Horsemanship, Open Western Pleasure, Pee Wee Boot Race, Open Musical Mug, Pee Wee, Junior and Senior Barrel Race, Junior and Senior Barrel Race, Junior and Senior Pole Bending, Open Ribbon Race, Open Key-hole and Junior Stake Race.
The Riding Club is grateful to Bud Stewart of Cherry Creek who judged the Western Pleasure and Horsemanship Classes, and also have a demonstration on horse-training.
In the demonstration, Mr. Stewart used a registered Palomino quarter-horse, “Cherry Creek Gay,” owned by Mrs. Elva Newberry.
50 YEARS AGO:
The Clearwater Timberjacks are champions for 1970 in the North Thompson ball league.
Thirteen an unlucky number — Never! Just ask any member of the team, for, after 13 years they tasted sweet victory defeating the Barriere Carlings in two hard fought games on the Barriere diamond Sunday afternoon with resulting scores of 9-8 and 7-6.
The only dark spot on an otherwise brilliant day was that Dean, Yvonne and Denis Redman were not able to be there at the moment of victory. Clearwater and especially the ball club will miss this family who have recently moved to Lillooet.
45 YEARS AGO:
When the Little People’s Caravan arrived in Little Fort en route to Barriere to entertain the children at the annual Fall Fair, it attracted much attention. There were over a dozen travelling with the caravan, which consisted of three chuckwagons and several riding horses. There were several children and even a few goats!
The Little Fort Home Crafts have closed their shop after a most successful summer. The shop has been a real tourist attraction, the guest book showing signatures from all over the world. Farmers’ Market Day each Saturday has been an extra this year, creating much interest in the area.
40 YEARS AGO:
The prognosis for Dutch Lake looks none too good.
Four visiting experts agree that if the lake continues to fill up with effluent from septic tanks, Clearwater will be faced with having a huge, filthy, stagnant swamp as the central attraction to the town.
The four from the Ministries of Environment and Health, Waste Management and Fisheries agree that unless development around Dutch Lake stops and a sewer system replaces the present septic arrangement, the lake will not be fit for recreational use.
Even if these two steps are taken, the water exchange rate of the lake must be increased to reduce the nutrient content to improve the water quality of Dutch Lake.
35 YEARS AGO:
As another busy summer comes to an end, it is time to finish up swim lesson reports and put them away for another year. The swim club sponsored six weeks of Red Cross lessons this summer, with approximately 450 swimmers taking part.
We are pleased to announce and congratulate the five swimmers that successfully passed their Bronze Medallion course. Hopefully, they will continue their interest in swimming. Our club is hoping to find alternative to using private pools for next year, as the numbers of enrollment have increased rapidly over the past few years — so if you, the public, have any suggestions as what we should do, keep them in mind and look for a meeting this fall and plan to attend.
30 YEARS AGO:
Residents of Vavenby have started a petition and are gathering letters of support for acting postmaster Joan Unterschultz. Mrs. Unterschultz was recently passed over by Canada Post in favour of a woman from Queen Charlotte Islands for the position of permanent postmaster for Vavenby.
The Queen Charlotte woman is to be re-located to the North Thompson at the corporation’s expense by the middle of this month.
Mrs. Unterschultz had 15 years of service with Canada Post as a part-timer before taking over as temporary postmaster when Elsie Hunsbedt retired last October.
According to Canada Post spokesperson from Vancouver, the Queen Charlotte applicant was given the job because she had more experience as a postmaster and did better in her interview.
The appointment was made in accordance with procedures laid out in its contract with the postmasters’ union, he stated.
25 YEARS AGO:
Lights, camera…tourism.
Wells Gray Park will be featured in a half-hour program on the popular, internationally broadcast Discovery Channel. Filming for the segment wrapped up last Friday, and the local branch of BC Parks played a roll in the process.
“We have been assisting them somewhat and providing them with information,” Wells Gray zone area supervisor Dave Montgomery explained. “They have a park-use permit to carry on commerical filming in the park.”
The four-member crew came to Clearwater early last week, and spent four days in Wells Gray Park filming highlights for one segment in a series about Canada’s most popular parks.
20 YEARS AGO:
A cougar poised for attack sent two local men scrambling up a tree for safety on Monday, Aug. 28.
Constable Herb Hartling of the Clearwater RCMP said two men were doing surveying work on Vavenby Mountain that afternoon when a cougar emerged from the woods and “crouched to come after them.”
Hartling says the men first attempted to chase the feline away with a machete, but the cougar only swung around and crouched behind them. Next, they tried spraying it with pepper spray, but it seemed unaffected.
15 YEARS AGO:
The skies over the North Thompson Valley were buzzing late last week as a search began for an overdue airplane.
The plane, described as a silver Wag-Aero Wag-a-Bond with a blue stripe, took off from a private airstrip near Vavenby at 10 a.m. on Monday.
The two people believed to have been aboard were 74-year-old High Hough and 36-year-old Shannon Willett.
Hough purchased land near Vavenby in the spring of last year. Reportedly he bought the property, located on Lost Creek Road north of Vavenby, because it has a large field where he could base his three airplanes.
10 YEARS AGO:
About 30 people talked about soopolallie and other potential forest products as they participated in a workshop titled Non-Timber Forest Products: Informational and Inspirational Symposium held at the Clearwater ski hill.
Fred Fortier, a Simpcw First Nations band councillor, regalred them with stories of his experiences as a First Nations representative to international conferences on the Convention on Biological Diversity. Fortier’s experiences included acting as co-chair of the Convention’s Indigenous peoples’ forum.
Along with his stories he delivered messages about the wider legal and other ramifications of increased use of non-timber forest resources.
“How can Indigenous communities share in the benefits of genetic resources?” he asked.
5 YEARS AGO:
Council directed staff to set up a planning meeting with Success by 6 to work out the details of the capital purchases and site plan for a children’s splash park proposed for Weyerhaeuser Pioneer Park.
In a report to council, chief administrative officer Leslie Groulx noted that Success by 6 had recently been successful in receiving a grant from the Canada 150 Community Fund.
Total capital cost of the splash park is put at $300,000.
1 YEAR AGO:
A public meeting has been scheduled in Clearwater to discuss recreational vehicle (R.V.) bylaws in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) after a recent press release was put out that drew the ire of many residents.
Tom Coles, who’s been designated as the spokesperson for the group Thompson Nicola R.V. Rights, said there are a few points in particular within the bylaw that have people concerned.
“The bylaw says you cannot live full-time in your R.V.,” said Coles. “Initially, we were told this was on a complaint basis, but recently, the TNRD board of directors asked the enforcement to be proactive with these bylaws, using words like crackdown and enforcement, so it’s a rather aggressive tone in which they presented this.”