We’ve all seen movies like “Oklahoma!” where we can catch a glimpse of how people would have lived their lives in the pioneer days of old, minus the song and dance of course. We watch these movies and can’t help but be grateful that at least some of the customs have passed by. Others we [...]
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 221 Baker Street NW1 is probably the most famous address of Baker Street, as it was the home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. But I know for a fact that there is [...]
“It’s a good idea to begin at the bottom in everything except in learning to swim.” — Unknown Cranbrook and other little communities of the area are nicely situated in a region that is abundant in many things, but the most exciting of these resources in the lakes and waterways. Have you ever noticed how [...]
“A bed without a quilt is like a sky without stars.” — unknown When it is so cold outside the only thing you can think about is snuggling up with a warm drink, the whole situation is made so much better by the addition of a cozy, made-with-love quilt. But how many of us have [...]
3000 miles of the C.P.R.’s main line railway track was finally completed on November 7th, 1885 in Craigellachie, B.C. with the driving in of the final, memorable spike. There is a famous photograph of the moment when Donald Alexander Smith, financier of the railway, is wound up to strike that last spike into place, and [...]
If you have been to the Cranbrook Public Library lately then you should have noticed the display window. Not only does the library have its always expanding collection of books, but for the month of July it is also hosted the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History’s photo exhibit on auto tourism on the Columbia [...]
“Some say soccer is a matter of life and death, but it isn’t. It’s much more important than that.” With the FIFA 2010 World Cup wrapping up on Sunday, July 11th, we at the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History felt it only right to show our respect to the mighty sport of Football/Soccer. We [...]
Have you ever wondered what happens to objects that museums have collected but are not in any shape to be displayed? I personally believed that these objects were condemned to sit out the remainder of their lives in a basement facility somewhere under layers of dust. Well, the Creston Museum has proven me wrong, in [...]
With Sam Steele days wrapped up and another year to wait until that fun resumes, we look now to the reign of the 2010 Sam Steele Sweetheart and Princess. This tradition had been going on for many years and we at the Columbia Basin Institue of Regional History would like to map out the history [...]
The Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History is very happy to annouce another new site in its growing collection of Columbia Basin history sites. On May 20th, 2009, “The Great Cranbrook Elephant Hunt” was launched. This site examines the conditions leading up to the 1926 elephant stampede in Cranbrook, looking at stampedes in Edmonton and [...]
