125 YEARS AGO: AUG. 12, 1899
School Days: School will reopen on Monday next at the usual hour, provided the trustees can secure a place to hold the same until the new school building is completed. The school has made good progress in Ashcroft for the past two years, and with a new and commodious school building the Ashcroft school will begin to take a high rank as an educational institution. It has been long in coming, but the people generally are well pleased to have as good a building as is now in the course of construction.
Kamloops Election: Next Tuesday Kamloops will have an election to see whether or not a loan of $37,500 shall be secured by the city to be used for light and water service. While there is not so much interest shown as would be expected by those interested, it is the general impression that the loan will be endorsed.
A Gentlemanly Match: Editor, Journal — Sir: I was always under the impression that colonials were no sportsmen, that they could not take a defeat; that their games were always conducted in a rowdy fashion, the umpire's decision invariably disputed, and the finale generally being a free fight and a dead umpire. Judge of my feelings of surprise, then, when last Saturday a baseball team from Ashcroft played our Lillooet team. The game all through was conducted in a most admirable and gentlemanly spirit on both sides, and though our excitement ran high, as it was a close game, I did not hear one word of bad language, and the umpire's decisions were unquestioned. I cannot refrain, therefore, from congratulating Ashcroft on their having a baseball team with whom it is a pleasure to play. Nor can I deny myself the pride I feel to be associated with a baseball team who, by the way they took their defeat, proved themselves to be true sportsmen and gentlemen. Yours faithfully, A Britisher.
Change Of Circumstances: Time brings about changes, sometimes very suddenly too. A man may be a good man at night, and ready and anxious to whip any other man in Ashcroft. The next morning, when he wakes up without a cent in his pocket and in the Skookum House for being drunk and disorderly, he is not nearly so big a man as he was the night before.
100 YEARS AGO: AUG. 9, 1924
Baseball; Cache Creek-Ashcroft: On Sunday last, four automobiles loaded to the mud guards with enthusiastic baseball players of the Spud City, visited the Coney Island of the Cariboo (Cache Creek), and after two hours of very strenuous combat with the diamond heroes of this famous sporting centre, emerged very muchly bedraggled winners by a score of 14 to seven. The game itself developed many exciting and interesting feature plays, particularly Ruckhaber's marathon stunt trying to locate the third base bag, and Manager Collins' gallant attempt to hold and snare a fly ball, whilst uncomfortably reposing upon an exceedingly large patch of cactus. The ball unfortunately got away, but the cactus stuck to Bert, but all in all it was a splendid effort. For this play Bert was credited with many "points". However, with the aid of a claw hammer and a pair of pliers, Bert was fixed up, but it was noticed that he was very shy of "pep" for the rest of the game.
A Commendable Feature: A commendable feature in connection with the Clinton races is the donating of 10 per cent of certain proceeds to the Lady Minto Hospital, Ashcroft. This is a service that might very well be rendered by all race sheets within that radius which is covered by the Ashcroft hospital. By so doing, the committees would not only be rendering a valuable service to the community at large, but would create an incentive which would assure a greater amount of success for their events. The Lady Minto Hospital is one of those institutions which must always depend to a certain extent upon the charity of the people that it serves. It is only proper that while we are well we should support that means of treatment that will take care of us when we are ill. And it is not right that the entire burden should be placed upon the shoulders of those who are unfortunate enough to require more or less of that treatment. We believe that all hospital services should be given free, and the institution be maintained by the government, but it rests with ourselves, and there is no better way to raise the necessary funds than to devote a percentage of monies derived from sources of amusement.
Lillooet: Many tomatoes were cooked in the fields when the temperature went up to 104 [F] in the shade. Next year farmers will have to provide sun-shades.
75 YEARS AGO: AUG. 11, 1949
Have You Bought Your Ticket Yet? Have you bought your tickets on the Elks' Barrel Roll, which will be held at their Labour Day celebrations in Ashcroft? The barrel will be placed in the Thompson River at Savona bridge, and you must guess the time it will take for it to reach Ashcroft bridge, a distance of 22 miles. As a guide to times in previous years, the following will give some idea: 9 hours, 42, minutes, 42 seconds (1940); 7 hours, 10 minutes, 15 seconds (1941); 9 hours, 55 minutes, 55 seconds (1942); 9 hours, 36 minutes, 5 seconds (1944).
Cannery: The Ashcroft cannery got steam up on Wednesday in preparation for the opening of canning of tomatoes. They expect to put up considerably more this year, as there are about 100 acres more in tomatoes and they have to put up the Kamloops crop also. Some local help is being employed, but it is necessary to bring in about 60 girls from the coast to handle peeling.
Old School To Open Again: The old school house built in the early years of the century, which has been used for a community hall since 1922, when the present four-room school was built, is again being converted into a temporary quarters as a high school until such time as a new one can be built. The attendance has become so large that the present accommodation is unable to accommodate the number. The remodelling will be ready for the opening of school at the close of the summer holiday. The old school was built early in the century. It was the third to be built here, the second being built in 1890. Before that time classes met in an old log building at the north end of Railway Avenue, facing down the street, and was known as the "House of Blazes".
Building Boom Reaches Ashcroft: Ashcroft may not be booming, but the building, remodelling, and improvement campaign that has been going on all over B.C. has reached us, and today the old historic town is ringing with hammer and saw. On the flats down by the Thompson River [where the River Inn/Legacy Park campground are now located], Mr. M. Greatrix, who purchased this property from L.W. Cumming, who in turn purchased the Nesbitt estate to loosen up more land for Ashcroft, is building a modern auto park which will eventually comprise 24 duplex cabins, modern in every way. Here the land will be landscaped and planted with shrubbery and trees and made into one of the prettiest and most attractive auto courts in B.C.
50 YEARS AGO: AUG. 8, 1974
Fire Bomber; Plane Crash Kills Three: All three crew members were killed Friday when a passenger plane converted to a water bomber crashed while fighting a forest fire in the Highland Valley area southeast of Ashcroft. The propeller-driven DC-6B was owned by Conair Aviation Ltd. of Abbotsford. Search and rescue officials said it was dropping fire retardant on the blaze when, according to the pilot of another plane, it crashed. Crew members were James Ferrell, 54, of Abbotsford, the pilot; first officer Philip Clack, 45, of Victoria; and William Sameluk, 20, of Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Fraser Canyon Closures: The Fraser Canyon section of the Trans-Canada Highway will be closed to through traffic from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. every weekday for about 14 weeks starting Aug. 6. The closures are necessary because of a major rock removal project involving daily blasting at Hell's Gate. Only about a mile of the highway will be closed, but this will prevent traffic from getting through during the three-hour periods. The blocked-off section will be between the west portal of the Hell's Gate tunnel and the Air Tram parking lot. The project involves the removal of 16,000 to 20,000 tons of rock and shot-creting the rock face, that is, sealing it with a sprayed-on concrete mix. The work is part of a continuing maintenance and stabilization process at the Hell's Gate bluffs.
Walhachin News: There seems to be a paucity of news lately, probably due to the heat: no one has the energy to hatch out a happening. The gardens are flourishing in the heat, although flowers seem to suffer.
