125 YEARS AGO: SEPT. 18, 1897
Arrived From Barkerville: J.T. Field arrived in town last Saturday morning from Barkerville, having ridden down by horse in a little over four days and a half, and went on to Victoria, where he will reside. Mr. Field has had charge of the Barkerville Hotel of late.
Latest Model: M. Dumond, the tinsmith, received this week a consignment of air tight heaters, the latest model for 1897, and they are beauties. To save wood this winter purchase one of these stoves. See adv. in another column.
New Building: Mr. J.A. Mackinnon, who is one of the prominent owners of the Golden Cache mine and has made a fortune by it, is to be congratulated, but so is the city of Vancouver. Yesterday while in the terminal city we had the pleasure of seeing and going through the new brick block that Mr. Mackinnon is erecting at the corner of Granville and Hastings streets. It is neatly planned, well built, handsome and stately, and fills up an unsightly gap that has for years disfigured the corner of the two streets with a magnificent five storey building. [Ed. note: The Mackinnon building was demolished in 1956.]
100 YEARS AGO: SEPT. 16, 1922
Radio Demonstration: D. Harmon, of Vancouver, was in Ashcroft yesterday demonstrating with a radio receiver. He picked up messages from San Francisco and from a steamship fourteen hundred miles out in the Pacific.
Walhachin Notes: A gramophone dance will be held in the town hall Saturday, the 14th, and the usual good time is expected. Terms as usual — four bits or cake — no discount or I.O.U.s.
Misprint: The Journal linotype called the Walhachin correspondent “errotic” last week, really meaning “erratic”, with the result that our dictionary has been worked overtime by readers anxious to know if this was a curse or a complaint.
Tourist Travel: “There have been more visitors in the Pacific Northwest this summer both by rail and by automobile and by steamship than in any previous year,” said Herbert Cuthbert, executive secretary, Pacific Northwest Tourist Association. “In some of the cities I have visited the business men have frankly stated that they did not know how they would have tided over the summer months had it not been for this tourist travel. It is a little early yet to estimate how much money has been spent in the aggregate by visitors, yet I think it is safe to say that it is between forty-five and fifty million dollars. In the near future we are going to see millions of dollars spent in new hotels, new accommodations at lake and mountain resorts where not a dollar has been spent so far.” [Ed. note: In 2019, tourism in B.C. generated $22.3 billion in revenue.]
75 YEARS AGO: SEPT. 18, 1947
Hunting Season: The odd deer and moose is venturing close to civilization. Last Sunday night ye editor pretty nearly had venison steaks out of season if he could have got away with it, in his car around the Maggie Mine, but it was about three hours before hunting season opened. Our conscience got the best (which is as it should be). There are plenty of hunters going into Cariboo; Sunday evening the cross roads at T.U. Auto camp [Cache Creek] was a regular city centre as regards traffic.
Lillooet Pioneer Kills Two Bear: Al Young, famous old stage driver on the Cariboo road, now of Lillooet, killed two bears a few days ago. Al is 80 years of age and has a small orchard near the town. He had to shoot the first bear three times and he is still a crack shot. His eyes are still good and he doesn’t wear glasses.
Capt. R.X. Cheng Back To Lillooet: Capt. Cheng was born in Lillooet, his father was manager of the famous Wo Hing firm of merchants. Cheng has been away for 15 years, taking an engineers’ course at McGill. He was the first Chinese officer in the Canadian Army and served with distinction in the east doing splendid work in Borneo. He is now associated with his father in the import and export business in Vancouver and is touring B.C. with two Chinese industrialists from Shanghai who are interested in forest products of B.C. both lumbering and paper.
50 YEARS AGO: SEPT. 14, 1972
Local Man Dies From Gunshot Wounds: John McKinnon age 32, of Cache Creek, died of two gunshot wounds Tuesday morning, Sept. 12. Two juveniles were apprehended in Prince George with two .22 calibre rifles. They appeared in Family and Juvenile court at Kamloops, facing charges of non-capital murder.
Armed Robbery: John Henry O’Rourke, 18 years, of St. Anne’s, P.Q. and Joan Elsie Tucker, 24 years, of Middlebush, New Jersey, U.S.A., appeared in Ashcroft court on Sept. 12, charged with Armed Robbery of the Cache Creek Gulf Station. $128 was stolen from the station attendant, Daniel Chubb. A starting pistol and knife were used in the offence. Both subjects were apprehended by RCMP at Ashcroft a few minutes after the offence. Money recovered. Subjects remanded to Sept. 20 for sentence.
Clinton C. Of C.: Thirty members and visitors attended the dinner meeting of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 7. Topics under consideration were tourist overnight stopping in picnic areas; garbage containers on streets; hazardous highway areas (underpass and at 3 Mile where three lanes narrow to two at a curve); speeding vehicles around town.
Do you want to read more from the Journal archives? An expanded version of this story is available on the Journal website at https://www.ashcroftcachecreekjournal.com/.