50 years ago: Mountain guide-photographer of Banff Hans Gmoser presented his film “Of Skiers and Mountains” at the Windermere Memorial Community Centre. He provided his own commentary of the footage to the attentive audience.
45 years ago: Former MLA James Chabot reportedly met with Queen Elizabeth in the legislative chambers in Victoria, B.C.
40 years ago: A meeting was held at the Windermere District Chamber of Commerce to discuss the purity of Lake Windermere’s water. It was determined that septic tanks may have been causing pollution, and it was decided that a series of tests would be done that summer to confirm possible sources of contamination.
35 years ago: Thirty-two years of continuous service as the Tie-Inspector for the CPR officially ended when W. G. (Bill) Lockhart retired.
30 years ago: A “building boom” was planned for the Village of Radium Hot Springs in the spring after the community was guaranteed an adequate water system.
Plans and designs had been made for Radium buildings for years, but projects could not get underway due to a lack of important services.
25 years ago: A BK-117 jet helicopter visited the Windermere District Hospital as part of a program to introduce the first formal helicopter ambulance service in western Canada. The helicopter was operated by the Southern Alberta Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS).
20 years ago: Fifteen riders, including Kelly Mason of Parson, attended a three-day hunter-jumper clinic hosted by the Windermere Valley Saddle Club on the weekend, held at the club grounds at the crossroads.
15 years ago: Cari Jo Hoffman and Debbie Laine plunged into the icy Lake Windermere to claim the 1996 title for “First in Lake Windermere for the Year”.
The girls had made the polar bear-esque swim an annual event for themselves in the early ‘80s, but had halted the occasion for several years because of being away on the coast.
10 years ago: The Invermere Forest District (IFD) and the Nelson region of the Ministry of Forests had been tracking the activity of the Douglas fir beetle since 1923, using cut logs from “trap trees” to lure the beetles and contain them.
However, residents had been taking the presumably abandoned “firewood” back to their homes, and the Ministry of Forests and IFD warned that doing so could move beetles into the wood-snatchers’ backyards.
5 years ago: Both the Windermere and Invermere Fire Rescue Departments responded to a house fire in Timber Ridge.
Windermere fire fighter Geoff Muir entered the burning building on two occasions to collect the homeowner’s dachshunds, one of which was featured with Muir on the front page of The Valley Echo.
