42 Years Ago (1976): Provincial Lands Management Branch officials refused to renew a hay-grazing lease for a family in 141 Mile who had established a residence in trespass on the 60-acre hay-grazing lease adjoining their deeded land. Ruby Jean Christensen said the family built their home there because it was a better site, and denied it was an attempt to secure the land. Earl Warnock, the regional lands manager at the time, said a grazing lease does not permit residential use. “On an agricultural lease, you have the right to put a home on it.”
37 Years Ago (1981): Cariboo sawmills were affected by a province-wide strike by the International Woodworkers of America union that temporarily shut down the forest industry. Gordon Grey, the union’s labour relations officer at the time, said wages were the key issue in the dispute. The 100 Mile House Merchants Association president at the time, Luke Vorstermans, said the strike would affect local businesses. “We are heavily dependent on the forest industry and must hope for an immediate solution.” He said neither side seemed willing to negotiate.
28 Years Ago (1990): The Kal Tire bantam boys fastpitch team brought home gold from the B.C. Summer Games. Darcy Dickson, a local athlete at the time, coached the team to victory. “They were great – on their bats and they played solid defence in every game,” said Dickson. “We were all about three feet high after the final against North Delta. It was very emotional.” The team beat Kamloops 7-0, Prince George 23-1 and Langford 3-0 and lost to 7-0 to North Delta in the preliminaries. They beat Abbotsford 7-4 in the semi-finals before claiming gold against the only team who’d beat them.
24 Years Ago (1994): The Commission on Resources and Environment released a new land-use plan for the Cariboo-Chilcotin, doubling protected parkland and assigning Sensitive Development Zones with limited resource extraction. The report was met with protest from the Cariboo Lumber Manufacturers’ Association. Steve Silveira, the CLMA president at the time, said, “What’s really significant is that the highest productivity zones were not included. That’s buggin’ me real bad.” Logging trucks twice blocked Highway 97 in protest of the report.
15 Years Ago (2003): A group of over 20 merchants operating in downtown 100 Mile House met to brainstorm how to attract Highway 97 travellers to Birch Avenue. Diane Lawson, the 100 Mile Development Corporation’s economic development officer at the time, suggested companies in a business improvement area could pay $150 to $200 per year for improvements. A skate park, an outdoor stage and additional signage were seen as a priority at the time. “We don’t want to conquer the world, but we want to start something,” said Lawson.
beth.audet@100milefreepress.net
