55 YEARS AGO:
Blue River easily took the Barriere Legion tournament by winning three games in a row. They beat the Clearwater Luckies 5-2 in the finals to take top prize money of $80.
The Luckies were given $60 for their second place finish. Blue River played a faultless game in the field. There were no errors at all. Clearwater was charged with three.
Blue River pitcher Don Romeike struck out one man and allowed another to walk. Opposing chucker Carson Whitford struck out two and didn’t walk a man. There were no home runs and only one triple; that by Luckies player Lorne Buck.
50 YEARS AGO:
A helicopter owned by Vancouver Island Helicopter Service crashed just after takeoff while containing a pilot and two passengers. The aircraft went down in a treed area and overturned just a few kilometres southwest of Little Fort.
One of the passengers was able to walk out and notify authorities from a service station in Little Fort. Clearwater RCMP detachment investigated the crash and reported that the machine came down after striking tree tops and turned upside down.
The passengers were able to crawl out; gas was leaking from the craft but did not catch fire, though the helicopter was demolished.
45 YEARS AGO:
When it rains, it pours. Such was the case for the Junior Softball Playoffs as rain threatened to ruin the day’s activities. With half an inning left in the final game, the clouds unleashed all their fury to finish everything once and for all.
The game though, was probably beyond saving anyway. The six inning score of 7-0 would have proved invincible most likely. Camp Two was awarded the first place trophy defeating Vavenby. Behind the superb pitching of Morris Sauve and the solid work of the Camp Two infielders, Vavenby was held to just one hit and one walk.
40 YEARS AGO:
The truck of sanitation engineer Julian Isvik went over the edge at the Clearwater dump and burst into flames shortly after. The 1976 Ford truck, valued at $18,000 to $20,000 new, was completely destroyed.
Apparently Isvik had backed up to the edge of the dump and had gotten out of the truck to open the tailgate when the machine started slipping back. He ran around the truck and tried to get the door open to apply the brake, but was unable to stop the vehicle.
35 YEARS AGO:
Howie and June Mjolsness, long time residents of Clearwater, were honoured at an appreciation farewell banquet by the Clearwater Chamber of Commerce in the Wells Gray Hotel. More than 70 people were present to offer their congratulations, extend best wishes and swap reminiscences to the former owners of the Dutch Lake Resort.
Mr. and Mrs. Mjolsness had been instrumental in the formation of numerous community projects, including forming a school band, obtaining doctors, building the hospital and promoting tourism. The couple were recipients of several gifts from a grateful community which they served so well with voluntary service work.
30 YEARS AGO:
Times outdoor columnist and Clearwater bicycle store owner Frank Ritcey had sold an article promoting mountain biking in Wells Gray Park to a major magazine. Ritcey’s piece, describing the Pyramid Mountain trail in the park, appears in the latest issue of “Bicycling,” an international magazine with a circulation of 365,000.
The article featured a picture of local bike enthusiast Noah Baker (unfortunately the editors got their geography mixed up, as the picture was taken on Granite Mountain, not Pyramid).
25 YEARS AGO:
Thieves were busy in Barriere robbing two businesses and the firehall. Staff at Barriere Auto Parts were greeted with a large jagged hole in the front window of their establishment in the morning and a big empty space where six new chainsaws and a cut-off saw had been when they left the evening before.
Police say the thieves who smashed the window were scared off when the audible alarm sounded during the break, enter, and theft incident. It was believed the suspects fled the scene in an automobile.
Early that same morning three men were seen breaking the side door to the Barriere Cold Beer and Wine Store and taking a small quantity of beer.
The third theft was reported the following day when it was discovered a person or persons entered the Barriere Firehall sometime over the night and stole three bottles of liquor, 18 beer, two bottles of Margarita mix and the 8 ball from the pool table.
20 YEARS AGO:
A picture of Helmcken Falls was featured on a stamp released by Canada Post. The picture showed only the bottom portion of the falls and the pool below. The location of the picture wasn’t identified by Canada Post, possibly to avoid complaints from other areas of the country. However, to anyone familiar with the area, it was clearly the falls in Wells Gray Park.
15 YEARS AGO:
Wells Gray Country director Bert Walker had confirmed he and Clearwater Improvement District chair Jack Braaksma met with MLA Kevin Krueger to talk about incorporation.
“It was a preliminary discussion only,” said Walker. “Krueger has made statements that being an incorporated community would make it easier for him to access government funding for us. We, as representatives of local agencies (I don’t want to call them governments), met with him to see what interest he may have in moving the community toward another referendum.”
10 YEARS AGO:
“It was very interesting.”
That was the report from Clearwater Volunteer Fire Department deputy chief Guy Holland following a propane fire near Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital.
The first callout went out shortly before 9 p.m. Initial reports were that a propane tank was on fire at the hospital, he said. When they arriv3ed on scene they found it was in a shed next to the tanks that housed the vaporizer and valves for the hospital’s propane supply.
The firefighters’ first step was to use the big monitors on their trucks to put master streams onto the tanks to keep them cool.
5 YEARS AGO:
Construction of a southbound passing lane on Highway 5 near Camp Creek had begun thanks to a $1.19 million investment from the B.C. government. A construction contract had been awarded to Borrow Enterprises Ltd. of Clearwater to perform the work.
The project was part of the government’s commitment to construct additional passing lanes between Kamloops and Tete Jaune Cache to promote safety and efficiency under B.C. on the Move, the government’s 10-years transportation plan.
“Highway 5 is a busy route that serves local residents as well as commercial and recreational traffic,” Prince George Valemount MLA Shirley Bond said.
1 YEAR AGO:
Students from a local music class offered by Sona Music and Audio recently gave their first ever recital to the public, showing off the skills they’d been picking up since starting lessons taught by teacher Brenden Benoit.
The musicians, ranging in age from 10-years-old to adult, played guitar and piano in the styles of contemporary, pop and classical.
“It was really awesome to be able to provide that for folks in town,” said Benoit.
The recital offered nine performances for the crowd of roughly 30 people who showed up to take in the music.
