May 2004: Plenty of intrigue in Yale and a rodeo lesson from a 63-year-old
“A strange story right out of an old gangster movie, emerged from Yale this week, that could have triggered a massive investigation into cement plants,” wrote reporter Simone Rolph on the front page of the May 27, 2004 edition.
When a block of cement used for building retaining walls on the highway was drilled into, the drill popped straight through into the center of the concrete and emerged with coagulated blood on the drill bit. The police thought they may have a gruesome murder on their hands and promptly took possession of the cement chunk.
The deceased ended up being an otter, which may have been found and tossed into the cement making machinery at a Lower Mainland cement plant.
“At an age where most folks would be happy with an armchair, Larry Jackson seems intent on putting himself in a wheelchair — riding horses at breakneck speed and chasing down ornery cattle,” wrote Barry Stewart on May 27, 2004 of the 63-year-old rodeo roper and co-manager of the Hope A&W and Esso. Team roping is the only rodeo sport done in pairs, where one rider lassos the horns of a steer and the other lassos the hind legs.
“It’s very addictive,” Jackson said. “I tell people if you’re going to get addicted to something, you’re better off being an alcoholic than a team-roper, ’cause there’s AA for alcoholics and nothing like it for ropers!'”
May 1984: A sober ride and a highway, maybe, runneth through
Indigenous students in Hope had plans to accompany a man completing an epic 1,700 kilometre fundraising bike ride from Prince Rupert to Vancouver. The locals would accompany Wilbur Abraham on the Yale to Mission stretch of his Ride for Sobriety, which had goals to build an alcohol and drug rehabilitation centre and publicize the Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention program.
“It may not be official yet, but it’s the hottest news in town,” led a front-page story on May 16 under the headline “Coquihalla open by 1986?” Although the information couldn’t be verified by the highways ministry, the Yale-Lillooet MLA Tom Waterland told the paper the work on the highway seemed to have accelerated from “nothing to something.”
The town saw the highway as a mixed blessing: “most see the long-awaited highway completion as a mixed blessing — boom times for the two years of construction, bust afterwards; others simply see good times ahead.” While the mayor Keith Gardner was optimistic about the highway’s impact on the community, a group of merchants led by Gary See of the Silver Chalice Pub were concerned about what the four-lane bypass would do to their businesses.
Hope in History delves into the archives of the Hope Standard and your community history each month. Have a particular story you want to relive? Email news@hopestandard.com.
