Donna Barnett, a director with the 100 Mile House & District Historical Society, plans to meet with Lana Popham, B.C. minister for tourism, arts, culture and sport, on April 10 to seek a funding grant to help move the 153 Mile store to the 108 Mile Heritage Site.
Longtime Cariboo rancher Roger Patenaude donated the store to the Heritage Site, but it will cost at least $2 million to move it. The store has two storeys and a basement and will be moved in pieces.
Originally built in 1900 by Louis Crosina, the store contains more than 3,800 artifacts from the end of the Cariboo Gold Rush era up to 1963 when the store closed. Records include names of people who stopped at the site to eat meals and buy hay – at that time it cost 50 cents for dinner and 50 cents for hay, Barnett said.
A fundraising committee has already raised $75,000 and “we haven’t even started yet,” Barnett said. “We’ll get there by hook or by crook.”
AGM
The 100 Mile House & District Historical Society re-elected its board for the next term during its AGM Monday night.
Eleven directors will sit on the board, which oversees and manages the 108 Mile Heritage Site. Those elected include Kelly Carnochan, Marianne Lawrence, Robert Babcock, Fred Notheisz, Judith Halliday, Dan Jackson, Corinda Williams and Peter Mayr. They will join Donna Barnett, Grant Carnochan and Nathalie Ambramonich, who have another year to serve. The directors will decide on their executive positions at their next meeting.
Current president Kelly Carnochan said the site saw changes in the past year, including the repainting of the museum, new fences and the first-ever October Fair. Two successes involved moving the gift shop into the museum, which brought in more traffic, Carnochan said, and the resurrection of the ghost tours every second Saturday. The ghost tours raised $10,000 for the heritage site.
New this year is the introduction of the Agnus McVee Facebook site and the revamping of the website.
The 108 Heritage Site will reopen for the season on May 18 on the long weekend. It will initially be open five days a week until the student workers have finished school, at which time it will be open seven days a week from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Ghost tours will start again at the museum on May 4 and run every second Saturday until Halloween.
Heritage Site hosts trappers’ camp-out
The 108 Heritage Site will host a BC Trappers “camp-out” on June 21-23.
Spokesperson Kent Maitland said they expect about 150 people on the site, where they will dry camp for the weekend. On June 22, they will hold the “trappers’ games,” including a Fishing Derby, three-legged snowshoe race, cat iron frying pan toss and an obstacle course.
“I’m really glad the site has allowed us to come here,” Maitland said. “There will be lots for people to come and see.”