Crowsnest Pass Herald

Two potential UPC Candidates Visit with Pass Residents Rebecca Shulz and Travis Toews both spend time talking the future of Alberta and the Crowsnest Pass Nick AlleN Pass Herald Reporter United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership candidate Rebecca Schulz visited the Crowsnest Market last week to speak with residents about the upcoming election for the new party leader. Rebecca Schulz is the MLA for Calgary-Shaw and was elected in 2019.

“Right now, as I watched this leadership ring happening, I know that the success of our party is important for the future of our province,” said Schulz, “We need a leader who can unite our party.”

She said they need to bring grassroots members along with them and provide some leadership for the next generation of our Conservative Party.

“Everywhere I go in Alberta, people are talking about the importance of economic growth, diversification, jobs, but also health care and education,” said Schulz.

Talking to people from the area was important to her, not only here but across the province. Schulz said she wants to focus on the future and create economic growth and opportunities, a part of the reason she came to Alberta from Saskatchewan.

“If you were willing to work hard, you could be who and whatever you wanted to be and chart your own path,” said Schulz, “Over the last number of years, especially under the former government, we saw economic devastation, and that was hard for a lot of people right across this province.”

Cont’d on page 2

Nick Allen photo

United Conservative party leadership candidate Travis Toews speaks with community members of the Crowsnest Pass at the Blairmore Lions Hall on July 25.

2 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Shulz and Toews visit cont’d from page 1 Focusing on a balanced budget is one of Schulz’s priorities. She said it's important when her kids are making decisions to meet the demands of their time that they aren't paying off the debt from now.

“We can do that while still investing in the things that matter to Albertans; highways, education, making sure teachers are hired to be in classrooms with kids, that the emergency rooms are there and open and that people have access to family doctors,” said Schulz.

Somebody who is going to plan for the future and be open to growth and economic diversification is important for the province according to Schulz.

“When I look at my fiscal plan it was really around 35 per cent of our surplus going to pay down the debt, 35 per cent going to save for the future in the Heritage Savings Trust fund and 30 per cent to address things that are top of mind for Albertans,” said Schulz, “Things like capital projects as well as affordability measures and investment attraction.”

When Schulz reflected on the other candidates, she said she is the only candidate that has experience negotiating with the federal government. She said she was part of an almost $4 billion childcare deal with the federal government.

“I was not willing to accept the first or second deal that the federal government put across the table. We had to fight for Albertans to make sure that small business was included, that all the options parents make were included from day homes and preschools to childcare facilities,” said Schulz.

She now has the backing of Rona Ambrose, someone Schulz said is one of her political mentors and someone she looked up to as a leader. With Ambrose’s support she doesn’t claim to be able to make everyone happy.

“I'm not going to over promise and under deliver but I will work hard for you every single day and be able to stay focused on the things that matter most, but that only happens if we choose a leader for our United Conservative Party who can beat Rachel Notley and the NDP in 2023, and that person is me.” said Schulz.

Schulz called herself a fiscal conservative. Her focus is on a balanced budget, economic growth and health care.

"We spend more on health care than a lot of other provinces per capita, and we don't have better outcomes. We need to fix the health care system,” said Schulz.

Also at the forefront of her mind was issues with education. She is looking to make it so children can get a “world class education” right here in Alberta and then be able to stay here and work.

“We can't do the same old, same old. We can't bring policies that create more chaos and division, that's not what Albertans are looking for, what they are looking

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for is a leader who can provide a vision of what our Conservative Party is and bring people along.

Uniting the party and the diverse opinions, views and thoughts on different issues is part of the vision Schulz has for the party.

For those interested in learning more about Rebecca Schulz or to learn how you can become a member to vote in the leadership race for the UCP, visit the website rebeccaforleader.ca to find out more.

Potential United Conservative Party leader Travis Toews spoke to Crowsnest Pass residents and The Blairmore Lions Hall on July 25.

Toews was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta on April 16, 2019, as the MLA for Grande Prairie-Wapiti.

Toews and his wife live in the Grande Prairie region and have three children and eight grandchildren. He spent twelve years in a public accounting practice. In the past fifteen years, he and his wife Kim, have managed a corporate family cattle ranching operation and an oilfield environmental company.

He was appointed as Alberta’s President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance on April 30, 2019.

Speaking with Crowsnest Pass residents he started by saying “It's great to be here, really great to get to this community, it's been good to travel around the province here the last five weeks or so.”

The last time he was in the area he said he was working on the 2022 budget as Finance Minister. He was also focused on the future of the province as the leadership vote for the UCP and supported affirming the leadership of Jason Kenney.

“I believe the best thing for the province [is] stability and stability would mean affirming the premier and heading into the next election,” said Toews, “The premier didn't get enough support and I think he made the right decision by stepping down.”

Toews claims running for Premier of the province was not something he “laid awake at night over the years wishing I could do”, even saying he had never aspired to politics before 2018.

“I didn't want government in my business, and I certainly didn't want them in the middle of raising a family,” said Toews.

When the province voted in an NDP government is when Toews said he took notice of politics.

“I was concerned that the freedoms, the opportunity, the prosperity that we had enjoyed may not be there for the next generation,” he said.

Toews said government's role isn't to create wealth, but to create a competitive business environment where entrepreneurs can see opportunity that government never could and work hard, deploy capital, take risk and grow an economy.

Growth in the entertainment and tech industries were touched on by Toews, along with the need to stop “robbing” the Heritage Trust Fund of earnings. He talked extensively about economic growth and change in Alberta.

“We're seeing economic diversification at rates I have probably not seen in my lifetime, and that's really good news for the next generation who might want a career in an area entirely different than what I might have envisioned when I was their age,” said Toews.

One thing he said about his style of leadership is that tone, style and approach matter.

“I was the finance minister in the last three years in Premier Kenney’s cabinet.

I'm often considered the establishment candidate,” said Toews.

He talked about working closely together on a lot of initiatives the last three years with the premier. Toews said he has “a deep commitment to conservative values” which allowed them to work together on fiscal and economic objectives.

Questions for the potential candidate were spread out over a variety of topics.

Heated discussion around healthcare started things off, with one person in attendance blaming Toews and the previous government for the current state of the healthcare system.

Another topic brought up by the audience was the 1976 Coal Policy. Toews apologized for the work done by the government and himself in reducing the areas capacity for coal mining.

“The government that I was involved in, I sat around the cabinet table, it made a grievous error,” said Toews.

Talk about the federal government's reduction of fertilizer emissions were also discussed with Toews saying he would work with other provinces to “push back against the feds” on the issue.

“With support of many or maybe most all of the other provinces, we could do it effectively without having to kind of turn to that more punitive action,” said Toews.

For more information on Travis Toews and his policy, go to toewsforalberta.ca to read further.

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - 3

Police Briefs Between July 18 and 24 the Crowsnest Pass Detachment received 63 calls for service. These calls included two assaults, one fraud/forgery, two threats/harassment, one mischief (vandalism), two thefts, one impaired driving, one disturbing the peace, two other criminal code, three other provincial statutes, 16 driving complaints, 12 motor vehicle collisions, seven assistances to the general public, four suspicious occurrences, one false alarm, three animal calls, one municipal bylaw, two lost/found, one Coroners Act and one abandoned vehicle.

Shoplifting Investigation On July 18, 2022, there was a complaint of shoplifting from a business in Blairmore. The matter is currently under investigation to identify the suspect.

Vehicle Damage On July 19, 2022, police received a complaint of mischief to a vehicle, rocks were thrown at vehicle while parked in Bellevue.

Loose Tire On July 19, 2022, there was a complaint of an oncoming vehicle on Highway 3 that was towing a trailer when a tire flew off and hit the front of a SUV. Motorcycle Accident On July 20, 2022, police received a complaint of a motorcycle accident where it hit the side of semi-trailer unit. The driver was taken to the hospital for his injuries.

Flower Theft On July 20, 2022, there was a complaint of a theft of flowers from a flowerbed on 22 Avenue in Coleman.

Assault in Blairmore On July 21, 2022, there was a complaint of an assault at a commercial place in Blairmore. The male was

arrested, charged and released with conditions on documents for Court Pincher Creek.

Disturbance Leads to Bail Hearing On July 22, 2022, there was a complaint of a disturbance at a residence in Blairmore. A 32-year-old male was arrested and charged with breach of conditions. They have been remanded in custody for a bail hearing.

Intoxicated Driver On July 23, 2022, police received a report of a motor vehicle accident on Highway 3, west of Coleman. Police attended the scene where a 26-year-old male from Lethbridge appeared to be intoxicated. The man provided a breath sample which resulted in a failure. His driver’s license was suspended for 90 days, and his vehicle was towed and seized for 30 days. He faces a $1000 fine that will be imposed under the Alberta Provincial Immediate Sanctions.

Animals in Vehicle On July 24, 2022, there was a report of a dog and cat locked in a van parked at Frank Slide Centre. The animals appeared to be in distress according to the report. When the police arrived, the vehicle was already gone.

Lost and Found Found tools in Coleman. Anyone missing tools please contact RCMP detachment. Found house key with Swiss flag key tag.

Reminders to the Public Residents, please remember, do not leave your animals in vehicles when weather is hot.

Residents are asked to be aware of phone scams saying they are from Border Services that there is a suspicious package for them and possibly a warrant for arrest.

Reminder to property owners to lock your doors and vehicles. Mark your belongings and record serial numbers of tools and other important items.

Reminder to residents of computer scams, credit cards scams, Grandparent scams and Revenue Canada scams, do not give out personal information to persons you don't know.

The Simple Raven’s Post

by Avner Perl

Walking to school, uphills both ways I remember Wednesdays on the farm. It was washing day and by night my mom’s hands were raw, red, and bleeding. She used an iron tub and a washing board. It had “ribs” on it and she would rub the heavy cottons up and down, dipping them again and again.

After rinsing, she would take it outside to hang on the clothesline to dry in the wind and sun. The cloth was stiff but smelled heavenly. Chicken for supper meant catching the screaming chicken, cleaning and feathering it, cutting and roasting, or cooking. We lived in a tropical climate, so we didn’t have an oven.

The vegetables came from the garden, (where else?) and fruits from the trees, while berries grew on bushes. Most people grew potatoes, onions, and most importantly, nature’s antibiotic, garlic. There was no room in the pantry for pet food, but we had no pantry. No refrigerator either.

Although women’s work was strenuous by today’s standards, men’s work was much harder. Backbreaking is an appropriate description of it. Men didn’t complain and always faced the reality that they may have to stop and take arms to defend their way of life. I didn’t know any men who didn’t have a second job in the army.

Now, most of what we called women’s work and much of the back-breaking work is done by machines powered by electricity and fuels. Work is something we do in an airconditioned office using a computer mouse. Even “blue collar” jobs are a fraction of what they used to be in terms of physical contribution. People are no longer imagining a life that is less back-breaking, but a cruise or resort vacation every few months.

I was attempting to tell my children what we used to do and my child said. Yes, dad, you used to walk to school for a mile carrying 30 lbs of books going uphill both ways, and they laughed. The sacrifice that their elders made is not registering in their spoiled young brains. They think we are kidding.

Surprisingly, they can and do go on one of their holidays and see people living in the

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same conditions that we used to live in. Half, if not more, of the world’s population, still live in poverty and face food insecurity. We talk about advancing them to our level but can’t do it. If we did, the pollution we would create would kill all living things on earth.

Strangely, the Heaven that most of us strive to get to is not available doesn’t matter what we do. I learned that in Heaven, all things are good. God, the creator of the universe, will handle all the problems. Mom will not have red bleeding hands, and dad will not hammer red hot iron sprinkling a shower of sparks on himself. There will be no cancer or other diseases and no annoying lineups for passports, or a shortage of houses for hardworking people. Hunger and thirst will not exist, nor will hard work make existence hard or impossible. All we have to do to get there is live life without sin and eternal bliss will follow.

Now I am old in human terms and my brain or mind is full of life’s experiences. I still believe in Heaven and have seen people experiencing what we can only describe as Hell. It is physical, but the worst of it is not material. There is pain that hurts worse than anything physical and it doesn’t get better. The pain of guilt. The only cure for it is forgiveness, but it’s nearly impossible to truly forgive, not just say we do.

The universe is charged with something. Here we call it electricity. It must have negative and positive and all its benefits are in between the two. We have captured it, direct it and use it, but it’s always there. We can’t see it, hear or feel it without help. There is no reason to think that it’s not so in heaven.

The old ones who wrote the Bible described it as light and dark, order and disorder.

They didn’t use computers, but they easily could have been wiser than us. They described a garden of Eden but humans were not happy enough with it and got themselves kicked out to where there is hard work and great pain. From that point, life was and is challenging and risky.

Those who pay attention know that God, the supreme universal intelligence, or whatever we choose to call him, is willing to grant us what we want or pray for. He knows our hearts. We are sending Him a message that we wouldn’t admit to ourselves. We want the Heaven described in the literature but only for ourselves.

Now we are arriving at an age of artificial intelligence, robots, nanomedicine, and much more than we could imagine even a little time ago. If we don’t destroy the atmosphere that sustains us on Earth, much of Heaven will be possible soon. What we create will give us most of what we always wished for, but the others who are not as privileged will block us. We only move forward if we move together. We must only take what we need and leave the rest. We have to control those who eat it all.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/ Feel free to check other articles and comment.

4 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

A new section of Great Divide Trail unveiled New section of the trial goes through the Crowsnest Pass, one of only three communities in Alberta Nick AlleN Pass Herald Reporter

Nick Allen photos

The High Rock Trail section of the Great Divide Trail received its grand opening last Friday with speeches from government officials and members of the Great Divide

The newest part of the trail, the High Rock Trail, has been officially opened after moving the section to the Alberta side of the border.

The Great Divide Trail (GDT) goes across the continental divide between Alberta and British Columbia, through the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains for more than 1100 kilometres. It is a challenging long‐distance trail, though it is not officially designated and is not always even an actual trail. Sometimes it’s merely a wilderness route for the most adventurous. Multiple sections of the trail have been identified for shorter trips, and the trail coincides with several established backpacking trails in the national and provincial parks along the trail’s route.

The first records of the GDT are from 1966 when the Girl Guides of Canada proposed the idea of a trail running the length of the provincial boundary through the Rocky Mountains according to the GDT Association website.

In 1974, six students from across Canada joined together for the first formal survey of the route. The group chose to focus their attention on areas outside of national and provincial parks, where no official protection existed. Their aim was to create public interest in preserving areas outside of the park system, and to provide recreational opportunities.

Little or no work was done on the GDT during the 1990s. Many people have wondered why development of the GDT ceased during the last decade of the 20th century.

Alberta government land use policies posed a major problem to the work in the area. After many years of actively supporting the project, the government began to allow new logging and motorized access to the land the GDT route crossed. In some cases, trails which had built only a few years earlier were destroyed when the surrounding landscape was heavily logged. In others, ATV users immediately took over newly completed sections of trail. Many of the original volunteers were discouraged by these developments and lost interest in the project.

As well as the decreased passion, several members of the original core group had dispersed to different parts of the country as their careers and families grew.

Few developments happened until April 2013 when the Great Divide Trail Association was formally created.

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2021 saw the organizations busiest year yet. By the end of the summer, they had successfully operated 15 trail building trips through the pandemic.

This past Friday saw the official opening of the High Rock Trail, with a few original members of the GDTA in attendance.

According to Jenny Feick, one of the six students involved at the beginning, they had proposed the High Rock Trail back in 1974. They had originally wanted to follow the historical trails that ran down the B.C. side of the continental divide.

“Our thought was we should follow historic trails whenever possible rather than building new trails,” said Feick, “The other problem was on the eastern slopes. The snow lasted really late, and we thought it was better to be over there where it was getting the sunlight.”

They are now officially decommissioning the old route that was established in the 70s that was never fully built. The MLA for Livingstone-Macleod, Roger Reid, was present at the ceremony.

“It's absolutely my pleasure to be here to celebrate today to acknowledge the hard work that's gone into the High Rock,” said Reid, “I look forward to the day when I'm not so busy and can have a chance to get out and enjoy some of these amazing places.”

Reid said he looks forward to the international travel the trail will bring to the area and wished everyone many great hours of walking on the new High Rock Trail.

Municipal Councillor Lisa Sygutek was also present to thank the members of the GDTA for their work on the trail and what it means to the community.

“I think a trail like the Great Divide is going to open this community up to things that we can't even imagine,” said Sygutek.

Following the speeches from Reid and Sygutek, the GDTA presented a cheque to Daniel Vanderpyl, Director of Outdoor Programs at the Crowsnest Lake Bible Camp. The bible camp is a partner of the association, and the money is to go towards a scholarship fund after they lost one of their members in an “unfortunate incident”.

The end of the event saw a ribbon cutting that included pieces of flag tape that were used to mark the trail during the work on the High Rock section.

Go to greatdividetrail.com for more information on the organization and the work they do.

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - 5

6 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Herald Editorial

Herald ‘Letters to the Editor’ Policy Policy: The Pass Herald welcomes Letters to the Editor that examine issues, but reserves the right to edit for length, libel and syntax. Writers must sign letters and include first and last names, address and telephone number. Address and telephone numbers will not be published. Only in exceptional cases will the Pass Herald withhold the name of the writer and in those cases the writer must disclose his/her name, address and telephone number to the Editor. Electronic email will be considered an electronic signature.

Letters to the Editor do not reflect the opinion of the Pass Herald. Letters cannot exceed 600 words. We have limited space, but we do enjoy printing every article. So please, to allow everyone to express their opinion, keep the letters short and to the point. We do have the right to refuse any letter that in our judgement may contain libel or libelous opinions. Should a litigation result from your letter, you as the writer are responsible but so is this newspaper as the publisher. The Pass Herald is a family owned community newspaper and therefore reserves the right to refuse any advertisement that in our opinion does not follow our mandate. We cannot accept advertisements or letters criticizing or disparaging other advertisers, companies or individuals or any advertisements directed to a religion or race. Deadline for submission is the Friday prior to publication.

lisa sygutek Just a reminder that the Pass Herald is closed for two weeks! Yes two whole weeks, a break for my staff and myself.

I feel exhausted. It’s been a bit of a rough year for me.

For the first week I have to go to Toronto for work, but on that second week I plan on sitting on the deck in my beautiful yard drinking iced tea, with perhaps a hint of rum.

In the past I would do fun things with Quinn all week. We’d plan out game nights, tennis matches, and paddle boarding, fishing and hiking. Now he’s working full time at the pool as a lifeguard working over 40 hours a week so that you and your family have an opportunity to enjoy our pool.

As an aside from my editorial, I’d like to remind you all that our pool has four lifeguards and that includes the manager, the assistant manager and two 16 year-old teenagers. If hours are shorter then you expect, or public swim times are capped at 40 people in two slots, please don’t take it out on the front desk cashiers or the guards.

There is a countrywide shortage of lifeguards, period. If you abuse them enough and even one quits the pool shuts down. So please be kind. Even our neighbours to the east in Pincher Creek are only running their pool four days a week on a weekly basis. It’s tough everywhere, and so for our pool to be open seven days a week is remarkable and hard for those four guards and the cashiers who take the brunt of the abuse and trust me there has been a lot.

The big boys are working, Keiran at Douglas Applications and Aiden on his co-op with Teck.

This summer has been super interesting. After my surgery, this break will be the first time I can start to climb the mountains I love and run through the fields.

I am looking forward to it more then you can imagine.

I made a pact with myself that one year from my eight week recovery I am going to run a 50 km trail race. I’ve hired a trainer and I am ready more then I can describe to start my journey of both physical and mental healing.

I promise to keep you all updated on my journey.

I plan on stopping to just smell the roses, take stock of life and just breathe.

When I ran for council I didn’t honestly think it would take up so much of my time. Everyone warned me but for some reason I don’t remember it being that busy for my mom. Apparently it was.

It’s hard to run a business, represent your community and be the best mom you can. My kids deserve that and more and sometimes it’s a tightrope hoping I’m not missing something for them for the sake of my community.

So I’ll end this saying thank you for allowing us a break, thank you for reading the Pass Herald and here’s to a two-week break for my kids and I. Our next issue is August 18 and I hope to come back a little more tanned and a lot more rested. I hope you all enjoy your summer as much as I have.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting Rebecca Shulz, one of the candidates running for the leader of the United Conservative Party. I have to say what a wonderful woman. She’s humble, kind and has vision. She just seemed so normal with no ego attached.

It was great listening to her perspective.

On Monday I also had the pleasure of listening to Travis Toews who is also running the leadership of the party. What a brilliant man. He’s very knowledgeable about the fiscal state of this province and our place in confederation. He presents like a leader and, like Rebecca, is humble. What a refreshing change.

Unfortunately I have to talk about two women who attended the talk. When the presentation from Travis began I was very clear that he was given time to talk, time to answer questions and time to visit. Unfortunately both women decided to hijack the presentation, yelling at Travis. I asked them numerous times to please quiet down to no avail. They were rude, nasty and ignorant. They made our community look like a bunch of back-wood hicks. I want to formally apologize to Mr. Toews on their behalf. Sometimes class and manners are not learned at home. They embarrassed themselves and by default our community.

Bricks and Bouquets This is your column, THE READERS, use it but please don’t abuse it. All Bricks & Bouquets are expressions from OUR READERS and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of THIS newspaper. If you wish to expressly thank someone, please use our CARD OF THANKS section of this newspaper. We appreciate you making this column a success, and keep sending us your Bricks and Bouquets. All Bricks and Bouquets are kept on file at the Pass Herald.

Bricks: To the man I saw hitting his dog near the entrance to Michalskys Ranch. I wish I could have hit you twice in the face and made you yelp in pain, just as you did to your dog. Find someone who knows how to properly train and treat a dog. Beating is animal cruelty not training.

The PASS heRALD WILL Be CLOSeD

The PASS heRALD WILL Be CLOSeD TWO WeeKS FOR hOLIDAYS July 28th - August 10th • NO ISSUeS August 3th & August 10th OFFICe OPeN August 11th • AUGUST 17th FIRST ISSUe BACK For news stories contact us at: Lisa Sygutek - Publisher passherald@shaw.ca Nick Allen - Reporter/Photography 403-562-2248 John Kinnear - Feature Writer For on-line subscriptions visit our Avner Perl - Feature Writer website at passherald.ca Owned and Operated by Lisa Sygutek

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Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - 7

Shortage of Lifeguards impacts local pool

John Pundyk.CoM 403

Royal LePage South Country Real Estate Services Ltd.

Lifeguard shortages have affected pools across the country, including the one in the Crowsnest Pass. The pool is a community-owned swim area, designed for swimmers of all ages and abilities.

Currently, the Pass Community Pool has four full time lifeguards along with three working part time.

Pool manager, Ethan Ballak, said the pool needs more lifeguards to run properly.

“About four more full time guards would be the minimum in order to run more lessons, have larger public swims and avoid closures when a guard can’t come in for a variety of reasons,” said Ballak.

They have run a number of programs to help make it easier for those who are interested in becoming lifeguards.

“We already ran a Bronze Medallion course and a Standard First Aid course at the pool, from here a Bronze Cross course and a National [Lifeguard] course need to happen before they can lifeguard. Currently a Bronze Cross class is being offered in Pincher Creek as well as a National [Lifeguard] one in August,” said Ballak.

He said the lack of staff is difficult, but they are expecting more guards for next year as people get certified.

According to an article from Global by Jaclyn Kucey on May 13 this year, the problem is not only in the Crowsnest Pass. Pools across southern Alberta have been struggling to find staff after the pandemic. This has been attributed to the years of training required to become a fully certified lifeguard.

The current regulations in Alberta require one lifeguard is present to monitor 40 swimmers.

One of the organizations in charge of the training of lifeguards in Alberta is the Lifesaving Society. They are recognized throughout Canada as the certifying body for public aquatic safety for lifeguard training.

A part of that training is the National Lifeguard course which, since 1964, has been Canada's standard for professional lifeguarding.

According to their website, they are “Recognized as the standard for lifeguards in Canada” and “National Lifeguard training develops a sound understanding of lifeguarding principles, good judgment, and a mature and responsible attitude toward the role of the lifeguard.”

Anyone interested in becoming a certified lifeguard or wants to learn more about how to register can visit Lifesaving Society online at lifesaving.org.

jpundyk@shaw.ca 6 kAnAnSkIS wILDS

HILLcRESt

Nick AlleN Pass Herald Reporter

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Beautifully crafted mountain home on 5 acres at the bottom of Adanac Road. 5 beds up and 3 beds down, with 4.5 bathrooms. Lower level features a legal suite. The home is currently operated as a Bed & Breakfast and a popular Flower Farm with a well-kept greenhouse. The property is zoned C-2 which allows for many uses. $1,250,000 CALL JOHN MLS

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Beautiful Mountain home with Fir timber finishes. Very private, many trees, south exposure, and tremendous mountain views. 5 beds and 3.5 bathrooms. Walkout basement. Concrete patio with hot tub. Developed basement with wet bar and fine cabinetry. Granite countertops upstairs and down. Over 2,500 sqft finished up and down. Attached, heated double car garage. Paved driveway. Adjacent lot also for sale. $745,000 CALL JOHN MLS

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Alberta government-built commercial building perfect for different uses. Well built on corner lot. Basement suitable for storage. Located in Historic downtown Coleman, close to many great restaurants and the Art District. $139,000 CALL JOHN MLS

Remarkable location in Bellevue.

Large lot, spacious 3-bed, 2-bath home. Sheltered deck. Parking for an RV. Single car garage. Tremendous value as starter home, or great investment in Canadian Rockies. This home has lots of room for now, and tons of room to grow. $307,000 CALL JOHN MLS

Beautiful retail or restaurant space. Great Blairmore location on Main Street. Good street frontage. Back lane access. Excellent opportunity for different uses. Studio apartment being developed in rear of building. Main Street traffic with great visibility. $249,000 CALL JOHN MLS

Charming 3-bedroom mountain get-a-way located close to the ski hill and trail network.

Crowsnest Pass offers tremendous mountain recreation opportunities at an affordable price.

Nice private back yard with back lane access. Walking distance to shopping, pool and medical facilities. $179,000 CALL JOHN MLS

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bLAIRmoRE Fantastic Blairmore location near the ski hill and mountain bike trails.

Very sturdy, straight older bungalow on exceptionally good basement for a home of this vintage. Nice full yard with back lane access and plenty of parking. Close to all amenities. $282,000 CALL JOHN MLS CALL JOHN MLS

coLEmAn Lot Beautiful 50 x 100 ft serviced lot. Wonderful panoramic mountain views and back-lane access.

Close to amenities and historic downtown Coleman’s excellent dining. Also near the famous York Creek Staging Area and multi-use trail network with four season adventures. $84,900 CALL JOHN MLS

HIGHwAY commERcIAL -Fantastic opportunity for commercial location along busy Highway 3. East and West bound traffic access. Currently a successful local fly-fishing shop, known to fly fishermen throughout Canada. Zoned C1 which allows for many different uses. High traffic volume in front of the property. $435,000 CALL JOHN MLS

YoRk cREEk cAbIn Beautiful, small cabin tucked away in the trees. Close to Crowsnest River and York Creek Staging area, with hundreds of miles of backcountry trails for mountain biking, hiking, quadding and sledding. Wide open access to Rocky Mountain adventure. $159,000

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coLEmAn

PInEVIEw Lot Beautiful oversized Coleman lot in Pineview. Located in a quiet cul-de-sac with mature Douglas Fir trees and wonderful mountain views. Beside green space.

Close to four season adventures, including hiking and blue ribbon fishing. $129,000 CALL JOHN MLS

Attractive Investment property or first home. Two bedrooms with updated kitchen and bathroom.

Beautiful, original woodwork.

Newer high efficiency furnace.

Full basement with possibility of development. $239,000 CALL JOHN MLS

bLAIRmoRE conDo

coLEmAn Spacious 3 bedroom, one level house. Solid rebuilt addition with large sitting room and master bedroom. Family room with gas fireplace. Sunny, great mountain view. Large screened front porch. Garage accessible from back lane. Excellent starter home or revenue property. $239,000 CALL JOHN MLS

bLAIRmoRE conDo This one bedroom apartment condo unit is only half a flight of stairs up from the entrance.

Unit 202 is conveniently located within the building, on the same floor as the laundry room. Condo fees include heat, water, sewer, and garbage. Great location. Close to shopping, medical clinics, and miles of walking/hiking trails. $137,000 CALL JOHN MLS

2 bedroom, top floor condo with southern exposure and beautiful mountain views. Crowsnest Condominiums in Blairmore is clean, quiet building. Low condo fees, close to all amenities and spectacular 4 Season adventure. $147,000. CALL JOHN MLS

VALLEY RIDGE Very private, beautiful acreage with newer home. 3.36 acres skirted by Gold Creek. A small brook flows through the yard. Walking trails and alpine mountain flowers. 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, walkout basement bungalow. Functional space that blends effortlessly with the land. Lots of room for RV’s and sports equipment. $739,000. CALL JOHN MLS

Top 1% of more than 19,000 Royal LePage realtors coast to coast.

8 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - 9

10 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Revive the Roxy special John kinnear Feaure Writer Ralph Thurn, former owner of the Roxy Theatre, conducted interviews of iconic Pass coal miners and their stories back in the year 2000.

The videos have been blended together by the hard working Revive The Roxy group into a special one hour film that will be run at the Frank Slide Interpretive Center this Thursday July 28th at 6:00 pm and again on Saturday July 30th at 6:00 and 7:15 on Saturday.

It is a glimpse back in time , where one can hear Pass legends like Roy Lazzarotto and Orestes Serra recount pieces of our amazing history.

The Thursday event will feature a wine and cheese reception and a chance to meet Ralph and several family members of the interviewees.

Tickets are available at www.eventbrite.ca (search for the event). Or by calling Pat Rypien at 403-563-0208.

John Kinnar submission

Ralph Thurn, former owner of the Roxy Theatre, conducted interviews of iconic Pass coal miners and their stories back in the year 2000. The videos have been blended together by the hard working Revive The Roxy group into a special one hour film that will be run at the Frank Slide Interpretive Center this Thursday July 28th at 6:00 pm and again on Saturday July 30th at 6:00 and 7:15 on Saturday.

The PASS heRALD WILL Be CLOSeD The PASS heRALD WILL Be CLOSeD TWO WeeKS FOR hOLIDAYS July 28th - August 10th • NO ISSUeS August 3th & August 10th OFFICe OPeN August 11th • AUGUST 17th - FIRST ISSUe BACK

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - 11

12 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Nick’s Notes Outer Space

Recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have renewed a fascination of mine with outer space.

For anyone who doesn’t know, the JWST is designed to conduct infrared astronomy. It is the largest optical telescope in space with vastly improved resolution and sensitivity allowing it to view parts of space the Hubble Space Telescope is unable to make out.

These images are some of the clearest and most detailed images of distant stars and galaxies to ever be produced. Compared to the photos from the Hubble, these are far more detailed. They capture just how much of space we know almost nothing about. These images come from such a small part of the night sky it becomes unfathomable the sheer size of the universe.

The beauty in these images comes from more than merely capturing distant objects in space. The way it shows them in a spectrum of colour and shapes astounds me. The more I learn about some of the objects captured by the telescope, the more I get fascinated.

The following description of one of the images was incredibly beautiful in a way that brought meaning to the scene before me: “The blistering, ultraviolet radiation from the young stars [are] sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away. Dramatic pillars tower above the glowing wall of gas, resisting this radiation.

The ‘steam’ that appears to rise from the celestial ‘mountains’ is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to the relentless radiation.”

What compels me to share these recent developments in space is what the images mean for space discovery and just how fascinating the technology behind the telescope is.

The JWST reveals emerging stellar nurseries (an area of outer space in which gas and dust are contracting, resulting in the formation of new stars) and individual stars that are completely hidden in visible-light pictures. According to NASA the objects in the earliest phases of star formation are difficult to capture, but the extreme sensitivity, spatial resolution, and imaging capability of the JWST can catalogue these elusive events.

I will be following the release of each subsequent image as they come in, excited to learn the story behind each distant star and galaxy. I hope the vast mysteries of outer space fascinate everyone else as much as they do me.

If you want to see more of the images for yourself, go to nasa.gov under the page titled Missions. They truly are a remarkable sight.

22075CE0

Turning Pointe Dances at Peaks to Pines Members of the Turning Pointe Dance Studio performed at the new Peaks to Pine Seniors Lodge in Coleman on July 22. Dancers from the Crowsnest Pass included Emmalee Ford, Alyson Ford, Tannis Huska and Jane Huska.

Pincher Creek and Area dancers were Sasha Shenton, Kiah Simpson, Catriona Gustavison and Megan Bruder. The two dancers from High River were Harper Nally and Addison Mesner. They are taught by their instructor Tori Wakaluk. Not pictured are Mary Rast and Makenna Evans from the Pincher Creek area.

Herald Contributor photo

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - 13

Sweetriders: Camp for Youth Mountain Bikers Nick AlleN Pass Herald Reporter Youth summer camps for biking enter third year of running in the Crowsnest Pass.

Karey Lee Castellarin, the owner and operator of Sweet Riders, said the business has been incorporated in the Crowsnest Pass since 2015. She said the summer camps are growing every year.

The camps include a week in July and a week in August with other camps taking place across Alberta.

The Crowsnest Pass is Sweet Riders “home base” according to Castellarin.

She created Sweet Riders after being a racer and wanting to give back to the sport. Lessons include options for children ages four and up all the way to retirees. They have private lessons and group lessons. " I created family lessons so when the families learn together, they get a discount, also couples. Those have been pretty popular, but other than that we cover all the bases,” said Castellarin.

She has always been interested in mountain biking and originally started Sweet Riders while living in Japan for 23 years before bringing it to the Crowsnest Pass “I could have gone to BC, but I'm true-blue Albertan girl and I want to raise the standard for Alberta and get some really good riders to compete with the BC riders and that's basically been my mission, to start something in Alberta that's going to grow and have competitive racers that can compete for Canada,” explained Castellarin.

Fun learning, being outside and learning respect for the mountains are part of the benefits to youth when discovering biking. She said it also helps build

Youth participate in the Sweet Riders camp that shows kids the proper skills to ride a bike in the mountains on July 21 at the terrain park beside the ski hill.

Nick Allen photo

confidence and skills that can translate into their everyday lives.

The first group, called Gravity Grinders, had kids from ages eight to 14, and the second were called the Sweet Rippers, which is ages four to seven.

“The hardest thing, I think, is to keep them positive. A lot of times they think they can't do something, and I've always had a rule,” said Castellarin, “I used to run the Boys and Girls Club here too and ‘can't’ wasn't allowed. It's ‘I can, and I will’, so that's my motto.”

According to Castellarin, they still have a couple spots left in the August camp which is run from the 15 to 19. She recommends anyone living in the Crowsnest Pass who has never tried mountain biking should pay Sweet Riders a visit.

“I work exclusively with United Riders of the Crowsnest Pass as well, it's just a really great biking community that we have,” said Castellarin.

Go to sweetriders.com to find out more about upcoming events and camps.

14 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Journeyman Certified Carpenter Licensed and Insured

Journeyman Certified Carpenter Licensed and Insured High Energy Maintenance Free PVC Windows & Doors

Bus: 403-634-3858 email:pkkingsly@gmail.com

A&K Self StorAge Located in the Frank Industrial Park

Units range in size from 5' x 10', 10' x 10', 10' x 15', 10' x 20', sea can 8' x 20' and a 12' x 20' building with auto garage door.

Units are finished inside with hard board or plywood and freshly painted.

Some units are inside chain link fenced area. All units have interior lighting.

Area is secured by exterior lighting.

Residential & Commercial Excavating Landscaping • Snow Removal

jfilipuzzi@shaw.ca

403-563-7285

lannie@westerraearthworks.com

Wild Dog Contracting Services Etc.

• Hauling • Moving • Skid-steer work As well as in shop services like welding, framing, and other odd jobs.

(403) 582-0179

Our equipment includes a 14 foot dump trailer, a 18 foot flat deck, a 14 foot cargo trailer, a S510 bobcat.

Crowsnest

t&s self storage

taxi 403.583.4000

Units in Frank Industrial Park

5’x10’ • 10’x10’ • 10’x15’ • 10’x20’

Call 403-563-8384 - availability & Prices

summit storage • Secured by Video • Dry & Clean • 24 hr Access • Caretaker on Site • 1280 CU Ft. 8x8x20 • Free Local Transport to Storage • RV Storage • Water Available

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PRESTIGE CLEANERS RENT A CARPET CLEANER Clothing Alterations, Zippers, Coverall Rentals, Etc.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD -15 Feed and Seed

For Rent To inquire about the availability of an apartment for rent in Blairmore call 403-562-8144.

1 TFN/NC

Employment FT TRUCK DRIVER. Class 1 license to run USA/Canada weekly. 3 years driving with reefer exp. Drug testing required, benefits available. Send resume to needhamky@telus.net 26-TFN

Services The Crowsnest Pass AA group has moved effective January 2, 2022.

We now meet once a week. SUNDAY NIGHTS ONLY at 7:00 pm.

Compass Fellowship Church. 2029 - 130th St., Blairmore, AB. Looking forward to seeing you.

1-CC

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GET YOUR MESSAGE SEEN ACROSS Alberta. The Blanket Classifieds or Value Ads reach over 600,000 Alberta readers weekly. Two options starting at $269 or $995 to get your message out! Business changes, hiring, items for sale, cancellations, tenders, etc. People are increasingly staying home and rely on their local newspapers for information. KEEP people in the loop with our 90 Weekly Community Newspapers. Call THIS NEWSPAPER now or email classifieds@awna.com for details.

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Coming Events FIREARMS WANTED FOR AUGUST 2022 LIVE & ONLINE AUCTION: Rifles, Shotguns, Handguns, Militaria. Auction or Purchase: Collections, Estates, Individual items. Contact Paul, Switzer's Auction: Toll-Free 1800-694-2609, sales@switzersauction.com or www.switzersauction.com.

ALBERTA FEED GRAIN: Buying Oats, Barley, Wheat, Canola, Peas, Screenings, Mixed Grains. Dry, Wet, Heated, or Spring Thresh. Prompt Payment. In House Trucks, In House Excreta Cleaning. Vac Rental. 1888-483-8789.

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For Sale BEST HUNTING IN SASKATCHEWAN right by Sask River. Excellent fishing and very high Deer population. Thick pine & poplar bluffs, close to water coulee. Old yard site with old power and water. Revenue on crop and hayland. East of Prince Albert. $248,000. Call Doug 306-716-2671.

INTEGRITY POST FRAME BUILDINGS since 2008 BUILT WITH CONCRETE POSTS. Barns, Shops, Riding Arenas, Machine Sheds and more, sales@integritybuilt.com 1-8669 7 4 - 7 6 7 8 www.integritybuilt.com.

Health HIP/KNEE REPLACEMENT. Other medical conditions causing TROUBLE WALKING or DRESSING? The Disability Tax Credit allows for $3,000 yearly tax credit and $30,000 lump sum refund. Take advantage of this offer. Apply NOW; quickest refund Nationwide: Expert help. 1844-453-5372.

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THE ACTIVATED QUILL - when you don’t know how to say it! Do you have something important to say but the words won’t come?

Perhaps an apology is owed or forgiveness is stuck in your throat. Have you drifted away from someone you love?

Screwed things up? Are unspoken thoughts disrupting your sleep? We offer help to clarify personal communication in sensitive situations. We are professional writers offering one-on-one word smithing to help you clear the air and get your point across. Visit us online www.theactivequill.ca. Contact us by email at TheActiveQ@gmail.com or by text or phone call to 877-9668766.

PRIVATE MORTGAGE LENDER. All real estate types considered. No credit checks done. Deal direct with lender and get quick approval. Toll free 1-866-405-1228; www.firstandsecondmortgages.ca.

Wanted NUMISMATIST PURCHASING COIN COLLECTIONS & ACCUMULATIONS! Royal Canadian Mint, Canada & World Collections Wanted. Also buying 9999 bullion, old money, jewelry, nuggets, sterling, gold, silver, coins, bars, monster boxes+++ESTATES WELCOMED! Todd 250-864-3521.

WANTED: Old advertising dealership signs, gas pumps, globes, pop machines, light ups.

White Rose, Red Indian, Buffalo, North Star, Case Eagles, etc.

Collector paying TOP PRICES. 306-221-5908.

GET YOUR CROWSNEST PASS hERALD ONLINE passherald.ca

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE

Canadian Prairie Pickers are once again touring the area!

Paying Cash For Coin Collections, Silver & Gold Coins, Royal Can. Mint Sets.

Also Buying Gold Jewelry

$ $

$

We purchase rolls, bags or boxes of silver coins

$ $

$

PAYING HIGHEST PRICES To arrange a free, discreet in-home visit

call Kellie at 1-778-257-9019 Bonded since 1967

~ OBITUARIES ~ DEBLERT “DEL” CHABILLON

SEPTEMBER 12, 1944 ~ JULY 16, 2022

It is with incredible sadness that we announce the passing of Delbert Evariste Chabillon on July 16, 2022 at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, AB. He was 77 years of age.

Del was born in Blairmore, AB on September 12, 1944. Spending his entire life in the area, he had true love of the outdoors and all the activities it had to offer such as camping, hunting, shooting, fishing and boating. He also enjoyed watching sports, playing the VLTs and socializing. More than anything, Del treasured his family and time spent with them, especially his grandchildren. He was a devoted husband, father, grandfather and friend, and he will live on in precious memories and in the hearts of all who knew him.

Left to mourn his passing and celebrate his life are his sons, Michael (Cheryl) Burr and Lonnie (Cindy) Chabillon; his daughters, Laura (Shawn) Weiss, Tara (Ken) Haslam and Krista (Brian) Goosen; his grandchildren, Shayla, Joceyn, Ty, Emma, Payton, Joey (Cheyenne), Donny, Samantha, Dwight, Sydney, Jordan, Julia and Emily; his great-grandchildren, Lily and Octavia; his companion, Ginger Bradley; his brother, Joey and children, Troy (Deanna), Jodi (Wally) and Shane; his brother, Tim (Susan); his mother-in-law, Vera Ewasiuk; his sister-in-law, Karen (Turk) Blake; his brothers-in-law, Tim (Kathy), Les and Richard Ewasiuk; as well as his extended family and many friends.

He was predeceased by his wife, Velma Chabillon; his parents, Elenor and Joe Chabillon; his brother, Rick Chabillon; his father-in-law, Tony Ewasiuk; and his sister-in-law, Linda Chabillon.

A Memorial Service will be held at the Crowsnest Community Christian Centre (8534 - 24 Ave., Coleman, AB) on Friday, July 29, 2022 at 11:00am with Pastor Al Robinson presiding. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations will be gratefully accepted by the Canadian Cancer Society (www.cancer.ca), or by the Crowsnest Health Foundation “Greatest Need” (PO Box 455, Blairmore, AB T0K 0E0). Condolences may be registered at www.fantinsfuneralchapel.ca.

Fantin’s Funeral Chapel entrusted with the arrangements. (403) 562-8555

ThE PASS hERALD WILL BE CLOSED ThE PASS hERALD WILL BE CLOSED TWO WEEKS FOR hOLIDAYS July 28th - August 10th • NO ISSUES August 3th & August 10th OFFICE OPEN August 11th • AUGUST 17th - FIRST ISSUE BACK

16 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

N O R M C A R L S O N E S TAT E - U N R E S E R V E D

COLLECTIBLE/FARM C O L L E CT I B L E/F A R M

AUCTION AUCTION

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82074 - 466 AVE EAST, ALDERSYDE, ALBERTA Over ver 100 nd CCars; ars; Day 1: 1: O 100 Tractors; Tractors; Collector Collector TTrucks rucks aand Day AAntique ntique SSigns; igns; Antiques; Antiques; Horse Horse D rawn EEquipment; quipment; Drawn D ay 22:: TTractors, Haying Equipment, Equipment, Shop Shop Tools; ractors, Trucks; Trucks; Haying Tools; Day Shop Racks, Racks, Stands Stands & Work Benches Work Benches Shop

Advertising Ourselves One of the billboard advertisements that are part of the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass’ “Relocate to Adventure” campaign.

Nick Allen photo

ugust 1 - 5 VViewing: iewing: AAugust

rouddly dlly serving ing in SSTARLINGAUCTIONSLTD.COM TARLINGAUCTIONSLTD.COM Wes W stern Canada!

We 110AM 0AM – 44PM PM 882074 2074 - 4466 66 AAve ve EE,, AAldersyde ldersyde S TARLING UCTIONS UC TI TA A R L I N G A O NS 403-682-6121 4 0 3 -6 8 2 -6 1 2 1 JESSE STARLING, Head Auctioneer • Box 27, Claresholm, AB T0L 0T0 P

Office Space for Lease Blairmore

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Artist and author Rick Gillis poses by one of his offerings at the latest curated event at the Allied Arts Gallery. The event is entitled “ Exploring the Unexpected” and Rick’s piece is titled “ A War of Tears” and is his glimpse into the war in the Ukraine.

John Kinnear photo

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - 1

It's time to COME HOME and reconnect

Crowsnest Pass Homecoming The Crowsnest Pass Herald is please to present a special Homecoming issue highlighting not only the upcoming reunion, but recognition of our business community, both old and new in the Crowsnest Pass.

Let’s celebrate the history of the community, its business sector and of course its people.

A History of the Pass Herald Copied with permission from Crowsnest and It’s People v. 3 The Pass Herald was established in Blairmore above Fat’s Chop Suey by O.J. Botter in 1930. Mr. Botter was, at one time, an employee of Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

The Pass Herald was published five days a week and was called the Pass Daily Herald. It was published on 8 ½ X 14 colored paper and printed on a Gestetner. Later, a Multilith 1250 press was purchased and other equipment, such as a cutter and binding equipment were used in a small job-printing shop.

At the time the Pass Herald was publishing there were two other newspapers in the Crowsnest Pass, the Blairmore Enterprise and the Coleman Journal. Over the years the Pass Herald changed hands and had many local citizens involved in publishing and producing the paper. They include such notable people as F.M. Thompson, (co-owner with Elmer Thompson – no relation), Harry and Anne Draper (co-owners).

In the early 1950’s Elmer Thompson left the newspaper and leased it out to Mr. Sanduluk and his brother. For a short period of time, it was closed, and the building located behind the now Twilite Confectionary in Blairmore was vacant.

Trevor Slapak and Harry Draper purchased the

assets of the company from Elmer Thompson, and assisted by their wives Ann and Betty, began once again publishing the paper two days a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Trevor purchased the assets from Harry and Anne and began publishing the Pass Herald each Wednesday. The paper was delivered by 28 carriers from Coleman through to Hillcrest for many years.

In 1977 an employee of the Pass Herald, Gail Sygutek, purchased half of the business and installed newer offset equipment and was in charge of advertising, typesetting, ad layout, production and the accounting department. The Pass Herald, after the partnership was created, was located in a building owned by the late Charlie Sartoris and consequently purchased by Mr. Korby Graf. It remained there for a number of years sharing the building with a Radio Shack franchise owned and operated

by Trevor Slapak, Willy Sygutek and Bebe Tymchyna. When the franchise was sold the Pass Herald moved to the Bill White building next to the Orpheum Theatre in Blairmore.

Over the years the Blairmore Enterprise and the Coleman Journal closed their doors, and a new competitive newspaper was born, the Pass Promoter which was owned and operated by Rick Gillis of Blairmore. In order to stay competitive, the Pass Herald moved into a larger building, now known as Creative Magic. Late in 1985 the Pass Herald moved into the Crowsnest Mall and obtained the Alberta government registries franchise which it continues to operate to this day. After moving into the mall, the equipment was once again upgraded, and the format changed into the tabloid it presently publishes. In 1999 the Herald again moved, this time into the building in west Blairmore which was completely renovated to house both the newspaper and the registries. Prior to the move the latest computer

used for publishing and the Herald now has one of the most modern publishing shops in Alberta.

At present the Pass Herald staff includes publisher Gail Sygutek, editor Trevor Slapak, Dee Dee Sagrafena, her sister Lisa Sygutek, Francine Kilgannon, Kristy Tracey, Willy Sygutek and Gemme Desjardins who work part-time in the registries office.

The Herald has employed a number of local celebrities over the years including the late former mayor of Blairmore, Alrik Tiberg, and Louis B. Hobson who is now Entertainment Editor of the Calgary Sun. Elmer Thompson, following his sale of the Pass Herald, moved to Portland, Oregon where he went on to perfect an invention of his called “The Thompson Chain Delivery” which is now sold worldwide and used on almost every type of single sheet offset press in the world.

The editor, Bud Slapak, as he’s best known to his friends, worked for Elmer Thompson as far back as 1946 and is still involved in the year 2000, publishing one of the oldest and still independent newspapers in Alberta. It is interesting to note that today in the weekly newspaper business there are only three independent weeklies operating in Southern Alberta and, of 134 weeklies in Alberta, 45 are corporate owned and operated. It is the hope of the present management that in the future the Pass Herald will remain independent employing only local help and management. The tradition of an independent newspaper started by O. A. Botter in 1930 has survived for 70 years and hopefully will continue as an independent for the next 70 years, After the death of Gail Sygutek in 2015 and Bud Slapak in 2017, the Pass Herald is now owned and operated by Lisa Sygutek and celebrating its 92 years publishing in the Crowsnest Pass.

2 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

The Crowsnest Historical Society Copied with permission from Crowsnest and It’s People v. 3 May 2, 1999 – A Review of the Crowsnest Historical Society - Submitted by Anne Spatuk

There was a local history group in 1959 whose main project was to declare Frank Slide a historical site.

The M.P., Dr. Lawrence Kindt tried to initiate the act in Ottawa but was told by the Historical Sites and Monuments Board that it did not recognize “Disasters” unless they affected a nation. This group had become active in 1972 and acted as a catalyst in 1973. On May 4, 1973, a constitution meeting was held in the CCHS amphitheatre establishing the boundaries of the society divisions, and directorship namely: Bellevue, Hillcrest, Blairmore, Frank and Coleman – West. The chairman was Les Owen, and the temporary slate of officers: Steve Gresl, Ella Burton, Fred Bradley, Les Owen and Florence Kerr.

April 29, 1973 – Secretary Donalda Oliva, Mrs. Kerr, nominating chairman, presented the slate of officers for one-year 1973: President – Les Owen; 1st Vice-President, John Lloyd; 2nd Vice-President, Gordan Chambers; Secretary Donalda Oliva; Treasurer, Fred Bradley. Directors were: Bellevue – Hillcrest: Ella Burton; Steve Gresl and Steve Mott. Blairmore – Frank: Thelma Bradley; Anne Spatuk and Betty Walmsley. Coleman – West: Anne Fleming; Olga Krug and Florence Kerr.

Les Owen resigned Sept 4, 1973, and John Lloyd became president.

The Crowsnest Pass Citizen’s Historical Society became incorporated in March 1974 and its slate of officers elected (or nominated) for 1974 – 75 included Pres. Fred Bradley, 1st V.P. Gordon Chambers, 2nd V.P. Bessie Upton, Sec. Isabel Brown, Treas. Agnes Poch.

Directors were Ward I Florence Kerr, Anne Fleming and Olga Krug; Ward II Anne Spatuk, Betty Walmsley and John Lloyd; Ward III Ella Burton, Alice Carpenter and Steve Mott.

The Society enthusiastically began to list its priorities: road signs, historic sites, a historic village and museum, historic buildings, collecting written or oral family histories.

To do or start any venture money was needed in order to acquire matching grants. It was decided that the Society members should entertain the idea of writing a local history of the area. The book itself would be a fundraiser and could generate money for a future museum while preserving and telling the story. To begin help was acquired from Dr. Ian Patterson, the liaison officer for museums and archives.

Meanwhile the R.C.M.P. Committee was going to mint a 1974 Commemorative R.C.M.P. coin. It received the mandate to do so from Blairmore town council.

Gathering the stories, writing, typing, and filing of photographs fell under the aegis of Florence and Jim Kerr of Sentinel who not only had important contacts but

a place to work, file and store. We had no office or meeting place; we were historic vagabonds. All we owned or possessed was carried in her leather satchel by Agnes Poch, our dedicated treasurer. Volunteers typed up the submissions, and Jim Kerr was the “go-fer”.

In 1975 Fred Bradley entered politics so I was nominated as president and Fred who was elected for Pincher Creek Crowsnest continued to support our endeavors.

In the meantime, we were very busy and vocal when Calgary Power planned to run its 240 KV power line in the length of the Pass crossing the Valley twice and across the face of Turtle Mountain.

We were involved with the archaeological studies in the Pass conducted by Dr. Barney Reeves of the U. Of C. He actually did the cemetery surveys at Lille and Sentinel (Chinese) for the Society under the grant.

The Society strongly objected to the defacing of Frank Slide rock and later to its removal by the CPR. In October 1976, Horst Schmidt announced the designation of Leitch Collieries as a historic site and the unveiling took place in the 1980 on its 75th Anniversary.

Another success, Frank Slide was designated a historic site and the plaque was unveiled April 29, 1978, on its 75th anniversary by M.L.A. Fred Bradley and Florence Kerr.

The Society, jointly with the village of Frank, held a memorial at the gravesite for the victims. This site had been maintained by the Blairmore Lions since the 1953 era. The ambitious letter writing by Florence Kerr had finally paid off.

In the meantime, meetings were held, here, there, wherever, and the search for a suitable site carried on.

We scrambled through rotten boards, coal dust and spider webs in our labours. Nothing! Every building was on hold for the expected coal boom.

Finally, in 1978, we were almost ready to go to press with Crowsnest and Its People. During the months of July, August and September, I proofed the final copies of the stories brought in to me by my husband to the hospital where I lay in traction with a broken thigh.

Then, that January, I took the final manuscripts in a suitcase, via bus, to Calgary. We wanted it to go on sale by July 12, 1979. Rudolph Andrist was the highest bidder on Book No. One, a special edition.

Crowsnest and Its People, 925 pages, 1070 pictures, cost $72,170.00, a product of five years of work, became a best seller for us as well as an award winner.

It necessitated a second printing in 1979. The work of the executive, board of directors, volunteers, contributors, and myself and my husband paid off.

Now that there was money in the bank from the sale of books for a museum site, we began to negotiate with Mr. Cervo at Passburg, for land for a historic village. We had been promised many historic buildings so the project was set aside when Alberta Culture informed us that it was going to establish an Interpretive Centre at Leitch Collieries and would not allow us to establish a historic village since there was already one in existence.

In 1981 the Society was invited to meet with Dr. Pannekoek and M. Rasmussen to hear the concept for the Interpretive Centre at Frank and the stabilization of Leitch and Lille.

November 1, 1981, the Crowsnest Pass Corridor Advisory Board was appointed to help direct historical development in the Pass by the Hon. Mary Lemes-

surier, Minister of Culture. Members included Anne Spatuk, Bill White, James Kerr, Veno Pozzi, Emily Misura, Malcolm MacQuarrie and M.L.A. Fred Bradley.

The Society was also involved with the master plan for downtown Coleman revitalization. It fell through for lack of support.

The Society received permission to lease the cellblock of the Blairmore Courthouse for storage and negotiated with the municipality to update the Hillcrest Mine Disaster cemetery. It was investigated by Helen Gresl, Jim Kerr, Anne Spatuk, Veno Pozzi, Reno Basso and Dr. Pannekoek.

For the sake of brevity, the historical society had a name change from Crow’s Nest Pass Historical Citizen’s Society to Crowsnest Historical Society in 1982.

In 1983, the Society continued to recognize the victims of Frank Slide (1903), this time in conjunction with the Blairmore Lions.

The first option on the Blairmore Courthouse as a museum site was turned down. The Coleman High School became a distinct possibility in 1981. In October 1981, the chairman of the School Board, Dr. Victor Martinez turned over the keys for $1.00 and a 15-year agreement to maintain the building as a museum.

The Society also inherited the $80,000 fund kept in reserve by the Municipality as the 75th anniversary grant to the Municipality. Through the sale of its history books, memberships, donations, commemorative coins, and no major expenditures (no building to maintain) the Society was in good position to carry out its mandate – a historical museum.

As soon as the conversion details could be worked out with the fire and building code, work began on the ground floor of a two-story building by a volunteer crew consisting of Jim Kerr, Jack Marconi, Ferucio Dececco, Roy Upham, and Gordon Chambers. Naturally the maintenance and clean-up fell to the ladies Florence Kerr, Gladys Cunningham, Laura Johnston, Anna Marconi, drop in volunteers and myself.

Generous federal grants through Health and Welfare for seniors allowed us to do major work, changing the electrical wiring system, building a cement and wooden ramp for accessibility and tools needed building materials. The grants amounted to $32,000.00.

1. The money it had invested and continued to do so in the Pass through the purchase of materials, service and training of people under the SEED, STEP, ACE programs.

2. The writing and recording of its history in the Crowsnest and Its People, the Photo Companion, the children’s Activity Book, the information it shares with the public at large, and of course, Crowsnest and Its People Millennium Edition which is in the process of being written and completed.

3. The maintenance of a sound, good-looking building in the wonderful, restful park it has established.

4. The preservation of much that would have been lost or destroyed.

5. Its continued involvement in historic pursuits and civic affairs.

6. Its continued service to the public who seek information and guidance.

The Society has grown and flourished through thick and thin, through the dedication and hard work of its people of vision.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - 3

Prostitution in the Pass Copied with permission from Crowsnest and It’s People v. 3 Submitted by Helen Maxwell (March 2000)

It was the late 1890s when the CPR reached the Crowsnest Pass that houses of prostitution appeared in all five towns. These houses, along with bars and poolrooms, were almost the only social centers for unattached males. Most of these solitary males were lumberjacks and miners who spent freely for charms and the bootleg liquor the shady ladies marketed.

To reach these ladies, customers would have to find their way up the side of Goat (Bluff) Mountain to a spot above the town of Frank where there was at first, one, the later, a cluster of small, jerry-built houses surrounded by a stockade. This cluster was the focal point of the sex trade in the Pass and therefore targeted by moral reformers for removal, or better still, for abolishment.

Cries of the reformers reached fever pitch after scandal struck the sex trade in Frank, first in 1906 when the Northwest Mounted Police officer committed suicide after being rejected by a prostitute with whom he had fallen in love, and one year later when a madam named Monte Lewis was murdered, her jewels stolen and her houseboy, Sam Sing, implicated. The editor of the Frank Paper, Mark Drumm, reported the facts of the murder without editorial comment. Of the suicide he wrote, “When a combination of bad women and bad liquor gains control over any man, the grave appears to be his only refuge”.

On August 5, 1909, Drumm’s paper ran the headline: MORAL REFORM WAVES STARTS. His article announced a mass meeting to be held on August 12 at the Central Baptist Church in Blairmore in order to begin a determined campaign to have restricted districts moved to a more isolated section. Drumm’s comment on the campaign ran as follows: Thus far, the movement does not contemplate any attempt to abolish the districts as the movers appear to hold the opinion that to isolate them and stop the sale of liquor in them will have a tendency to produce better results than would an effort to dispense with them altogether. It is probable that the place to which the districts shall be moved if at all, will form one topic for discussion. In order that a reliable test of opinion may be had, it is the wish of the movers in the matter that the meeting be as large and representative as possible.

The mass meeting in the church on August 12 was chaired by Reverend T. D. Jones who made a strong plea for practicable steps to be taken in solving the problem of the bawdyhouses. Reverend Sergeant spoke saying that he was an abolitionist but that he felt compromise was best. He recommended that the sale of liquor houses be stopped, and the inmates be forbidden to appear except on the stated days. Reverend Sutherland disagreed. He proposed to abolish the districts entirely. He said that he had no patience with the ‘necessary evil’ argument.

When H. E. Lyon urged removal of the houses to isolated spots, a discussion ensued regarding the adverse effects of such spots on real estate values near them. Reverend Hunter of Pincher Creek had just announced himself an abolitionist when there was a sudden exodus from the church. The fire alarm had

sounded, followed by the cry, “Fire in Frank!” Thither the crowd hastened.

As far as known, no other mass meetings regarding prostitution were held. The problem remained but voices of agitators faded. To quote from Volume Three, Alberta in the Twentieth Century, (page 160), “It soon became evident to clergymen that what opposed them was not merely indifference to prostitution, but a distinct, if largely unspoken, support for it. “ In 1905, the Coal Company built a large, three storey building called the Sanatorium Hotel in Frank just below the mountainside bordello. This hotel was the epitome of elegance, offering guests who suffered from arthritis, baths in the healing sulphur water piped from the sulphur springs just across the road.

In 1917, this hotel was converted to a hospital for invalid men who returned from World War 1. The men who were able to climb to the bordello named it Hill Sixty after a hard-fought battle by that name in France.

Interestingly, school children in the Pass picked up on this name and girls who did not fit in were taunted by the repeated chant: ‘Send her to Hill Sixty!’ Many who joined in the chant had no idea what it meant and neither did the girl who was being victimized.

By 1921, the returned men had been moved to a new sanatorium in Calgary. Here was another in a string of losses for Frank – loss of revenue land in the Frank Slide of 1903, loss of the Imperial Hotel moved to Vulcan after the slide, loss of a zinc smelter and a coal mine, loss of a downtown business whose loss would have brought joy to many, the sex business, continued to flourish.

And it flourished! Around 1921, it was relocated to a house on a beautiful patch of land beside the river below the stockade houses. It was the house that many Pass visitors would stop to see from the road that ran parallel to the river. It was the famed Brick House, so named because it was constructed of red bricks (these manufactured in Blairmore). It was starkly plain, standing brazenly alone as a proper whorehouse should. On the upper floor of this box structure were four bedrooms; on the lower floor two, with a large kitchen accessed by an attached entrance of gray stucco. Close to the house was a gazebo, where on warm days, the fancy ladies might be seen drying their hair.

One bedroom on the lower floor was occupied by the madam, the other by a Chinese houseboy. The phone number at the house was 0-300, and on occasions when the houseboy would be in Blairmore attending to the needs of the ladies, he would phone and ask the telephone operator to connect to ‘O tlee hunled’.

Amongst the operators, the house was called ‘O tlee hunled’ for a number of years.

The name of the builder of the Brick House in not known, but the name of the first owner was Emil Piciarello, the notorious rumrunner who, in his Robinhood days, used the house to store flour and macaroni to give to the hungry and the bottles of illicit liquor to sell to the thirsty. He hired Italian friends to help him in his business and it flourished grandly from 1915 until 1921 when he was charged with the murder of an Alberta Provincial Policeman in Coleman. From prison, until he was hanged in 1923, he tried to pay his debts and settle all of his complicated business affairs by sending instructions to his partner, Carlos Lassandro, and his son, Steve. Neither of them had his business acumen or his political perception. (He had been serving on the town council.) Steve and Carlos sold the Brick House to a family named Rota who began to live in fear when a gunman shot at a female visitor to their home. They sold the house to a madam.

The madam and the fancy ladies had known Piciarello when, early in his business, he had come to the mountainside houses to collect empty bottles. There was an unwritten rule that no prostitute could speak to

CROWSNEST

FAMILY RESOURCE CENTRE

any man on the street, but one day when he drove his wife to the mountain district in their carriage, some prostitutes on the road called him by name (Pic) and asked him when he was coming back. Pic’s wife, Maria, noting the fine clothes these women wore, asked him who they were. His reply was, “Fairies”. Maria Asked, “What is this thing, fairies? Never do I hear of this! Fairies! Indeed. Non mi curo molto di questo specie di personi !” (I don’t much care for that sort of person!) (Page 64, The Bootlegger’s Bride by Jock Carpenter) She waited until he was away on a weekend, then packed her trunks, gathered up the children and took the train to Pennsylvania. She vowed that she would not get in touch with him, but she did when she found out she was pregnant. He took his time about going to get her.

Many married women were jealous of the fancy ladies. One bride from Bellevue wanted to attend the church in Blairmore but she dreaded passing through Frank. Her husband, driving the carriage, noticed that she held a handkerchief over her nose and mouth, and asked her why. She said that she had to keep out the awful smell of the awful women in the awful Brick house up ahead. He told her that she was smelling the sulphur fumes from the sulphur springs, and he added that friends who knew the women found them very nice.

Certain of the gentry in the Pass fondly called the prostitutes ‘soiled doves.’ These men harbored no fears of becoming soiled themselves because they knew that the prostitutes had regular medical examinations. One prostitute could accommodate as many as 40 men in one night.

The madam that owned the house in the forties was a respectable married woman with a son in boarding school. She owned a string of racehorses, and she made no secret of this, she did make a secret of her investment in the Pass.

During World War II, eager patriots succeeded in persuading the government to tear down the steel bridge that connected the house to the highway so that the steel could serve a worthier purpose in the war effort. A footbridge was built but it was washed out in the flood of 1942. Without a bridge, business continued as usual. The patrons negotiated the waters barefoot with trousers rolled up and shoes and socks held aloft.

Local police raids were handled with admirable deftness and discretion. (Many residents suspected the police were paid off.) Raids by the Attorney General’s Department, however, caused considerable consternation and resulted in temporary lulls in the business.

After Turtle Mountain Playgrounds was built in 1941, the ladies, temporarily out of business, might spend time there, or they might take a taxi to Calgary or Lethbridge.

Pressure from the council usually resulted in token fines, this due to contribution the prostitutes made to the local economy. They were much appreciated by the local merchants who put items in short supply aside for them.

Finally, in the mid-fifties, the Attorney General’s Department ruled that the building be closed. The auction sale that cleared the house of all furnishings was an unqualifies success.

Until 1967, the building stood vacant. During this time, it was covered in graffiti. Students who rate a D in sealing painted on it in large, white letters: HOAR HOUSE. In the same year, this famed building was dynamited as a centennial project. Remnants of the four brick walls that were buried under the new highway in the late 1980s.

If you should ever stay in Frank on a dark and sombre night, you may hear above the keening of the wind, a cry, long drawn out and mournful. It is Monte calling for the return of her jewels and grieving for all the “bad” ones like herself who saved the “good” ones from the fear of ravishment.

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4 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Selling bricks from the bawdy house Copied with permission from Crowsnest and It’s People v. 3 Alberta Report January 30, 1981

In his 1971 book, Red Lights on the Prairies, Calgary historian James H. Gray observed that “bars, brothels and poolrooms were not only the social centres for unattached males, they were almost the only recreational facilities available to them. There were three times as many brothels alone as there was churches.”

But prairie prostitution, he notes, has been ignored by most historians, who preferred “the illusion that the West was settled by monks, eunuchs, and vestal virgins.” For the past six months, two long-time Blairmore women have discovered that their town’s 60-year history of sometimes rampant prostitution is an old skeleton perhaps better left in the closet. That, certainly, was the opinion of numerous Blairmore residents when retired teacher Helen Maxwell and partner Kathleen Kerr began selling bricks from the former bawdy house as souvenirs.

The enterprising pair anticipated opposition to their scheme. After all, a local historical association compiled an award-winning book. The Crowsnest Pass and its People, in 1979, without even mentioning prostitution. But Mrs. Maxwell wasn’t about to slam the door on a colorful part of the area’s past. The bricks, she

says, are “symbolic of broken homes, broken hearts, broken virginity, and so forth.”

Prostitution began to flourish almost as soon as Blairmore, and four other Crowsnest Pass communities, Bellevue, Hillcrest, Frank and Coleman, were established in the late 1890s when the CPR reached the area. In fact, prostitution was almost inevitable. When Blairmore was incorporated as a town in 1911, it had 1,100 residents, the majority coal miner and lumberjacks, most of those bachelors. One old-timer recalls “the stag lines at dances used to be five deep.”

Despite its prevalence, prostitution was rarely the subject of editorial comment, unless there was a scandal. In April 1906, the suicide of a Northwest Mounted Police officer who had been rejected by a prostitute he loved, prompted The Frank Paper to conclude: “When a combination of bad women and bad liquor gains control over any man, the grave appears to be his last refuge.” The brothels made the news again a year later when a madam named Monte Lewis was murdered, and her Chinese houseboy, Sam Sing, implicated.

Unlike neighbouring municipalities, Blairmore was rather tolerant of prostitution. There were no rabid antiprostitution or anti-liquor factions. A group of ministers tried in 1909 to isolate the bawdy houses, but the attempt was unsuccessful, and unnecessary. At the time, a new wood-frame brothel was being built a short distance from town in an area called Hill 60, and others followed voluntarily. The most durable of all the bawdy houses was a brick structure at the bottom of Hill 60, originally occupied by a notorious rumrunner named Emperior Piciarello, who was hanged during prohibition for shooting an APP officer. The prostitutes took over in the ‘20s and stayed until 1954. It became known as the “brick house” or the “hook shack” and the bricks now being sold by Mrs. Maxwell and Mrs. Kerr, came from the building.

Oldtimers say the number of women residing in the “hook shack” varied from six to a dozen, and they earned their money when the miners got paid. Most were on their way to Edmonton or Calgary from Vancouver, stopped over in Blairmore temporarily. They dressed well, wore plenty of make-up, and, says a former town councillor, “used to walk around with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.”

Harassment by local police or Mounties was rare, and many residents suspect they were paid off. Pressure from the council usually resulted in token fines, but that may have been due to contributions the prostitutes made to the local economy. They bought mink coats from a local furrier, diamonds from the jeweler, and the clothier sewed pockets for their money in all their dresses. During prohibition, from 1915 to 1922, the brothels were havens for bootleggers. And a man who drove for Blairmore’s two taxi companies in the ‘40s and ‘50s remembers the ladies leaving $5 tips, while charging $3, $5 and $7 for their various services.

A natural disaster struck in 1942 when the Crowsnest River washed out a bridge leading to the “hook shack”, and for a time, customers had to wade across. The council wouldn’t re-build the bridge but agreed to bulldoze a rough road along the riverbank.

The end for the “brick house” finally came in 1954 when Chief of Police George Brown chased the last madam Pat McGuire, described as a beautiful woman in her mid 20’s, from the property. It was turned over to the provincial government and burned down by the town in 1967 because it had become a safety hazard.

Now, all that remains are the bricks being sold for $5 each by Mrs. Kerr and Mrs. Maxwell. They hired students to collect them and had each electronically wrapped in cellophane. A label describes the “hook shack” as “a little outside of the town and a little outside of the law” and a “place where lonely men could find illicit liquor and ladies of the night”.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - 5

Discovery of the Pass (almost) John Kinnear While it is common knowledge that Michael Phillips was the first white man to explore the Crowsnest Pass in 1873, many people are unaware of an earlier explorer who should have found the Pass route but didn't. He just plain missed it. Kinda like that turnoff on the freeway you never see till you've long since passed it. He just sort of blew by it.

The explorers name was Thomas Blakiston, a remarkable man who like a lot of wealthy Englishmen back in the glorious days of the British Empire chose to wander the world from one challenge to another.

Blakiston joined the "Palliser "expedition in 1856 at the age of 25 and was appointed magnetic observer a year later.

The Palliser expedition was set up to determine the value of the vast prairie region of Western Canada and along with geographer Captain John Palliser and Blakiston; it had two other renowned explorers. They were James Hector –geologist, naturalist and surgeon and Eugene Borgeau –botanist. The explorers amassed astronomical, meteorological, geological and magnetic data, and described the country, its fauna and flora, its inhabitants and its "capabilities" for settlement and transportation.

In 1858 Thomas Blakiston wound up heading his own expedition to explore the southern Canadian Rockies to determine the possibility of potential routes for a railroad. He started out west of Calgary and travelled south along the eastern foothills down a route close to what we now call the Longview Road or Highway 22. At one point as he crossed the Oldman River at Maycroft he notice a prominent "dome shaped" mountain to the west through a gap in the Rockies and named it "Gould's Dome" after the renown British ornithologist, "John Gould". He also noted that the "gap"

he viewed it through was the only break in this eastern range for 17 miles and that no one point on that range had any prominence. He named the range after the famous missionary and African explorer Dr. David Livingstone, the man of whom H.M. Stanley of the New York Herald asked the famous question - "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?

Blakiston then carried on south, crossing the Crowsnest River and headed south and west up the Castle and Carbondale Rivers, crossing over the North Kootenay Pass and down into the Flathead Valley. He followed the Flathead River west to the top of Flathead Ridge where he claimed to have observed, way to his north that dome shaped mountain he had named earlier.

Others claim what he probably saw was Crowsnest Mountain while it is entirely possible he saw the "domed" section of Trinity Mountain in Fernie (often misnamed the Three Sisters) His expedition then proceeded down Lodgepole Creek to the Wigwam River where he observed 200 to 300 foot high cliffs that he named the North Bluff (Mt. Broadwood). Blakiston then headed south down the Rocky Mountain Trench, crossed the yet to be surveyed International Boundary (49th Parallel) and wound up at "Fort Kootanie" on the "Kootanie River" where he made contact with the local Indians.

He then turned eastward and travelled up Grave Creek, Trail Creek and once again across the Flathead River 25 miles south of his previous westward crossing. From there it was eastward up the Kishinina River and through the South Kootenay Pass into what was once called Kootenay Lakes and is now known as Waterton Lakes. He named Waterton after the celebrated British naturalist Charles Waterton. Once out on the eastern foothills again he determined to head back to Fort Edmonton where the Palliser expedition was to spend the winter. His final camp was on September 12, 1858 at the forks of the Belly (Oldman) River, having taken just over 30 days to conduct his survey.

Ironically, directly west of his final camp lay the "Crows Nest Pass", a route he had completely missed.

A note from his journal says it all. "The Crows-nest Pass, of which I have marked the general direction on the plan, follows up Crows-nest River; a tributary of the Belly River , into the mountains and gains the west side near the "Steeples". By report of the natives it is a very bad road and seldom used" To the First Nations peoples in the area a bad road had more to do with obstructions than degrees of rail-

Thomas Blakiston - explorer:"

road grade and so it would be another 15 years before the Pass was discovered. Even more ironically, 154 years later the word out there now is that the Pass route is still a "bad road", now full of cattle liners and red neck drivers with quad trailers.

Blakiston’s later adventures are a story unto themselves. In 1861 this intrepid explorer led an expedition up the Yangtze River in China, travelling 1500 kilometres further up the river than any Westerner had previously reached. After retiring from the army he visited Japan by way of Russia and Siberia where he pursued business interests. During the 1870's, he compiled a catalogue on the birds of Japan which was the authoritative document for years in that country. From 1861 to 1884 he was considered the foremost expert on birds of Japan and there is a fishing owl from Hokkaido that is named after him. Blakiston's fish owl is revered by the Ainu peoples of Hokkaido, Japan as a Kamuy (divine being) called Kotan koru Kamuy (God that Protects the Village).

Thomas Blakiston died in 1891 in San Diego, California never knowing that that “bad road” he missed was to become the southern route for CPR through the Crowsnest Pass.

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6 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

The Gushul Familly - Photo Masters John Kinnear Probably one of the most important contributions to documenting a community’s historical development comes from the early professional photographers that were there at the time. They religiously captured images of buildings, weddings, scenery, industry, family portraits and anything else of social significance within their pervue. The records of their work, the negatives and photographic plates they left behind, are valuable beyond description.

I had the opportunity to study this type of work in Fernie for 25 years with the incredibly important photo records of community photographer Joseph Fredrick Spalding. From this study I realized that nothing is more vital that the accurate photographic capture of a community’s story. That is why the Gushul story and legacy plays such a critical part in the Crowsnest Museum’s records. And that is why every year the Crowsnest museum’s annual calendar usually carries many of his captured moments. They are defining images and each one speaks volumes about the time and place it was created.

It should be no surprise to find that Crowsnest and Its People Volume 1 carries a wonderful description of the Gushul legacy. It is a fascinating story and is a classic account of someone working his way throughout the Canadian nation building era until he found his calling.

Thomas Gushul came to us from Rosniw in the Western Ukraine where he was born in 1889. He immigrated to Canada in 1906 and worked on the construction of the famous figure eight tunnels at Field, laid track to the Galt Number Eight mine in Lethbridge and eventually moved to Blairmore where he worked in the old Mutz Mine. Incidentally, Albert Mutz was a German brew master who brought his brewing skills to the Fernie area at the turn of the century and where he created Fernie beer. The memory of this ale still brings a nostalgic tear to old timer’s eyes.

Thomas taught Ukrainian in schools in Manitoba and then came west to work at the York Creek and International Mines in Coleman. Gushul was fascinated with photography and honed his skills until 1918 when he opened his own studio in Coleman’s Bushtown.

Three years later he opened a second outlet in Blairmore by moving an abandoned building from Lille there and modifying it into a studio which remains active to this day.

His Ukrainian bride Lena was his constant inspiration and they worked together tirelessly in photography.

Gushul’s 1914 documentation of the Hillcrest Mine explosion stands as an invaluable record of that horrific time and his images were front and center in 2014 when we commemorated the hundredth anniversary of Canada’s worst mining disaster.

It wasn’t until 1917 that he finally left the coal mines and committed full time to his craft. He spent

owned and operated by

the rest of his life working at and enjoying his art. His work was highly acclaimed and his scenic pictorials won awards in San Francisco. He pioneered and perfected new techniques in mining photography and his photo of the Greenhills mine entry in Blairmore is a work of art, using the technique of light painting. It was done by opening up the shutter on his camera and having coal miners, using their lamps, “paint” every bit of the entry in front of him with light.

He set up a photo-engraving plant and he and his son Evan cranked out zinc printing blocks for local and district newspapers in record time. His photographs have been used extensively in newspapers, brochures, historical books and even television programs. If you’ve ever watched programs like the history channel and seen how they pan across high quality black and white photos to tell a story then you will realize how significant it would be to pan something like his International Mine workings picture or his fabulous Sentinel Power Plant scene. I recall reading that he drove out to the lakes week after week until conditions were just right to finally get that shot. He took care in positioning himself to create scenic photos that are unequalled in Crowsnest Pass photographic history.

His portraits and wedding pictures were always of the highest quality and the museum archives contains no less than 529 people portraits and 275 wedding pictures. Many Pass families had their fourth generations recorded by Thomas and Lena.

And then there was Thomas’s son Evan. Evan’s mother Lena remembers him as a precocious child who by the age of six was comfortably posing groups of people under the studio’s skylight. Even at that age his summer holidays were spent helping in the business by developing and washing prints. Evan told the story of the family using a sluice box set in the creek to wash prints. The holes in the box would at times plug, causing it to overflow, sending the prints floating down the creek. It was then Evan’s job to race after and retrieve the photos. With the gift of a Brownie camera, he had by age eight, learned the entire process from exposure to print to capture his own images In 1939 Evan used a home built camera with a fast 1.9 lens to capture available light photos of a hockey game at the Coleman Arena. An article in the Coleman Journal read, “To many curious people it appears that there must be magic connected with this camera, because Mr. Gushul does not use any flashes in taking these night shots. All the action shots together with the candid close-ups of hockey fans were taken under the ordinary lighting of the Coleman Arena”.

The Gushul collection at the Crowsnest museum is alive and well and prints and digital copies are available to the public, part of the remarkable 50,000, images that have been compiled there. It is hard to describe just how amazing it is to immerse oneself in this immense collection. There is so much one can learn, even about the physical appearance of where you now live and what was once around your home or town. The images make wonderful additions to a restored home or business and remind us of what it all looked like back then. The staff at the museum is more than willing to take you through their archives and find the print that is just right for your home or business. If you grew up here and went to school here the images of you and your class mates are there, waiting for you to discover and enjoy.

The really exciting news about Gushul is that there is a book in the making, profiling the history of photography in the Pass and specifically, a detailed

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11901, 20th Ave. • Blairmore 403-562-2799

11501A - 20th Ave. • Blairmore 403-753-0034

Photos top to bottom: A young Evan Gushul posing in the studio Sentinel coal fired power plant at Crowsnest Lake" Gushul light painted photo of Greenhill Mine entry

overview of the Gushul family themselves. Vic Bergman, a wonderful photographer in his own right, has taken on the enormous task of crafting this important story for the museum. Equally taxing for Vic is the process of reviewing all 50,000 negatives and prints to try and to pick out around 200 iconic images that will best reflect all aspects of their photographic legacy. It should be out sometime in 2023 and will be an absolute treasure to own or to gift.

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proud to serve the Crowsnest pass for 21 years

5B, 12331, - 20th Ave. • Blairmore 403-753-0826

8305 - 20th Ave. • Coleman 403-564-4522

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Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - 7

Crowsnest Pass People of Renown Pass Herald

Matthew Halton – CBC Reporter – Radio and print during World War II and celebrated author of “10 Years to Alamein”.

Richard Edward Taylor – Winner in 1990 of the Nobel Peace Prize along with Jerome Friedman and Henry Kendell for discovering deep quark model in particular physics.

Thomas Gushul - immigrated to Canada in 1906 from the Ukraine, gradually developed into one of Alberta’s most prolific photographers, and eventually became very well known in the Crowsnest Pass. He won numerous awards for his photographs, and many of his photos have been published in newspapers, brochures, and books.

Lloyd Pinkney - Internationally renowned in the field of engineering physics, Lloyd Pinkney, (’52 Eng) was the principal investigator of the Space Vision System, a stellar breakthrough in space technology. He played a tremendous role in advancing Canada’s role as a leader in space technology. Lloyd was born in Blairmore, Alta., in 1931, and graduated from the U of A in 1952. He then began a 44-year career with the NRC, where he was involved with numerous projects with the Institute of Aerospace Research and the Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute. While working at the NRC, he completed his master’s and PhD in engineering mechanics at Stanford University. It was during his time with the NRC that Pinkney was involved with leading the Space Vision System. The SVS was based on the real-time photogrammetry system that he co-designed in the early 1970s. His work on the SVS, a vision system for robotic devices such as the Canadarm, was considered a major advancement in space technology. The SVS enables the Canadarm and Canadarm2 to handle payloads that are out of sight to astronauts operating these two giant robotic arms. It also played an essential role in the construction of the International Space Station.

Madeleine Pinkney – Madeleine, wife of Roland Pinkney and mother of Lloyd Pinkney, lived in a brick house on Lyons Creek from 1938 into the 1990s. She was a noted music teacher, a member of the Crowsnest Symphony Orchestra, and played organ at the United Church.

She taught music in her home for several years, and many of her music students went on to national and international recognition.

Kay Kerr - The town was home to Kay Kerr — who passed away in 2018 at 95 — and she was well-known as a "gravy pioneer" after she developed a recipe that reduced the cooking time of KFC-style gravy from 30 minutes down to two minutes. It was Colonel Sanders-approved (he even flew her to Kentucky and had her stay at his home for a week) and Kerr's recipe is still used by KFC today.

Frank Koci (Franz) - well-known professional artist within the Canadian Art scene for over 60 years. Although

PRESTIGE CLEANERS & TAILORS

he was known for his symbolic sculptures of the crows located in the Crowsnest Pass; he was also recognized for the creation and construction of a 30 ft. high Canada goose in Wawa, Ontario, a commemorative moment for the opening of the Trans-Canada Highway. Franz’s work has been recognized by the Alberta Art Foundation and the Crowsnest Pass Allied Arts Association. He designed logos for the Alberta Summer Games and rendered drawings for the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre.

MLA William Kovach - Party – Social Credit Caucus; When – 1948-1966 MLA Charles Drain - Party – Social Credit Caucus; When – 1967 – 1975 MLA Fred Bradley - Party – Progressive Conservative; When – 1975 – 1993; Minister of the Environment 1982 - 1986 Jim Prentice Premier of Alberta - entered provincial politics in his home province of Alberta, and ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta to replace Dave Hancock, who was serving as interim Premier and party leader after Alison Redford's resignation. On September 6, 2014, Prentice won the leadership election, becoming both the leader of the Progressive Conservatives and as such the Premier, as his party held a majority in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.[3] As Premier of Alberta, Prentice formed a new cabinet consisting of some members from the previous government, but also new Ministers including two who did not hold seats in the Legislature—Stephen Mandel and Gordon Dirks.[4] All three stood as candidates in by-elections scheduled for October 27, 2014, and all three were elected with Prentice becoming the MLA for Calgary-Foothills.

After introducing his first budget in 2015, Prentice declared an early provincial election on May 5, 2015. In the election, Prentice's PCs suffered an unprecedented defeat, dropping to third place in the legislature with just 10 seats – ending 44 years of Tory rule in Alberta, the longest consecutive reign for any political party at the provincial level in Canada. Despite winning re-election in CalgaryFoothills, on election night Prentice resigned as both PC leader and MLA and retired from politics after results indicated that the Alberta NDP had won a majority government.

Dr. Peter Russell - raised and educated in the Crowsnest Pass and was Valedictorian of his graduation class in 1967. He financed his university education by working in the coal mines and on the pipelines. He attended the University of Alberta where he was a member of Zeta Psi fraternity and graduated with a BSc and MD in 1973. He worked for four years as an emergency physician at the Edmonton General Hospital. Pete then moved to Calgary where he completed his Internal Medicine program and pursued his passion in Cardiology, graduating from the University of Calgary's first Cardiology program. He held his practice at the Associate Clinic and worked out of the Foothills and Rockyview hospitals. He was a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine and The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada-Specialist Certificate in Internal Medicine and Cardiology. He was very dedicated to his profession and was greatly appreciated by his colleagues and patients.

Ellen Picard - was born in 1941 and raised in the Crowsnest Pass. Her family first landed in Quebec in 1665 from Picardy in France and settled in Southern Alberta.

Ellen completed her law degree from the University of Alberta and later joined their Faculty of Law as the first

SERvINg YOU FOR OvER 15 YEARS

female full-time member and later served as Associate Dean. During her time at the University of Alberta, Picard established the Health Law Institute, the first research institute in Canada in the field of health law.

Picard was appointed to the Court of Queen's Bench in 1986 and elevated to the Court of Appeal in 1995. As there were few women on the Queen's Bench, there was no changing area for the female judges to change into their gowns. As a result, Picard and Nina Foster took turns standing guard outside the washroom as they changed.

Upon being appointed in 1995, alongside Constance Hunt, Alberta Court of Appeal became the first province with more women than men sitting full time on its top court.

In recognition of her contributions as a legal scholar, Picard was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017.

Kirk Muspratt – a native of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, Canada. His early training was as a pianist. After leaving Alberta, he studied in St. Louis and New York with Harold Zabrack. Kirk continued in both a bachelor’s and master’s performance program at Temple University with Adele Marcus and Alexander Fiorillo. Subsequent to this he went on to study conducting at the Vienna Conservatory of Music. Kirk became a citizen of the United States in November 2010. Recognized as one of the outstanding figures in the new generation of conductors, Kirk Muspratt has garnered international critical acclaim and was hailed as a “born opera conductor” (Rheinische Post) and “a knowledgeable musician who delivers superbly controlled, gorgeously shaped readings” (St. Louis PostDispatch), and the Los Angeles Times declared “Watch him!”

Valerie Danielson - Valerie Danielson began her professional career as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse. During her work as a nurse, she completed her Degree in Arts (General Studies). She graduated from law school from the University of Alberta in 1990. After articling at the Court of Appeal in Alberta and being called to the bar in 1991, Valerie joined the Calgary law firm Code Hunter LLP and in 1993 relocated to the Crowsnest Pass, having married a fisherman, mountain terrain hiker and author, Joey Ambrosi. In 1993, Valerie founded Danielson Law (now Ratzlaff Danielson) and has been serving the local community in all areas of law to meet the needs of local individuals, families, and businesses.

Active in numerous local volunteer boards and positions, Valerie took time out from volunteering to complete her Masters in Law in Alternate Dispute Resolution in 2007, a Masters of Law in Family Law in 2011, and a Diploma in Trust and Estate Planning in 2015. She was awarded her Queen's Counsel designation in 2022. Valerie presented papers to the National Family Law Conference in 2014 and 2018. Valerie's experience helping families has included representing children in child welfare proceedings or in family matters, assisting individuals to navigate the pressures and issues of divorce and separation.

Currently, Valerie's practice is focused estate planning and estate litigation and mediation as well as advising lawyers at Ratzlaff Danielson on complex child welfare and family and divorce matters. Valerie has 32 years of advocacy at all levels of court in Alberta including Alberta Provincial Court, Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, and Alberta Court of Appeal. Valerie is currently working on another academic paper, combining her previous experience in mental health with the legal challenges that affect this population.

Valerie was admitted to the Law Society of Alberta in 1991.

Crowsnest ANGLER

PROUD TO BE IN BUSINESS HERE FOR 50 YEARS

FRIDAY LUNCH BUFFET 11AM - 2PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY DINNER BUFFET 5PM - 8:30 PM

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22614 - 27th Ave • Bellevue 403-564-4333

Drug Mart

12749 - 20th Ave. • Blairmore 403-562-2725

8 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

History on the Montalbetti Hardware Enterprise

by Russel C. Montalbetti 1999

The root of the “Montalbetti” family in Canada goes all the way back to the time that the C.P.R. was just coming into the Crowsnest Pass. As my Great Grandfather was a railroad builder in Italy, it was just natural that his son would continue on in the same profession.

My Grandfather Charles, came to Canada in 1900 and in 1901, was section foreman in Michel (now Sparwood, BC). Then, by 1907, was section foreman in the Crowsnest Division.

In the meantime, my grandmother, Mary Satoris, came to Canada with her family. In 1902 Charles and Mary were married in Coleman.

My Grandparents, Charles and Mary, had one daughter, Christina (Chris) in 1908.

In 1907, my father Ralph (Aldo), was born in Blairmore and lived all his childhood in Frank, in the family C.P.R. house. When my dad was old enough, he also went to work for the C.P.R. By the time he was 18, he was foreman for an extra gang, laying track in Fort Macleod.

But by the age of 20, although he still loved his work with the C.P.R., he must have been thinking he would like to try some other field of work, for he started to take a correspondence course in electricity, and then obtained a job as an electrician’s helper for the International Coal and Coke Co. in Coleman, thus starting a whole new career for the “Montalbetti Family”!

In 1930, Aldo married Rachel (Ray) Molina, from Trail, BC, and had one son, Russell in 1931 and one daughter, JoAnn in 1938.

Having now married into the Molina family, Aldo found himself having to make another big decision for his future, for my Nonno (Grandfather in Italian) Molina, was a very successful businessman in his time, having owned a grocery store, pop factory and hotel in Trail. So, he (my Nonno) told my dad that he should open up his own business in the Crowsnest Pass.

Now this was not a surprise to my dad, for his Uncle Jake Satoris had a hardware store in Lille and later in Blairmore in the early 1910’s, and as a young boy, my dad used to work after school, putting wooden kitchen chairs together, for sale, for at that time they used to come into the store broken down, (a thing I also

would be doing in our store in the years to come.)

So, with my Nonno’s help, in 1935, my dad and mother, Aldo and Ray, started their first store, (I was three years old at the time), in Coleman, on the west side of the “Italian Hall” building, under the name of “Modern Electric”. The name was to be our business name for the next 39 years!

My mother operated the store in the daytime, which at the time sold and repaired small electrical appliances and some sort of radios. Although my dad continued to work at the mines, after work he would either repair an appliance that came in, or he would go out and wire homes. Some of his first jobs were the wiring of the new high school in Coleman, and at this time Bushtown was just getting power, so he did a lot of homes there. At that time, houses there were getting 30amp service and only one drop light with a pull chain, per room.

In the year 1940, Aldo and Ray bought the old building next door to the CIBC in Coleman, making a new store and shop on the south side and a three bedroom living quarters on the north side. It was in this store that I got my first training as a repair and electrical apprentice. At the age of fourteen I was going out on a Saturday, with my bike, tools and materials in a basket, and installing outlets in homes. After school and at night I worked on gear boxes and wringer washer heads, for this was at the time of the war and new washers were hard to come by. I can remember in the beginning of the war, my dad buying over fifty wringer washers at one time and storing them in the front room.

My mother was not too happy about this but by the end of three months they were all sold and no more were available until after the war.

The next big move for Modern Electric was in 1944, when my dad bought the 1907 Coleman Mercantile building on the prime corner of Coleman main street. It was this year that my dad resigned as chief electrician at the McGillivray mine, to work full time in the store with my mother and staff of two, plus two part time employees. At this time, Modern Electric was not only into selling small appliances and repairs, they also carried a complete line of Westinghouse major appliances and radios but also branched out into hardware, paint and housewares.

In 1948, the tower on the store was removed and the new insulbrick siding was installed over the old wood siding on the outside. In 1951, the store inside was completely remodeled, a new warehouse was built on the back end, giving them a store of approximately 3,000 sq. feet and a warehouse of 1,200 sq. feet. Then they added the lines of electrical and plumbing supplies, plus sporting goods, garden supplies, and furniture.

In the summer of these two years, ’51 and ’52, I worked as a mine electrician’s helper at the International Mine, under Steve Murdock and Ernie Montalbetti. It was at this time that I was able to obtain a lot of new electrical experience. In the meantime, having completed my high school, (I was in Calgary at SAIT), obtaining my Industrial Electricians Certificate.

In 1953, I married Alice Lybacki from Bellevue

and we had three children, (Cindy Lee in 1954, Cathy Ray in 1957, and Donald Allan in 1959). I started to work fulltime in the store doing electrical contracting and repairs and also helping out in the store. By the year 1956, I had acquired my Masters Certificate and was doing mostly contracting along with two other apprentices. During my thirty some years of electrical contracting, I apprenticed many, many fine electricians, many of them getting their Journeyman Certificates.

We did all types of work; schools, banks, pole plants, hospitals, stores, grain elevators, oil wells, gas plants and many, many homes in Alberta and British Columbia.

It was in the year 1955 that we bought the old Coleman Hardware building across the street from Modern Electric and moved our furniture and major appliance business into it. We used it as a warehouse in the back.

I went into partnership with my dad in 1968 and took over as manager. At this time, Alice started to work in the store and took over as secretary and bookkeeper. It was also this year that the business became a limited company and had a new name, Pass Home Electric Center Ltd. By 1974, we had joined the Link Hardware program and Alice and I were now full partners in the business.

In 1977 Dad (Aldo) retired after forty-two years in the electrical and hardware business and Link Hardware Group out of Ontario, making Pass Home Electric Center one of over 980 Home Hardware stores in Canada.

Then in 1981, expansion again came into the picture when Homeall Building Center Ltd., under the operation of Alice and son-in-law Blair Painter. The family was now in the local building supply market as well.

Over the years, every member of the Montalbetti family has worked in the family business at one time or another. Cindy, Cathy and Donald all worked in the store after school, on Saturdays and during summer holidays. Cindy went on to university and is now working for the City of Calgary School Division, as an Education Technology Consultant. Donald worked in the store for a number of years and obtained his Journeyman Electrical Certificate, and later went on to university and is now a Professional Civil Engineer, working in the Crowsnest Pass. He has two lovely little girls; Alicen 6 and Jilian 3. Cathy went to U of L and went into the profession of Social Worker and worked for a number of years in the Crowsnest Pass.

She has two charming young boys, Jordan 16 and Joel 14.

The year of 1997 will always be remembered by the Montalbetti family as the year in which out great dream of combining all our stores in the Pass, under one roof, was coming to maturity. For with the building of a new, 14,000 sq. foot store in Blairmore, a new chapter in the life of a hardware family began.

In 1998, I retired, putting fifty years of electrical and hardware business behind me. Cathy and Blair now manage the operation of the new business under the new name of Summit Home Center.

our family is proud to have been in a crowsnest pass business since 1935 10701 - 20th Ave. Blairmore • 403-562-8282

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - 9

Crowsnest Allied Arts Association Copied with permission from Crowsnest and It’s People v. 3 Initial Steps in the Formation of the Association Submitted by Rosemary Gascoyne, President, 1988

The Crowsnest Pass Allied Arts Association was formed in May 1986. This was the third attempt at such organization in the Pass. The two previous associations did not persist, even though the early 1980s group achieved incorporated status.

The present group was motivated by Phillis Wall of Alberta Culture. People thought to be interested or who would benefit from the formation of the organization were invited to the presentation by Mary Price, an individual with a strong interest in the arts. For many years she had worked hard on behalf of the artists who

did little to assist. Recognizing the need and the importance of such an organization, she phoned people to advise them of the presentation and encouraged their attendance.

Some initial steps involved in promoting the association • We lobbied significant members of the community informally to advise them of the existence of the association and solicited their support as members.

• We established a newsletter which we send out four times a year. Although an expensive item, it is worthwhile for it gives news of our member groups and advertise community cultural events.

• We applied for incorporated status and received it. The importance of the bylaws cannot be stressed too much. It guarantees proper and ethical conduct for a society and its members.

• We established objectives. The priority was for funding for a part-time employee. We applied successfully for funding under the CRC Grant and since February 1987 have had a research and office assistant for 20 paid hours per week. We specified in the job description that volunteer hours would be required – a condition of employment accepted and generously fulfilled. An employee is invaluable to an organization.

The job entails doing research, making phone calls,

Coleman Legion Branch #9 – A Brief History John Kinnear In order to understand how Alberta’s very first legion came to be one must go back to 1917 when the Great War Veteran’s Association (GVWA) was formed across Canada. It was the largest and most influential of the many veterans groups back then, a group that included organizations like the Canadian Legion of ex-servicemen, the Tuberculosis Veterans Association, the Naval Veterans Association and the Disabled Veterans Association. Coleman had a branch of the GVWA in the twenties that met at various locations around town but did not have a permanent home for their club in those days.

In 1921 England formed their British Empire Service League headed by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, Earl of Bemersyde. In June of 1925 Haig attended the Dominion Convention of the GWVA in Canada and spoke to the importance of having one strong and united veterans group here. Inspired by the Earl’s plea the GVWA organized a national unity conference in November of that year in which it and thirteen

typing letters, and writing reports.

• An employee has enabled us to keep the gallery open daily and to contact artists to whom we were unknown and offer appropriate help when needed (usually exhibition opportunities in our gallery) Update: In 1990 the Crowsnest Pass Allied Arts Association moved from its home in the basement of the Blairmore Public Library to the Frank Community Hall.

Over the years (10th anniversary of the Association was May 1996) the Association has established a rotational gallery, a performing Arts Series, as well as a variety of educational programs for children and adults. The Association remains active in advocating the arts in the Crowsnest Pass.

In 1995, the Art Gallery was provincially and officially declared the Public Art Gallery as it qualified under a set of guidelines established by the Province of Alberta. The Art Gallery is now called the Crowsnest Pass Public Art Gallery out of which the CNP Allied Arts Association operates its office.

In 1999, the CNP Allied Arts Association is still thriving with 140 individuals members, eight nonprofit groups, 20 corporate members and an active board of 11 members.

other veterans groups combined to become the Canadian Legion of the British Empire Service League.

Coleman’s GWVA had carried on with armistice commemorations, smokers and concerts each year at various venues until the fall of 1926. It was then, just before Armistice, that they applied for and were formally issued a legion charter designating them as Branch #9. The date of the charter, October 6th, 1926, is significant in that it was the first issued to an Alberta legion by Dominion Command in Ottawa making Coleman, Alberta’s oldest and longest running legion. Two days later charters were issued for Lethbridge, Strathmore, Vermillion and Edmonton.

The nine charter signatures included William Graham, Robert Parry and John Richards all of whom had served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The charter was signed by Sir Percy Lake, First President of the Dominion Executive Council.

Lake, of Victoria, B.C., who was a former British army officer who had fought in India, Egypt and the Middle East.

The new branch had two significant issues it tackled in their first few years: the search for a new club premises and the establishment of a memorial for their fallen comrades. With regards to the former it seems the club struggled for many years meeting in places like council chambers, a community hall and the Oddfellow’s Hall. It wasn’t until 1936 that a serious fund raising effort was mounted to build their own premises. This redoubled effort was strengthened by the support of a new Ladies Auxiliary chartered in April of 1935. The auxiliary organized banquets, dances and a massive fund raising carnival in 1936.

Finally in 1939 a building on the east end of Coleman was acquired and members and their sons began excavating and renovating this brick building built in 1925 as a store and warehouse. Ironically, the sons who helped haul rocks away would soon become veterans themselves. New Years Day 1940 saw the official opening of the club but: “The excitement of achieving a home of its own was tempered with the reality of the developing war.”

Coleman responded to the challenge by pledging full cooperation to the Dominion Government and the Empire. An interesting note in this support was the Soldiers Overseas Comfort Fund which was complimented by the Ladies Auxiliary preparing parcels that included a two pound fruit cake, 1.5 lbs of home-made candy and nuts, gum, laces, a pair of socks and ten pieces of lump sugar.

It wasn’t until November of 1948 that the legion’s second main goal of a cenotaph was achieved and on it was placed the 1931 bronze plaque with the seventeen names of those lost in the First World War. Subsequently a plaque with fourteen names from the Second World War was added to the structure. The cenotaph was eventually faced with stone taken from Waterton National Park where one of the mountain areas is called Vimy Ridge. In 1954 a soldier standing guard was added to the top.

In 1986 a large addition was added to the existing legion building with basements dug underneath both the old and the new addition in order to add a new kitchen, office, meeting and banquet rooms. In 2011 B.E.S.L. #9 celebrated its 85th anniversary which included a special acknowledgement of Clarence Morrow whose 44 years of service had been recognized with the Legion’s Meritorious Service Medal in 1993. His then remarkable 62 years of service was acknowledged at the 85th by Dominion Command awarding him its highest honour, the Palm Leaf.

The legacy of this determined facility continues to this day as Alberta’s first chartered legion carries on serving its community and supporting local charities.

10 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Crowsnest Pass People of renown Pass Herald

Darcy Wakaluk - is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League from 1988 to 1997. Wakaluk played for the WHL's Kelowna Wings and Spokane Chiefs. After being drafted by the Buffalo Sabres, Wakaluk then spent part of 5 seasons with the Rochester Americans of the AHL, winning the Calder Cup Championship in his first year (1986–87) and reaching the Finals once again in 1989-90.

On December 6, 1987, Wakaluk became the first American Hockey League goaltender to score a goal when he shot the puck the length of the ice into an empty net in a game with Rochester against Utica. Two days later, Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers would accomplish the same feat becoming the first NHL goalie to score a goal, also shooting into an empty net. Darcy would go on to be inducted into the Rochester Americans Hall of Fame in 2012.

He was selected 144th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 7th round of the 1984 NHL Entry Draft and started playing for them in the 1988–89 season, where he appeared in six games. He played another 16 games (and 2 playoff contests) with Buffalo in 1990-91 until being traded to the Minnesota North Stars for Buffalo's 1991 8th round pick and future considerations on May 26, 1991.

He played for the North Stars for two seasons, and subsequently the Dallas Stars, where, after taking over starting duties for Andy Moog at the beginning the 1994 playoffs, he swept the St. Louis Blues in Round One, winning the last game at St. Louis Arena. In 1996, he was signed as a free agent by the Phoenix Coyotes, where he played his final season after a career-ending knee injury in a game vs Washington in January 1997 forced his retire-

ment.

Since retiring Darcy has been a Goaltending Coach for 4 teams in the WHL and another in the AJHL. He spent 9 seasons as Goaltending Coach with the Calgary Hitmen, (where he won a WHL Championship in 2010 while coaching a young future NHL star netminder Martin Jones), previously with the Vancouver Giants, Crowsnest Pass Timberwolves, Kamloops Blazers, and most recently with the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Doug Houda - is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) defenceman and current assistant coach of the New York Islanders. He was a former assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL. He was drafted in the second round, 28th overall, by the Red Wings in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. After playing five seasons with the Western Hockey League's Calgary Wranglers and Medicine Hat Tigers, Houda made his NHL debut with the Red Wings near the end of the 1985–86 season.

Houda would be a journeyman throughout his career, playing for the Red Wings, Hartford Whalers, Los Angeles Kings, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in his NHL travels. He also spent a great deal of time in the minor leagues playing for the Kalamazoo Wings and Utah Grizzlies in the IHL, and the Adirondack Red Wings and Rochester Americans with whom he would win the Calder Cup in 1996 in the AHL. After returning to Rochester in 1999 and serving as the Amerks captain in his final season, Houda retired after the 2002–03 season and immediately became an assistant coach under Randy Cunneyworth in Rochester. On July 25, 2006, Houda was named an assistant coach for the Boston Bruins. He was relieved of his duties following the 2015–16 season, after 10 seasons with the Bruins. During Houda's 10 seasons with the club, the Bruins compiled a 428–264–94 record, seventh best in the NHL over that span. Boston's 57 playoff wins over the same duration are fourth-most in the league, trailing only Chicago (76), Detroit (66) and Pittsburgh (66). Houda also spent three seasons as an assistant coach in the American Hockey League with the Rochester Americans from 2003–06. The Amerks compiled a 125–86–16–13 record in the span and held the league's best record in 2004–05 at 51–19–4–6 (112 points).

On May 10, 2016, Houda was named an assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings He was relieved of his position

following the conclusion of the 2021-2022 season. He spent six years with the Red Wings. On July 5, 2022 The New York Islanders announced that Doug Houda and Brian Wiseman have been brought on as assistant coaches under Lane Lambert.

Rick Rypien - was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who spent parts of six seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Vancouver Canucks. After a major junior career of four years with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League (WHL), he was signed to a professional contract by the minor league Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2005. The following season, he signed with the Canucks.

He spent six years with the organization, splitting time between the Canucks and Moose, their AHL affiliate. A fourth-line player in the NHL, he was known for his hitting and fighting abilities, though his size was not typical of an enforcer. Following the 2010–11 NHL season. The last team Rypien signed with was the Winnipeg Jets.

Rick Gillis – Local artist/ author of 2 books based in CNP Louise Costigan Kerns - began studying the piano at age two and a half with her mother, Beatrice Costigan, in Blairmore, Alberta, Canada. At age five she gave her first public recital and began competing in Alberta Music Festivals, where she was a consistent winner through high school. After earning her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees with honours from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, she taught on the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School and was the Founding Director of the New England Conservatory Extension Division Opera Studio. In Boston she studied piano with Irma Wolpe and Victor Rosenbaum, opera with John Moriarty and Boris Goldovsky and vocal repertoire with Allen Rogers. Ms. Costigan-Kerns maintained an active performing career in the Boston area as a solo pianist and accompanist. Over the years she was a member of the Opera Department faculty at Boston University, piano faculty at Phillips Exeter Academy and Artist in Residence at Brandeis University.

Randi-Lynn Rinaldi – Senior nationals 2000.

Olympic Weightlifting Elise Pundyk – Named the Global Co-operation’s to 30 under 30 honor.

Coleman COMMUNITY SOCIETY SERVING THE CROWSNEST PASS FOR 40 YEARS

PROVIdING All YOuR INSuRANCE NEEdS FOR 25 YEARS

13119 - 20th Ave • Blairmore 403-562-7144

12731 - 20th Ave • Blairmore 403-562-8822

OuR mEmbERS HAVE SERVEd THE COmmuNITY FOR OVER 20 YEARS

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - 11

Looking Back High School Memories John Kinnear “Always remember that a principle is not a rule.

The rule asks nothing more of you than you obey; a principle requires you to do your own thinking. A rule gives you credit only for being a creature; a principle gives you stature as a man.” Principal Horace Allen’s message to the 1967 graduating class.

So this coming July long weekend former graduates from Pass high schools will gather together to reminisce and bring each other up to date on what has happened since they went their separate ways. This reunion is pretty unprecedented as far as reunions go and the logistics of tracking down and inviting classmates has been mind boggling.

After setting aside their caps and gowns so many years ago, most grads headed for post secondary institutions across Canada and began the long process of molding their careers. These grads have been out there for decades and for the most part many have finished their working lives, raised families, welcomed grandchildren and even great grandchildren and settled into retirement. I always find it interesting that some choose to come back here in the end, to complete the circle.

“You can take the boy out of the Pass but you can’t take the Pass out of the boy.”

So for me, 1967- the year of our confederation centennial- was my final launch from school into the terrifying but fascinating world of college. I followed my father’s footsteps to the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) which in his day was called the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (PITA). And like him I studied architectural drafting and design. In 1934 when he graduated, during the depression, he wound up stooking wheat at his uncle’s farm outside of Calgary. He eventually became a mine surveyor and engineer. I soon found the 1970 world of architecture to be not to my liking. “They were all made out of ticky-tacky and they all looked just the same”. So I, like my father, wound up in the mining industry as a draftsman, surveyor and geological technician.

My graduating class was probably one of the smallest on record for those 15 years. There were only 17 of us, which resulted in our grand march coach Mrs. Wright having to use grade nine’s to flesh out the routine. And believe me it was a serious routine! Weeks and weeks of rehearsal went into that geometric moving maze that she designed for us. All to the patriotic fervor of a John Phillip Sousa military march. Needless to say our parents were impressed. The grand march is designed to show them we had discipline, coordination and could work together to a common end. These days the grand march is a rock parade designed to show off dresses and let off some steam.

Somehow I wound up editor of the 1967 yearbook entitled “Reflections” and with my committee and the help of a yearbook “kit” put together a snapshot in time of teachers, classes and activities at the Horace Allen High School. Its namesake, Principal Horace Allen, was a stern but professional man who was renowned for his ability to turn bright red in stressful situations.

And with nine classes of disruptive and unpredictable teenagers we got to see him light up many times.

I lit him up a few times myself but one the funniest involved now retired nurse Celeste (Korner) Paskiuski and myself. I challenged her to a shooting hoops contest, best out of ten, after class on a bet, for a dollar. I lost (she was really good) and so I made a running break for the door on the other side of the gym. Celeste fired that basketball across the gym and hit me square in the back of the head which sent me sprawling

John Kinnear photo

Top photo: Graduation 1967 with 17 graduants.

Bottom photo: Teachers from 1967.

through the foyer and landing face down at the entrance to Horace’s office. Needless to say I saw red as I looked up.

As the memories of that year come back to me I find myself laughing at the shenanigans that went on and recall a couple of other stories. I remember decorating the gym’s south wall with silhouettes of the grads, some of which were set in the eleven triangles of the iconic confederation symbol. It took a really long ladder to get them up there and it was my high school best friend Eddy Cornett that chose to scramble up that 25 foot ladder. Of course, given that Eddy was prone to accidents; you have to know that that ladder, left unguarded, slid straight down the wall with him at the top hanging on for dear life. It crushed Eddy’s fingers on the hardwood floor, this only days before he had tripped going up the school stairs with his hands in his pockets. Didn’t get his hands out in time that time also, so you can imagine how that went. The nose is the first thing that makes contact by the way.

Eddy was one of those guys who didn’t study but could pass any exam, which drove those of us who spent countless hours studying at home nuts. His locker looked like something a hoarder would be proud of but Eddy went on to the University of Calgary to become a physical education teacher. The day of the prom he and I were tooling around downtown Coleman in his dad’s 1960 Ford Fairlane when a hilarious thing happened. As we rounded the corner by the Senior’s Center heading towards the museum he spotted a box sitting in the middle of the road. Boxes are fair game but this one, unbeknownst to us, had been left there by a shopper who had just finished up buying goodies at a Rexall

one-cent sale on main street. Not sure why she had set it down in the middle of the road, perhaps she forgot her keys or something, but Eddy took aim as we sped towards the stop sign nearby. All I saw when I looked back over my shoulder was bottles and cans, tooth paste etc. flying through the air. Needless to say the woman came out of her house fists waving and we tore out of there pell mell. I’m told in the old days it was fun sport to plant a big boulder in a box in the middle of the road and watch that old Model T bounce straight up in the air.

One of the yearbook pictures show the boys volleyball team with Bill Roughead and Jim Ash holding a pennant that says: “Pincher Creek Winners 1966 Volleyball Tournament.” I remember that tournament well as Richard Dreja and I (the two tallest and best jumpers) had decided that we would leap up on the serve and drive it down on the Matthew Halton players. After a few of these combined leap smashes we looked over at coach Mr. Capron expecting praise but instead noticed he had his head in his hands. He called us over to inform us goofballs that spiking the serve was “verboten” and that we were breaking the rules.

Each and every one of the graduating classes from the Pass have wonderful memories and hilarious and sometimes hair-raising stories connected to them. This is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity for Horace Allen, Isabelle Sellon and Crowsnest Consolidated grads to reunite with your schoolmates and rebuild friendships. Tour your old school on the Saturday from 12 till 2 and step back in time. Share your pictures and your memories.

12 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Bellevue Legion # 19 - A history Copied with permission from Crowsnest and It’s People v. 3 In the beginning, the Bellevue Legion was known as the Great War Veterans Association. It acquired its charter on October 12, 1926. It was one of the first 12 in the province to do so before the end of October of 1926. The charter members were: Joseph Christie, Joseph Ellison, William Hampson, David Hall, Robert Jordan, James Miller, Clifford Miller, Steve Rosia, William Bunting, William Chappell, Thomas Alsopp, John Wyatt, James Key, Stephen Berry, Benjamin Milnes. The secretary was James Wyatt.

The Bellevue Legion was located across the street

from its current location. In or about 1960 it bought the adjoining building from Jack Kerr Sr. The wall between the two properties was knocked out. The volunteer members worked all night to demolish the wall and put in beams to hold up the ceiling.

The Bellevue Legion welcomed members who did not see the military service to augment its numbers. The command would only allow 25% to the honorary membership at this time.

Shortly after this the doors were opened to ladies who formed a Ladies Auxiliary and for the first time ladies were allowed access to the legion. The Ladies Auxiliary received its charter in September 1934. The auxiliary did invaluable work on behalf of the men’s branch. The executive consisted of: A Watson, R. Turner, H. Kay, R. Jordan, G.K. Sirett, G.D. Goodwin, J. Christie, R. Shevels, F. Padgett, A. Wells.

The ladies first held meetings in their homes, in the Ukrainian Hall and the Oddfellows Hall until they were granted permission to enter the legion.

Some of the activities recorded in a summary on the activities of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Bellevue Legion prepared by Mary Lynn (Avoledo) Heer in-

clude: whist drives to raise money for projects such as Children’s Christmas Tree and overseas parcels to service people. A parcel would include one pair socks, three handkerchiefs, pencil, envelopes, writing pad, five packages chewing gum, large chocolate bar, tube of shaving cream and one of toothpaste, bar of soap, 50 cigarettes. The postal charge escalated from $2.76 to $5. The ladies acted as volunteers at carnivals, visited the sick, donated “Bundles for Britain” fund, canvased for blood donors for the Red Cross, gave hampers to the needy, presented school scholarships, held concerts to aid the polio fund, brought dishes and much needed kitchen equipment for the legion, asked for a site for a playground, held bingos, helped decorate floats, helped set up special tourneys and helped the mobile x-ray and TB testing units. They assist in the annual poppy drive.

Journal of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 19: Began as the branch of the Great War Veterans Association; Dues 30 to 40 cents monthly; Membership paid $1 quarterly to the branch; Secretary’s wages $20 per month; steward’s wages $130-$140 per month; Banked at Union Bank: Bought supplies from Plunkett and Savage, Hudson’s Bay, Kerr Bros., Johnson & Cousins; Light bills paid to West Canadian Collieries; Donated $10 to Hillcrest Football Club; Membership was 97 in November 1926; Invoices show that two half larger barrels were bought daily.

Changes through the years include: Renovations; The library is now a B-B-Q pit and meeting room; A special picture wall started by Gordan Fisher; New cenotaph erected in 1993; Memorabilia showcase; Piano; Activities such as games, darts, shuffleboard; Firing party still uses .303 British Rifles The Cenotaph-Roll of Honour: 1914-1918 - L. Adam; W. Archer; G. Bell; G. Belshaw; J. Drevinski; G. Greary; J.R. Hewitt; G. Hutton; W. McCullough ; E. Mitchell; A.E. Petts; W. Raynor; W. Sheen; J. Sindell; R. Sloan; W. Sloan; R. Turner; G. Wilde 1939-1945: J.R. Dryden; T. Evans; A. Fortunaso; A. Gardiner; G.W. Grant; C.M. Hollenbeck; J.G. Hutton; D. Jordan; D. Manchul; P. Maniago; A. Penman; A.S. Rhodes; M. Wood.

Things My Father Said John Kinnear My father, John Kinnear Senior, was a special man who worked most of his life here in the Pass as a miner, mine surveyor, Coleman Volunteer Brigade Fire Chief and Town Foreman. He was known for his willingness to help out in any situation and for his inventiveness.

You could count on old Johnny Kinnear when you needed him.

He was also known to kick out a pretty neat phrase or two now and then and some of them have stayed with me and resurface at times. I had the rare opportunity of working with him at Coleman Collieries as a survey helper and draftsman. It is not often father and son get to work directly together and the two years I spent with him in the engineering office there were a riot.

We travelled to Tent Mountain, Vicary South, BLevel, Racehorse Strip and Two Level North coal mines regularly and there was always a lot of work do be done on surface and underground. Dad always managed to inject levity into even the nastiest situations and he had twists of phrase that usually left his crews howling at times.

I recall running a survey base line with him up and over the top of Vicary Ridge to connect to a new mine (Racehorse). Surveying can be tedious, repetitive work but you are out in the elements and sometimes in spectacular scenery.

On this occasion, as we carried our baseline up the road above B-Level I remember sitting on a stump about 200 feet away from him as he set up his next station with his old style four screw Gurley survey transit.

Drifting over the warm summer mountain air there

came from him, as he twiddled with the instrument screws, this gem of a poem. Read it slowly and pause at the periods. It went: "How well I do remember, Twas late last November, I was walking down the road quite full of pride.

My heart was all aflutter, as I lay down in the gutter, And a pig came there and lay down by my side.

As I lay there in the gutter, Too soused to even mutter, A lady passing by was heard to say.

One may tell the brute that boozes, By the company he chooses, And hearing this the pig got up and slowly walked away.

His colourful descriptions were often in simile form, like for instance: "Steep as a cow's face and him drinkin' water. (on describing the pitch of a coal seam). Conversely, there was "flatter than piss on a plate". Now that's pretty flat I'd say. Being a surveyor he would know that liquid stays pretty level, unless of course it is inside a beer bottle, in which it definitely assumes all kinds of angles.

Coming in and going out.

I managed to convince him back then in the early 70's that he should quit smoking Sportsman Plain unfiltered cigarettes. Remember them? Bright yellow package with images of fishing flies on the back. Anyways, I got him to try cigarillos which I felt would do less damage and reduce his smoking. He smoked them for thirty years and took them right down to the plastic tip each time. He would often announce sarcastically: "I gotta stop smokin' these things, the plastic is killing me"!

I can picture him now, perched over his survey transit with that plastic tip sticking out of the corner of his mouth. On one occasion a nosy government engineer approached him as he was laying out the Two Level North road about 25 miles north of Coleman to a new coal mine entry. The engineer asked him this question: "Mr. Kinnear, what radius of curve are you using on your road?" to which he replied: "Why the radius of the

goddamn hill that it is going around of course."

Quick wit and biting sarcasm were his forte but never to the point of being cruel or rude. As town foreman he always worked alongside his crew even digging sewer ditches. Inevitably a curious bystander would ask: " Whatcha doin', diggin’ a hole?" to which he would reply: " Hell no, we're layin’ a foundation for a lawn."

At times his comments could be quite profound and loved to quote from the revered Scottish poet Robbie Burns a lot. His favourite saying was from Burn's "To a Louse". When you say it with a Scottish burr, it works better that way. It was: "O would some power the giftie gie us , to see ourselles as others see us. Then again he was not averse to throwing out some well worn Nova Scotian twisted line like: "Throw the cow over the fence, some hay."

I recall him telling me that when he came from Scotland the family spent some time in Calgary and he attended the old King Edward School in South West Calgary. A favourite story of his was about a teacher who asked him what a certain word was. He promptly told her it was a preposition. She said, “How do you know that” to which he replied, “Because I know all the main prepositions”. The astounded teacher said, “You mean to tell me you can recite every one and dad promptly rattled off all 28 most common prepositions, " above, across, against, along among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath" and so on. He could still recite them when he was eighty years old. Rock solid old country English education!

Probably one of the most profound things I have ever seen him do was to smash a plate of chilli-concarne into our black and white TV set on a late Saturday afternoon. The TV was gradually taking over our family and changing our traditional ways. Remember that back then TV sets had a protective safety glass in the front, one that he angrily shattered into a million pieces. After he had done this he turned to my brothers and sisters and I and said: " I hate that thing, it is ruining my family."

I wonder what he would think today, of this world in which many adults and children are staring dull eyed into their devices all day long!

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD -13

14 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Morency Plumbing Oldest Business in the Pass Nick Allen

Morency Plumbing & Heating Ltd. Is now on its third generation of operators serving the Crowsnest Pass. In 1909, Alex Morency opened the first shop in Frank, supplying tin-smithing plumbing and steam fitting. A major project the business had during the first years of operation was the installation of the Blairmore water main in 1911.

After six years of operations in Frank, the business moved to Coleman. They later expanded in 1925, opening a tinsmith shop in Blairmore two doors down from the theatre.

Harold Morency bought the business from his father in the year 1951 which started the second generation of ownership. Alex and Harold would both acquire a Journeyman Certification of Plumbing and Sheet Metal between 1954 and 1955. Alex died at the age of 78 in 1963.

The next generation of Morency to join the business would be Scott. He started working there after school in 1979 with his brother Mark joining him in 1983.

Scott would get his Journeyman Certificate in Plumbing and Gas Fitting in 1986. Mark would get his Journeyman Certificate six years later. This was the same year Harold Morency died and his sons took over the business as the third generation of operators.

In 1993, a year after taking over the business, the Morency brothers would open their new shop in Blairmore on 21 Avenue. This is where the business remains today after almost three decades.

The business celebrated their centennial in 2009 and more recently has seen the fourth generation of Morencys to begin working at the family company.

These new faces include Graysen, Dawson and Meagan joining between 2015 and 2018.

Molly Morency, Scott and Mark’s mother, died in

CNP

WASTE serving the crowsnest pass for over 55 years Welcome home and have a great weekend 403-562-5220

your pharmacy here in the crowsnet pass since 1974 8335 - 20th Ave. • Coleman 403-563-3242

2018 and according to an article from the Crowsnest Pass promoter in February of 2000, they affectionately referred to her as “the boss”.

“Scott and I, we were lucky enough to have gotten the business passed down to us,” said Mark.

He explained that there are likely not too many houses the business has not been in due to his father’s work throughout the community.

Mark said community support is everything to the business because they do not have much work outside of the Crowsnest Pass. Aside from the public, he said, “The reality is that we are only as successful as our staff is, they're the core for us... without them we would be nothing.

According to Mark, there is a total of 14 staff including Scott and himself.

“We're only as successful as the people that work for us, but also that support us and in turn we give thousands of dollars in donations to the community every year. They support us, we support them, and then in turn it's like a relationship,” said Mark.

Some of the events and organizations the business supports include, but are not limited to, the Boys & Girls Club, the Crowsnest Curling Club & Bunny Bonspiel, CNP Women's Resource Center Toy Hamper, CNP Food Bank, CNP Museum & Harvest of Memories, CNP Music Festival and CNP Lions Club.

Visit morencyplumbing.ca for more information on the business or to get in contact with them.

Nick Allen photo

Bottom photo: receipt for work done at Bellevue School in 1929 by Alex Morency totalling $136.

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD HOMECOMING - 15

Cleaning for the Crowsnest Pass Nick Allen

Prestige Cleaners is a family owned and operated business serving the Crowsnest Pass and area. They offer dry and wet cleaning for duvets, quilts, suits, sleeping bags, shirts, jackets, uniforms, coveralls and more. They also offer to deliver your washed and cleaned items for your convenience.

The business will celebrate 50 years of service at the end of next month. It was August 28, 1972 when Nick Saretzky took over the business which moved his family from Unity, Saskatchewan to the Crowsnest Pass.

He was originally working at a large dry-cleaning company in Saskatoon when he met his future wife who worked for another dry-cleaning company. They got together and decided to start their own business.

After getting a small plant in Unity, they were approached by a dry-cleaning representative that travelled across Alberta and Saskatchewan. They had been there a year and a half before he asked the couple if they ever thought of moving.

The previous owner had asked if the representative knew anyone that could be interested.

“He phoned us the next week and that following week we come up to the Pass, I didn't even know where Blairmore was,” said Saretzky.

The Saretsky family included Nick’s two sons and two nieces. The girls’ parents were killed in a car accident prior to the move. They were aged seven and 11, staying with them until finishing school.

After four and a half years of living in a home they rented from the old owner, they were able to move into their own home. Nick’s son, Larry Saretzky, works as a manager at Prestige Cleaners. He explained the way people use dry cleaners has changed over the years.

“A lot of people used to wear suits to work at the mine or other places of business,” said Larry.

He said they never even did coveralls at the beginning, a part of the business that started eight years after they took over. They are now currently connected with

Nick Allen photo

The storefront of Prestige Cleaners in downtown Blairmore.

Teck to clean coveralls for their workers.

Nick claims the two most important parts of Prestige Cleaners have been quality and service. He added it was easier when he and his wife did 90 per cent of the work themselves.

“When we had to hire people, this is the first thing that was put across, you've got to be productive, but you've got to have quality,” said Nick.

At the height of the business, they had 15 employees, and now have seven. Nick said he has had to remain flexible to change as the industry develops different types of fabrics and new equipment.

Serving the needs of the community has been important for the business as well. Nick said making sure the orders of customers are fulfilled in the timeliest manner was important to their success.

According to Larry, Nick started a fastball team in

the Crowsnest Pass years ago after he played and coached in Saskatoon.

“I was young, just learning to play ball myself and I love playing ball, so he coached the team here in Blairmore,” said Larry.

The team's name was the Prestige Pirates, originally known as the Prestige Blue Jays. The team eventually disbanded but did manage to place second in provincial tournaments.

“After about a year or two with that name, the guys got older and they said, ‘you know that the Blue Jays is kind of a wimpy name, we need a strong manly name like pirates, I'll never forget that,” added Larry.

For your dry-cleaning needs, contact Prestige Cleaners at 403 562-2112 or visit them at 13237 20 Ave in Blairmore, a three-minute walk from the Stone’s Throw Café.

16 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, July 27, 2022

It's time to COME HOME and reconnect

Crowsnest Pass Homecoming I sure hope you enjoyed our special edition of Crowsnest Homecoming and enjoyed the stories and history of this great community. Remember the Pass Herald is your written and photographic history of the magnificent Crowsnest Pass.

- Lisa Sygutek

The Magic of a Stationary Store Nick Allen Downtown Blairmore is home to Copy Magic, a store with a long list of offerings with something for everyone. What started as a simple office supply store 28 years ago, has grown into the jack-of-all-trades store it is today. It features exclusive giftware, furniture, ladies' fashion and an ATB Financial Agency.

The owners, Ken and Linda Petrone, have been married for 50 years and were both born in the Crowsnest Pass. Ken was born in Bellevue and Linda was born in Coleman.

Ken started off in the trucking business, hauling coal with his father. When they were just married the couple bought a motorcycle shop in Frank.

“Linda ran the motorcycle shop while I was trucking all day,” said Ken,” Then I'd come home at night and service snowmobiles and motorcycles, depending on the time of the year.”

Linda said she was proud of running the store, even though she had no idea how to ride a bike. Despite the lack of experience, she won a trip to Japan the first year she was in business due to market penetration.

The mine Ken was trucking for shut down in 1980 and Ken ended up at Byron Creek Collieries as the maintenance planner.

“I worked there until 1987 when I got a job as the purchasing manager, materials manager for this hospital,” said Ken. He worked there for five years until middle management in the hospital was laid off due to government cutbacks. After a couple years of selling life insurance while Linda was selling Xerox, they decided to make a change.

“We had the opportunity to buy a stationary store out here and it was where Cherry on Top is,” said Ken,” we bought it out and then about a year or two

Nick Allen photo

Ken and Linda Petrone hold up the Afghan throw they designed to commemorate the Crowsnest Pass and the unique communities it holds.

later we bought this building and moved it over here [because] it was too small and at that point we didn't need this whole building for office supplies, so we started branching out into what you see today in here.”

Now they have been in business for 28 years and a part of their branching out includes a furniture store on the corner of the block and a space upstairs, where they mainly sell Ashley Furniture. There is also a Christmas store in the building after a chance encounter.

“I absolutely love Christmas. Every year I would have a few Christmas things and I would put it in a corner in store but then in January I had to take it all down,” said Linda.

The space beside their store became available and she was in there, opening boxes, when people wandered in and asked to buy a Christmas ornament.

“I said ‘you bet’ so I just started plunking stuff in the Christmas store and it just grew, it's been open for about five or six years... people that are traveling through buy Christmas ornaments all year long.” said Linda.

As you renew friendships and fond memories, I hope you revel in the beauty and lasting character of the Crowsnest Pass.

Happy Homecoming Crowsnest Pass!

403.904.8110

She talked about how important it was that people shopped locally during the pandemic, something she hopes continues. They also highlighted one of their more iconic items, an Afghan blanket that they claim is perfect for travelers through the area.

“We have a unique Afghan, and it was designed by Ken and I. We went out to all these pictures throughout the Crowsnest Pass. It's representing all the towns; Hillcrest, Bellevue, Frank, Blairmore and Coleman,” said Linda They designed this blanket over 20 years ago, and say people buy it because it represents the area and is easy to pack in a suitcase.

Linda said sharing their story for the Crowsnest Homecoming is important because so many of their friends have left the Crowsnest Pass and are now coming home to retire. To everyone coming back for the Homecoming, Linda added, “What we want to say is, welcome home.”

You can go to copymagic.ca or visit Copy Magic in downtown Blairmore for a variety of your office and home needs.