David Pettigrew

(VANCOUVER) Without a word of a lie, my first job in journalism was at a newspaper that still used a hot lead type press (and for everyone who is too young to appreciate what that is, lemme tell you it was not an early form of computer).  So technology these days never ceases to amaze me. Last Friday (Dec. 9 if you want precision) I met up with a high-tech riddle that was a doozy:

What is it that lets you browse over 200 heritage sites in six regions all over B.C., build your own walking tour, gives you step-by-step directions to your destination and even suggests a nice place to eat after your visit?

The answer is the new Heritage Tourism Mobile App, unveiled at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Auditorium (or just the plain old “Planetarium” to those of you who remember lead type) last week by the Heritage Tourism Alliance of B.C. It was part of the launch of the Time Travel BC Project website, www.TimeTravelBC.com.

My colleague David Pettigrew, the project manager, walked everyone at the event (most of them delegates to the B.C. Museum’s Association) through the app and the website’s features. What with blogs, GPS capabilities, HDTV video clips and being thoroughly SEOed, it was pretty impressive. The whole point being to get more people out to these sites and experiencing our shared history firsthand.

“The whole idea is to drive traffic to your website and people to your door,” Pettigrew told the audience. “If we get people to your website, we’re happy. If we get people to your door, we’re thrilled.”

The app is currently in the Apple approval process and will be broadly available on several mobile platforms soon. TimeTravelBC.com is up and running and I recommend anyone interested in heritage, tourism and technology to take a look. You might even be able to find a lead type printing press on display…

BTW, The Time Travel BC Project is the result of a partnership between the Heritage Tourism Alliance of B.C., the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, the New Pathways to Gold Society, Heritage B.C. and the B.C. Museums Association.

(ALEXANDRA BRIDGE PROVINCIAL PARK) Press releases are like icebergs — sure, the tip may look all shiny and impressive and get all the attention, but it doesn’t hurt once in a while to consider the nine-tenths of the object that lays beneath the surface. This event is a perfect example of that principle…

It is really, really early (for me, anyhow) on a Friday morning in August. Okay, so it’s 6:15 a.m., not that early, but for those of us who are not morning people, early enough. Fortunately, Sue Baerg and the crew from Fraser River Rafting Expeditions have (as was once famously said) some damned fine coffee on hand, and I am at least awake enough to worry (as is the lot of the flack) if anyone will actually show up for an event this early on a Friday in the summer when they could be at the beach, on the water, hiking or just sleeping in…

..and whaddaya know — the other nine-tenths have shown up. Along with the New Pathways to Gold contingent of Co-chairs Terry Raymond and Cheryl Chapman, Secretary Brent Rutherford and Executive Director Gord Rattray, we have Inge Wilson from the Hope Visitor Centre, we have a big contingent from the Yale & District Ratepayers Association, the Yale & District Historical Society, Debbie McKinney from Hell’s Gate Airtram, Kelly Pearce and Kelly Cook from Hope Mountain Centre, folks from the Ministry of Transportation and Highways, we got Dennis Adamson, the Electoral Area rep from the Fraser Valley Regional District — there’s a report from the Hope Standard… holy smokes! There are lots of folks here. Now, all we need is the tip of the iceberg… here’s Chief Mel Bobb of the Spuzzum First, good… Cheryl and Terry, and now, arrving early (when did you ever hear of that happening?) is Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl and his assistant Jeremy.

We have gathered here in the parking lot of the highway pull out of this park to show Mark and a few others what an amazing place Alexandra Bridge Provincial Park is. And, of course, how it could be even more amazing with a little love. Well, all these folks showing up at this hour of the morning on a Friday in the summer is showin’ the love. Okay, time to get the iceberg of the road…

October 28, 2010

(QUESNEL) The Billy Barker Casino and Hotel is hopping and we’re not talking about the slot machines or the roulette wheel here. There are over 30 people here in the lower ballroom who have come to put their collective heads together to find a way to reinvigorate the Gold Rush Trails marketing brand.

And what a crowd it is – we have folks from the rafting, hotel, heritage attraction and resort industries. We got representatives from the Regional Destination Marketing Organizations, civic and provincial government and heritage associations. We have folks from Hope to Barkerville and beyond at this Gold Rush Trails Marketing Focus Session.

The conference is a joint-initiative by the Heritage Tourism Alliance of B.C., Aboriginal Tourism B.C. and the New Pathways to Gold Society.  We’re all here to compare notes and devise a strategy. It’s a high-stakes game, but the odds are in our favour.

All eyes are up front as facilitator Trevor Kier of Kier and Associates gives a detailed background of past efforts to promote the Gold Rush Trails (GRT) experience. Some great things were done. But, as Kier describes, despite its strategically advantageous location as a key travel corridor and its abundance of heritage and adventure tourism product, the corridor lost market share due to highway expansions and improvements elsewhere, increased competition and limited marketing resources.

Kier spells out how past efforts to promote the GRT experience saw tourism stakeholders across the corridor work together, first as an Alliance and then as a marketing and development Cooperative, to revitalize the GRT as a key travel corridor and attraction. Ultimately, these efforts failed largely because of an inability to attain some measure of sustainability.

A general discussion of the challenges the corridor faces in revitalizing the GRT brand is followed by a break-out session where smaller groups brain-storm ideas on how to reinvigorate the promotion of the GRTs. There are lots of ideas and a keen interest in the need for a reinvigorated GRTs marketing strategy. The people in my focus group think its worth doing – the timing seems right, the will seems to be there and it’s much needed.

There’s a lot of support for thinking big and giving the strategy a WOW factor. When we reconvene as a group, there’s a positive consensus from most participants to move forward with further discussions. Exactly what that should look like, how it should be lead and how to ensure sustainability in the process and execution remains to be determined. But it’s a good start.

The HTA and NPTGS are considering participants’ input, Kier’s comments on the session and there will be further consultations aimed at moving the initiative forward. You can bet on it.

Chawathil Chief, Rhoda Peters, and Leon Nelson (and son) provided a First Nations welcome
and congratulated Hope Mountain Centre on the re-opening of the historic trail first used by
Indigenous people for trade and sustenance.

The official “Grand Opening” of the Hudson’s Bay Company (1849) Heritage Trail took place September 11 at Peers Creek, the newly-constructed western trailhead of this 50-km-long historic  route over the North Cascades. Hope Mayor Laurie French and Chawathil First Nation Chief Rhoda Peters presided over the trail’s official re-opening.
Work on this exciting project has been underway for the past two summers, preparing the trail for re-opening as a
hiking and horseback route.  It is a provincially-designated “Heritage Trail” protected by a 200-metre buffer centred on the trail.An HBC Trail Steering Committee, led by the Hope Mountain Centre, is overseeing construction.  Participants include the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Fraser Valley Regional District, Backcountry Horsemen of BC, the New Pathways to Gold Society, and private citizens.  The project has also received official endorsement by the District of Hope (Mayor and Council).Initial funding for restoration has been provided by New Pathways to Gold Society (NPTGS), the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, and the National Trails Coalition (NTC). The HBC (1849) Heritage Trail is one of several successful projects that the NPTGS has been priveleged to participate in, thanks to funding from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.

Which brings me to the next dilemma? How to end this entry? Again, at the Province, I would have written something like, “the curtain finally fell on Iggy’s pop concert as he headed off into the sunset, bound for Kamloops, the tournament capital of Canada.”

But I think I’ll resist the temptation and just say both the diary and the George Munro Grant poster are part of the Yale Museum’s collection now and maybe you oughtta drop by and see why people keep on coming back to Yale year after year…

The Liberal bus pulls in and here comes Ignatieff, moving through the crowd, smiling, shaking hands. He sees the poster of George Munro Grant and makes a beeline for it. He has his picture taken next to it. Pretty soon, people are lining up to have their pictures taken with Ignatieff and his ancestor’s image.

During his speech to the crowd, Ignatieff put aside politics and instead read entries from his great-grandfather’s diary written during his stay in Yale. And like his ancestor, Ignatieff knew that this is a special place.

“Yale is a place that looks like a church without a roof.. it is so beautiful, here there is a sense that you are free , a sense that you can have a good life here, these things are universal.”

It’s a heartfelt speech. Adamson joins Ignatieff at the presentation of the diary to Bronwyn Punch, president of the Yale Historical Society, along with a copy of the book Ocean to Ocean. After a tour of the museum, all too soon, he’s back on the bus and headed for Kamloops.

So, what’s all this got to do with Ignatieff?

In the 138 years since Grant’s visit to Yale, lots has changed — including Yale itself. It is not the boisterous boomtown of nearly 10,000 people it once was. But the sense of history, the sense that this is a very special, very important place, has not. It’s evident in the crowd of committed peopole who are here: Sue Baerg and others from the Yale and District Historical Society, Tanya Lee Jones of the Yale and District Ratepayers Association, Jennifer Iredale from the B.C. Heritage Branch and people from all over who have been drawn here. The basket-making workshop is in full swing in the upper field.

There’s also a healthy contingent from New Pathways: Dr. Dan Marshall of UVic, NPTGS’ Universities caucus chair and co-host of the Canyon War documentary moves among a crowd that includes B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner. Close behind are Gord Rattray, NPTGS executive director and NPTGS co-chair Terry Raymond.

But none of us would be here today were it not for Dennis Adamson, the FVRD director who has organized the event and got Ignatieff to come in the first place. Dennis was at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention in Toronto when he met Ignatieff. The Liberal leader heard Adamson was from Yale and started telling Dennis all about George Munro Grant.

Now why would he do that?

Well, Iggy’s full name is Michael Grant Ignatieff, and George Munro Grant was his great-grandfather.

So, Dennis asked him to come to Yale and donate a copy of his great-granddad’s diary to the Yale Museum. Ignatieff agreed and, well, now it’s time to add a little bit more history to the place…

(August 22, Yale, B.C.)

If I was still writing for the Province newspaper, the gold old tabloid in its glory days of chasing pitbulls and ambulances, it would have been easy to write the lede for this blog entry.

After all, here we are at the Yale Historic Site on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, with lots of folks listening to the musicians playing popular music, checking out the exhibits in the museum and the Living History tents and enjoying a barbequed hotdog and a bevvie in anticipation of a visit from Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

So, if this was the Province, it would be a cinch. “They packed the Yale Historic site on Sunday for Iggy’s pop concert.” Fortunately this isn’t the Tab, but it still leaves me with the problem of how to begin to describe a very special day: “George Monro Grant Day.”

Probably by asking a question: Why would the federal Liberal Leader, leader of the Opposition, swing his summer barbeque circuit bus up the Fraser Canyon to this tiny (but historically significant) community? Historic is the key word here, because Ignatieff has a personal historic link to this special place.

I have lots of time to reflect on this link as I stand in front of the General Store tent in my Simon Fraser costume (loaned courtesy of the Friends of Fort Langley, thanks), minding the New Pathways to Gold Society table stacked with brochures on the Heritage Trails projects, our “2020 Vision” heritage development document and DVDs of the Canyon War: The Untold Story documentary. We’re flanked by pop-up posters, one of which is a near-life-sized portrait of George Munro Grant himself (and thanks to Queen’s University Archives and the folks at Allegra printing in New West for making it happen). The tent, by the way, is part of the Yale: A Living History exhibit on display at the site, which puts you back in time to the gold rush of 1858.

The gold rush was long gone by the time Sir Sanford Fleming, who was surveying the route for the Canadian Pacific Railway, came through town in October 1872. Fleming’s secretary was his life-long friend, George Monro Grant, a Nova Scotian clergyman and educator who had been instrumental in getting his reluctant province to join Confederation in 1867.

Grant and Fleming’s journey was an epic, starting in Halifax and ending thousands of kilometres later on the West Coast. During the trip, Grant kept a detailed diary which would become the basis of his book Ocean to Ocean, credited for inspiring many Easterners to move west. Yale, of course, would become the headquarters for the Canadian Pacific Railroad during the construction of the National Dream.

Cottonwood House is a first class heritage facility near Quesnel

Stephen should really be running this program. We zoomed up to Hell’s Gate where Debbie McKinney stamped Stephen’s passport and told us the passports delivered the day before were already flying off the counter. Then it was on to Yale and the museum and, of course, the church. Now, the next site in the passport document is Hill’s Bar and since it’s on the other side of the Fraser River, I suggested we simply stop at the side of the road and I would stamp Stephen’s passport. “Oh, we can find a better place than that,” he said, and before you know it, he’s carrying a box of passports into the Hope River General Store, where Kathy Hope not only agrees to take part but tells us some wonderful things about the store, the adjacent campsite and her plans, generally. By the time I pull into the parking lot of the Hope Visitor Centre & Museum complex, I’m wondering how many more stamp sites Stephen’s going to find between here and Tsawwassen, where I have to drop him off to catch a ferry back home. Inge Wilson of Hope takes delivery and with the last stamp in place, Stephen has become the first to complete Route One. As we drive to the ferry, we muse on how relatively fast and easy a journey we’ve had. After all, it’s taken us just two days and a bit to travel the road to Barkerville and back, something that in 1869 would have taken a traveller a couple of months (depending on his conveyance).  We also marvel at the overwhelmingly positive response to the Chasing the Golden Butterfly program. Folks just seem to connect with it. It all bodes well. I cannot thank Stephen enough as I say good-bye at the ferry terminal. He’s soon going on vacation and who knows? He might just do Routes Two and Three this summer…

Stephen at the Stanley graveyard

(SISKA FLATS) It’s pitch black, which is saying something because this is one of the longest days of the year. It feels like one of the longest days in my life — in a good way. One thing you have to know about travelling with Stephen is that he rises early, hits the road in a hurry and doesn’t seem to have an off switch. That’s why we’re here, parked in the dark by Siska Flats, searching for our one remaining stamp to mark his passport. We’ve given the others (all butterfly stamps, of course) away along the route. It all started in Quesnel, where we dropped off the documents at the wonderful Visitor Centre-Museum complex and, of course, got Stephen’s passport stamped. After that, it became a bit of a blur — we stopped at Cottonwood House Historic site and were given a grand tour of this incredibly well-preserved road house and grounds. We made it to Wells and Barkerville and then we used our GPS to find Stanley, where we found ourselves standing at the head of a 21-kilometre section of virtually intact Cariboo Waggon Road.

After that, we used the GPS to find a few more of the sites where there aren’t many visible remains, like Wingdam and Beaver Pass House for instance. Then we bombed down the highway and Stephen decided that 70 Mile needed a stamp site, so we went into the 70 Mile Motel and Corral Restaurant where Joan Zelmer graciously agreed to take on the job. And we just kept going, what with Stephen bent on getting his passport stamped at every opportunity, and so down through Ashcroft, Spences Bridge and Lytton until we hit Siska Flats, where the histroic (but little-known) meeting between Chief Spintlum and Captain Snyder took place in 1858, ending the short but bloody Canyon War. By that time it was getting late and Stephen agreed we should overnight in Hope — but only if we went back up to Hell’s Gate in the morning. “I have to have a Hell’s Gate stamp in my passport,” he insisted. I was so tired that I refrained from making by usual remark that, beyond Hope is Hell’s Gate. There’s be plenty of time in the morning…