Brief History of Albert Canyon

Approximately half way between Rogers Pass and Revelstoke, was situated the town of Albert Canyon. Little is left of the town it once was. The remains of Albert Canyon are a ghost town situated a short distance south of the present day hot springs pool site.

The village of Albert Canyon, the gorge and the hot springs were all named after Albert Rogers, who undertook many exploration trips in the area, including the discovery of Rogers Pass. Throughout the years of steam locomotives, Albert Canyon was a “pusher station”, with a small roundhouse built in 1916. They built a railway station providing housing for operators, a section gang, and living quarters for the CPR agent upstairs in the station.

The mineral waters of Albert Canyon were allegedly discovered by CPR workmen at the turn of the century. The railway employees dug a pit at the hot springs and lined it with heavy timbers.

The open air "hot tub" was used by visitors and residents for many, many years. Today the Canyon Hot Springs are some distance away, with the water from the hot springs being piped to their pools.

In addition, Albert Canyon had a very active sawmill and logging operation, we can still remember the old WWII truck that used to haul logs to the mill. Nothing remains of the mill now, except our wonderful memories of the times we had there.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Ye Old School House

If memory serves me well, I can recall that almost everyone in the school came from different backgrounds and countries, hardly any of the students spoke English. My brother and I were the only students that spoke dutch. The one room school teacher sure had her hands full dealing with so many different languages and customs.

Albert Canyon Class of 1956/7, Hank is on the top left, with Will at the far rear
below is some of the pictures taken...

A picture found on the internet of the original school house

The old Albert Canyon school is on the left side of this picture.

classroom pictures taken in the old school.

Hank, Will and a friend discussing world economics, note the white shirt and tie, plus the old desks stacked in the background
Class hard at with work, with teacher looking on
New Albert Canyon school
Hank is the one in the middle.
Class Christmas play
Hank is the one with shorts and bow tie!
Our grandfathers with the school parents group.


I believe this is the Woolsey family.
The new school around 1964

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

great old photo's it' sad many of these villages are just memories