Barkerville is still making history.
The Lhtako Quesnel BC Winter Games added a brand new chapter to the storied past of the historic town, and more gold was found there. The latest precious metal was uncovered by minors, not miners, as gold, silver and bronze nuggets were hung around the necks of nordic skiing athletes who got to compete right down the historic streets.
It might have looked like a movie set they were gliding through, and in truth it has been used for many a film project, but on Feb. 24, these elite athletes were the focus of all attention (and several cameras) as they battled for sports glory inside this museum with the sky for its roof.
Barkerville Historic Town’s CEO Kate Cox remembers when she got the call, opening the gates to this unusual opportunity.
“It was 11 p.m., 13 days from race day,” Cox said. “I got a call from Brenda Beatty (Games vice-president) and Hildur Sinclair (Troll Mountain Ski Resort proprietor) and they basically said hey, things are not looking good for snow conditions at Hallis Lake or at Troll, is there a possibility of doing it at Barkerville? I immediately said yes, because of course, we are Barkerville, we do big events, we welcome the public, and I just knew my team would be excited about it.”
The first order of business was to move the snow. There would be no shooting events, for this exercise - that was still possible (as were some of the preliminary races) at the Hallis Lake Ski & Snowshoe Trails before the snow got thin, there - so it was only trails that had to be established. So Barkerville still hasn’t had its first gunfight, but for the first time in more than 100 years, according to Stu Cawood’s rapid research, a sporting event with actual competitive stakes was happening within their town boundaries.
Yes, the Wells-Barkerville snow belt was loaded in pillowy thick whiteness, but the streets of the historic town are kept clear in the winter months for the pedestrians who come to the special events on the museum’s calendar, or just want to go for a walk through history. For skiers to use those streets for sport, the snow had to be put back.
“We had to move very, very quickly,” said Cox. “At 11:01 I texted the team and said ‘we just got an amazing opportunity to help the BC Winter Games’ and the response was ‘cool, what do we have to do?’ There is never a voice of reason, it is just ‘game on.’ It was a major effort, and it worked.”
Cox recanted on the voice of reason assertion. There are several key people involved in the museum’s decision-making efforts, and this one was certainly a special challenge. Cox listed operations manager Carrie Chard, Stu Cawood in production, commerce manager Rocky Nenka, finance manager Ryan Adams, and curator Mandy Kilsby as immediately important to consult.
“We always have to run every idea through the financial people, but the first look at any idea is always curatorial,” Cox said. “If curatorial says absolutely not, this will damage the assets, which is against the Heritage Conservation Act, then we can’t do it. Mandy is the sensibility force, there.”
With the go-ahead given, the BC Winter Games organizers stepped in to help, as did the Wells Snowmobile Club and Cariboo Ski Touring Association, among others, to help groom the snow rapidly hauled from the winter dump-sites back to the streets.
“It was quite an operation. They had cleared it nicely for the Old Fashioned Christmas, and then they had to put it all back again,” said Ria Beckmann from behind the bar at the House Hotel and Saloon she and husband Joe Beckmann operate, as well as the St. George Hotel a little further down the hallowed street. Those, and some other on-site operations like the Goldfield Bakery, opened for business, at least in a limited fashion. Many parents and coaches had fresh bread tucked under their arms as the athletes whoooshed by their boardwalk vantage points.
“This is great. We would welcome so much, there is so much to do around here, so it’s always something we would welcome,” said Beckmann as to why she would open the saloon. The hotel was already serving guests who got an unexpected special event, she said, so this was a chance to show a real Barkerville welcome.
“We are outdoorsy people, too,” she said. “We goldmine on the side, ourselves, that’s what actually brought us here. When our sons wanted to get involved in that, we girls decided we wanted to do something different, so we found the hotel opportunities in Barkerville. In that sense, it’s still very much like the 1800s.”
The streets of the museum town are not as long as a usual cross-country ski race, and there were two tight corners where the four-apiece heats got technical, but everybody in a race uniform had an extra-special glint of gold in their eyes, and the consensus after the event wasn’t just enjoyment, it was a full awareness by these rising cross-country and biathlete stars that they had just been in the middle of something special.
The adults involved talked openly about how these young people wouldn’t fully appreciate what had just been done until long into their adulthood, when they looked back on their skiing careers and pulled this memory card out of the top of the deck.
