Late September is usually the time of year where a lot of folks enjoy attending the annual Harvest of Memories Gala and Fundraiser in Crowsnest Pass. This event raises funds crucial for the operation of the Crowsnest Museum. Despite the cancellation of numerous events scheduled for Crowsnest Pass this year, due to COVID-19, the Harvest of Memories Gala will proceed “virtually” this Saturday (September 26), starting at 7:00 pm.
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Saturday is July 1st – Canada Day! We’ll be celebrating our 150th birthday, the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of our Confederation. Until recently, I was not familiar with the word sesquicentennial. It’s not a word you hear every day and it’s certainly not easy to pronounce, either.
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Crowsnest Pass would have been an exciting place to be during the early 1920s. It was in its heyday then and there was always something going on, in one way or another. There was plenty of hustle and bustle in each of the towns, with people constantly coming and going from one place to another. The Pass also had its share of interesting characters back then. One such person was Emilio Picariello, proprietor of the Blairmore Hotel. Among most residents of the area, he was known simply as, “Emperor Pick.”
The years leading up to the Roaring Twenties were good for the Emperor. He had become a successful and respected businessman in his own right, but it would all come to a sad and tragic end shortly after 7:00 pm on Thursday, September 21, 1922.
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Here’s an interesting photograph that appeared on a postcard, published by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1939. The CBC was still in its infancy then and had only been around three years. The postcard promoted a radio program called Canadian Snapshots. The show aired weekly for two years (1939 – 1940) on the national network. Its announcers were CBC personalities Lorne Greene and J. Frank Willis. Each half-hour episode “turned the lens of the radio camera to the wonders and oddities of Canada.” According to the CBC digital archive website, the program was … “chock full of skits and short dramatic pieces, and augmented with actualities (the relatively new phenomena of onsite reporting). Canadian Snapshots brought the vast panorama of the country to the airwaves to tempt the tourist’s taste.” Crowsnest Pass, and more specifically, the Frank Slide, was highlighted as a Special Events feature on the program. The episode aired 77 years ago today, on November 29, 1939. Continue reading
