Minnie Irvin interview [sound recording]

Summary: Mrs. Minnie Caldwell Irvin came to Arrowhead BC from Nova Scotia in 1911. She mentions her father Edward C. Smith. She discusses her marriage to Sam Irvin and her reasons for coming west. She offers her impressions upon arrival in Arrowhead, and some early memories of Arrowhead; boats on the Arrow Lakes; Halcyon Hot Springs; St. Leon; Revelstoke; Arrowhead and Arrowhead Hotels; a landslide at Whisky Point; recreation, such as skating. She discusses her husband's background, and then discusses the lumber industry; lake boats and Captain Cambourne; Rossland's red light district; Rossland in 1896; the decline of Arrowhead, and her move to Athalmer in the Columbia Valley in 1912. Mrs. Irvin describes the Columbia Valley stage: Jim McKay; Sir Randolph Bruce; "Whistling' Rufe Kempton; Mr. and 'Ma' Henderson. She discusses riverboats; Sir Randolph Bruce and the Columbia Valley orchards land scheme; the Athalmer area economy; railroad construction. She then compares Windermere; Invermere; Athalmer and Wilmer. She discusses Kootenay and Shuswap Indians and comments on Indian-White relations; recreation; more about 'Whistling' Rufe. She describes the Athalmer Hotel in 1912; the coronation of the hotel at Arrowhead; social life and recreation at Athalmer; cock fighting; Fairmont and Radium Hot Springs.