Greetings Friends,
I think everyone is wondering if this winter will ever quit. I have just returned from a couple of glorious weeks in Mexico fully expecting winter to have released its icy grip, but apparently we returned a week too soon!
Fintry is still in winter mode but now we are starting to see a glimmer of movement as we slide down the icy road towards spring and our opening in May. Tour inquiries are coming in and we are getting our brochures and stock ready for another busy year. Now that we have our wheelchair ramp installed we are looking forward to having lots of senior tours this season as well as school tours as Fintry fits right into the Pioneers and Explorers section of the school curriculum.
And this is a good segue to the rest of this Octagon compiled by our Curator, Dan Bruce…….
Ever get tired of the usual news headlines noting every disaster, mishap and trouble spot around the world? Here are a few headlines that may have reached the residents of Fintry during the years that James Dun-Waters was in residence………
1909 Charles Walcott discovers the Burgess Shale fossil site.
1910 Earl Grey sponsors the Grey Cup
Jim Corbett kills the Panar leopard in India which had killed 400 human lives.
1911 Hiram Bingham reports his first visit to Machu Picchu
1912 Beatrix Potter publishes “The Tale of Mr. Tod”
1914 Maiden voyage of the Sicamous
“Martha”, the last passenger pigeon dies
1915 “Lusitania” torpedoed
1916 Pancho Villa raids into New Mexico
1917 Prohibition starts in the Okanagan
1919 Nicola Ranch founded in Merritt by Charles Sydney Goldman
1922 Joseph B. Weeks made Captain of the Sicamous
Tutankhamun’s tomb discovered
1923 Albert Einstein gives the inaugural address at the Hebrew University
1924 Alice Dun-Waters dies at Fintry
Octagonal barn built at Fintry, and Trophy Room added to the Manor House
George Mallory and Andrew Irvine lost on Mount Everest
Noel Coward writes “The Vortex”
1925 Col. Percy Fawcett disappears in the Amazon forest
1926 “Podunk” Davis rescues Nurse Warburton in Princeton
1927 Davidson Black, a Canadian doctor announces the discovery of the Peking Man fossils
1928 Kelowna Rotary Club founded. Dr. Knox a charter member
1930 Edward, Prince of Wales meets Mrs. Wallis Simpson
William Beebe and Otis Barton descend half a mile under the sea in the bathysphere
1932 Calona Wines established by “Cap” Capozzi
1935 John Buchan becomes Governor-General of Canada, and his novel “The 39 Steps”
adapted for cinema
1936 Emily Carr paints “ Above the Gravel Pit”
1938 First Superman comic published
1939 James Dun-Waters dies at Fintry
In closing I would just like to remind everyone of the dates for our Fintry Fairs this year.
Sunday, May 12th (Mother’s Day)
Sunday, July 14th
Sunday, September, 8th
Looking forward to spring…….
Kathy Drew,
Friends of Fintry Provincial Park.