Squamish's rich and diverse history may just endure through the ages, if local television personality Bianca Peters gets her way.Peters, who can be seen on Shaw TV Channel 10, has taken the first steps toward establishing a new Squamish Historical Society.
"I am actually a history major, before I went off and did broadcasting," said Peters. "I did a paper on Squamish, many years ago, using research from the library.
"History is my passion," she said. "I was interested in why Squamish didn't have an historical society."Peters said establishing the society would be just the beginning.
"The idea is to get an historical society together and then eventually get a museum and archives together so we can put all this information in one place, so visitors can come and enjoy it," she said. "I started talking to people and the ball is already rolling."But she also discovered her idea wasn't new.
"Apparently there is a Squamish Historical Society charter already and it is in Victoria," she said. "Art Reynolds was apparently the last president of the society but unfortunately he has passed away."
Peters also said there had once been a museum in town.
"At the West Coast Railway Heritage Park there is a building, which once used to be where the Squamish Credit Union is downtown," she said. "It was moved to Stan Clarke Park, and then it was moved to the Heritage Park. But when it was at Stan Clarke Park, it was for a time the Squamish Museum. But the Historical Society at the time wanted a different building for the museum. During this time, apparently Art Reynolds took what was in the museum and hid it at the mezzanine of the Tantalus Seniors' Centre. So there is supposedly still some good material under lock and key."
Peters said she wanted to get people interested in the idea of an historical society preserving the town's history."There is a feasibility to maybe piggyback on something and get some funding to put together a little museum and archives in a corner somewhere, right away," she said. "But, there are a lot of things to discuss, like what our vision is, and what we should do in the future."
Peters invited anyone with an interest in Squamish's history to attend a meeting on Thursday, March 2 at 7 p.m. at the Howe Sound Inn and Brew Pub.
Peters can also be contacted by email at [email protected].
