Squamish Days Loggers Sports weekend is more than a rip-roaring good time – it’s a celebration of our community’s forest industry heritage.
In a community with such an influx of new citizens, history almost seems out of place – but it’s all around us, some of it evident, but much more hidden.
Who’s the Rose in Rose’s Garden for instance? It’s Rose Tatlow, the long-time editor of the Squamish Times, one of the Chief’s predecessors in print.
The Brennan in Brennan Park is Pat Brennan, the first mayor of the District of Squamish at its creation back in the 1960s.
There’s also plenty of less visible history – in fact, you can sometimes tell how long someone’s been in Squamish by what they call certain places. The Copper Coil, for instance, will always be The Big Scoop to many in this town.
The Dollar Tree on the corner of Second and Winnipeg is really Home Hardware – unless you’ve been here long enough for that to have been the IGA grocery store.
Some people still find themselves hungry for a steak when they go to the vet or the dentist on Cleveland Avenue beside the Red Apple, since that was the site of Squamish’s finest dining, the Loggers Inn Restaurant. And they won’t call it the Red Apple, either. They might call it the Saan store, or even the Overwaitea grocery store, depending on how long they’ve been here.
Independent Grocers is a newish name to the Highlands, having replaced Extra Foods in the past year, but many will remember when it was SuperValu, and only half the building was a grocery store; the other half was an indoor mall with a pharmacy, clothing stores and restaurants in it.
Some familiar buildings from our downtown have disappeared altogether, like the Dairy Queen that used to stand on Cleveland Avenue between the Husky and the Domino’s Pizza (which used to be the KFC – great, now we’re referring to former landmarks using other former landmarks…).
We’ve only scratched the surface of Squamish’s invisible history here – you can do your own dive into the history around you on the downtown Squamish self-guided historical walking tour (map available at www.squamishistory.ca). Feel free to share your memories of what used to be Squamish with us online as well.
– The Chief
