[BCMA] For Immediate Press Release - Culture Days

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Monday, 23 September, 2013
For Immediate Use

 

The Great Northern Railway -  gone and almost forgotten

 

Ever been to Elwood Park and wondered about the pilings sticking up out of
the water in Fish Trap Creek?

 

Or driven along South Fraser Way from Five Corners to Sumas Way and wondered
why the roadway there is so straight and hugs the hillside?

 

The pilings are all that remain of a huge trestle that cut through the park
from Maclure Road up the hill west of Clearbrook Road.  And that section of
South Fraser Way used to be a railbed.

 

Both are just a few of the remains of a major railway line that used to run
through Abbotsford and other parts of the Fraser Valley, called the Great
Northern Railway.

 

Today, most people have forgotten all about the Great Northern Railway while
many don't even knew that it existed.   Chances are students at John Maclure
Community School don't even know that the GNR used to run through their
playground over 100 years ago?

 

But the MSA Museum wants to change that.

 

"As part of the national 'Culture Days' initiative, the MSA Museum Society
would like residents to come and learn about Abbotsford's forgotten railway,
the Great Northern, which operated in the Abbotsford area between 1909 and
1929," says MSA Museum Executive Director Dorothy van der Ree.  

 

The Society has invited local history enthusiast and railway aficionado
Graham Evan MacDonell to talk about the Great Northern in Abbotsford and the
Fraser Valley. His PowerPoint presentation on the GNR will show how it was
involved in the development of the districts of Matsqui and Sumas and the
village of Abbotsford and south side of the Fraser Valley. 

 

"He will take you on a journey back in time when Abbotsford was only a
hamlet on Essendene, tucked alongside the Canadian Pacific Railway's branch
line from Mission to Huntingdon," van der Ree explained.  "And, through the
magic of archival and current aerial photos illustrate the Great Northern's
rail line that started in Port Guichon and meandered 83 miles (135 km)
through communities on the south side of the Fraser River to Hope and then
into the Southern Interior."

 

The event runs Saturday, September 28 from 1pm to 3pm at the Trethewey House
Heritage Site.  Light refreshments will be provided.  

 

 

For further information, contact the MSA Museum Society at 604 853-0313. 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20130923/1ca5f5cf/attachment-0001.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 111627 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20130923/1ca5f5cf/attachment-0001.obj 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 37302 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20130923/1ca5f5cf/attachment-0001.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Press Release.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 181389 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20130923/1ca5f5cf/attachment-0001.pdf