The first train arrived in Prince George on January 30, 1914, three days after construction teams laid the track of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway west across the Fraser River and into town. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a government-subsidized venture, eventually connecting Winnipeg to Prince Rupert via Edmonton and the Yellowhead Pass. Construction…
Prince George lost one of its oldest landmarks this week in 1957, when the historic Ritts-Kifer Hall — dating to 1914 — was destroyed by a raging fire that burned for 7 hours and became the largest and longest-burning blaze the city had ever seen. The fire began just after 10 p.m. on January 23 and…
Eyes were to the sky just after noon on Sunday January 16, 1938, as Prince George residents welcomed the first inbound flight of a new passenger air service from Vancouver. The weekly round-trip service, operated by Alberta-based United Air Transport (UAT), included stops in Williams Lake, Quesnel and Prince George before terminating in Fort St.…
Coffee was a steaming hot commodity in Prince George this week in 1977, thanks to a global coffee shortage that meant prices would soon soar by as much as a dollar a pound.* As residents rushed to stock up on existing supplies of lower-priced brew — then selling for between $2.29 to $2.89 per pound…
January 1, 1942: A “Silent Night” New Year’s Eve 1942 was a quiet one in Prince George, thanks to a war-time order for silence along Canada’s western coast. The Prince George Citizen reports that on December 30, 1942, the officer in charge of the Allied Pacific Command issued a request for “all vulnerable areas, which…
Christmas week of 1921 brought new limitations on the amount of beer that B.C. residents could purchase on a daily basis. According to an article in the Prince George Leader on December 23, 1921: Mr. George Sutherland, local liquor vendor, received word yesterday that under the new amendment to the Liquor Control Act, no person…
The Road Home 