This is a new weekly feature, which will appear in Saturday's print edition of The Citizen, as well as on our website. Each week I'll feature headlines and news items gleaned from The Citizen's 100 years of archives, available digitally through the Prince George Public Library's website.
This week in history, Feb. 28 to March 5:
Feb. 28, 1955: RCMP Inspector J.D. Lee, police commander in Prince George, said the city no longer has an illicit drug problem since the arrest of a notorious drug "pusher."
Roland Brunel was arrested on Sept. 24 while attempting to bring $4,000 worth of heroin into the city, Lee said. Brunel was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail. Since then, the city's known addicts have disappeared, Lee told The Citizen.
"It looks as though Brunel was the only source here," The Citizen quoted Lee as saying.
Lee said he believed the drug trade spreading into the Prince George was "extremely unlikely" in his view, because the cost of transporting the drugs from the source to Prince George would make them prohibitively expensive.
"The inspector said that aside from the possibility that there are a few 'drifters' in the huge area which his sub-division covers, there is absolutely no narcotic problem to contend with at the present time," The Citizen reported.
Oh, for the days when arresting one guy could shut down the entire drug trade of the region.
However, Inspector Lee may have been a little quick to jump to the conclusion that the city's drug problems were over for good.
March 5, 1919: F.D. Whitmore and A.B. Moffat purchased the hardware business of the Northern Lumber & Merchantile Co., The Citizen reported.
"The new business will be known as the Northern Hardware Company," The Citizen said.
"Messrs. Whitmore and Moffat are both well and favorably known in this district and have been for some years identified with the business they have recently acquired. The Citizen predicts a successful business career for the new firm."
It is nice see that newspapers can get the occasional prediction right.
March 3, 1949: Rubin Hagen, a 25-year-old logger, was attacked by a cougar while walking on a trail near Woodpecker Sawmills, The Citizen reported.
The attack took place on Friday, Feb. 25, as Hagen was walking back to the mill, located near Camp Creek, after lunch.
"(Turning) the corner on the skid-trail, he saw the cougar some feet away. Its tail was twitching and it sprang at him," The Citizen reported. "Hagen, unable to flee before the sharp teeth clamped over his leg, closed with the beast and pressed it to the ground, simultaneously shouting for help."
The cougar fled before help could arrive, and Hagen was taken to Prince George for treatment. He was expected to make a full recovery.
"On the following day, with vengeance in their hearts, Ivor Hanuss and Murel Elston started tracking the man-eater and came upon him standing over a horse which it had apparently killed. A single shot suffice to kill the animal," the Citizen reported.
F. Shires, acting forest range and experienced bushman, told The Citizen such attacks are very rare.
Wow, this reads like the plot of The Ghost and The Darkness. Bad kitty.
March 3, 1944: The Junior Chamber of Commerce undertook a project to provide street numbers for 2,000 homes in the city.
"City council will be provided with the listings with the hope that each householder will be advised of the number system and will cooperate by posting house numbers in a conspicuous place," The Citizen reported. "Jay-Cee undertook the house numbering in anticipation of a future house-to-house delivery system by postal and business elements."
Wait, Prince George didn't have street numbers until almost the end of the Second World War? How did the pizza delivery guys find people's houses?
March 5, 1920: The Citizen reported that work was expected to be completed that week on a bridge across the Fraser River at Mount Robson. The bridge was part of a plan to develop Mount Robson Park, a mere nine hours by train from Prince George. Plans for a hotel at the park were in place, and an outfitting company was making plans to establish camp sites for tourists wanting to tour Lake Helena, the Valley of a Thousand Falls and other sites.
In a separate news item, The Citizen reported that the provincial government passed a bill to begin negotiations with the federal government to create a road leading from Jasper through Robson Park and around Mount Robson.
Why the big interest in Mount Robson as a tourist destination? Elementary, my dear Watson. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, toured Jasper and the Mount Robson area back in 1914 and wrote very favourably about the experience.
March 5, 1931: The Citizen reported on a plan by the B.C. Conservative Party government of the day to introduce a universal income tax of 0.5 per cent on all income earners, regardless of income level. This new tax was in addition to the current income tax on wages over $1,800 per year. According to calculations in The Citizen, a typical married man earning $3,000 per year and currently paying $9 per year in taxes would end up paying $24 per year in provincial income taxes. The tax plan was expected to raise
$1.5 million for the provincial government.
"Admitting the necessities of the province, the latest proposal will come as a distinct shock to the people of the richest province in the dominion, and they will doubtless demand something more considered than the policy outlined in the universal income tax," The Citizen wrote.
It's 85 years later and they still haven't thought of anything better.
