Choosing the final front page to feature for the Trail Times 120th anniversary was no simple task. We’ve spent the year browsing through Silver City history that can only be captured through the stories of local news.
We began in January with the poetic prose of the Trail Creek News, the paper’s first edition published on brown butcher paper in October, 1895.
From there, fragile pages of the century-old newspapers served as a reminder of the city’s rich heritage and how Trail grew from a dusty stopover to the place it is today.
Most of all, the newspaper, which is stored in the Trail archives, documented what was going on in the world over 120 years, as well as in small town B.C.
That leads to this final front page - when crowds gathered downtown for the lighting of the Olympic torch.The flame passed through Jan 24, 2010 alongside rock n’ roll Coca Cola buses filled with youth who pumped up community spirit.
Armed Forces reservist Sharman Thomas carried the Olympic torch through downtown and onto the celebration stage, where he lit the community cauldron.
More than 1,200 people gathered that Sunday, including former Trail Mayor Dieter Bogs, Trail hockey Olympian Seth Martin, decathlon star Gerry Moro, then Minister of Education Margaret MacDiarmid (former Trail doctor), 92-year old Vicky Bisaro, and Richard Koo a former Trail resident who travelled from Toronto to carry the flame on home turf.
“It’s a fitting finale to a year-long review,” said Trail Times editor Guy Bertrand. “It certainly gives you a sense of how far the newspaper and the city has come in 120 years – from those first stories in 1895 of a budding mining town to the 2010 front page celebrating Trail’s role in an international event.”
“Looking back at the front pages we showcased over the year, it’s been an incredible journey through time and one we hope to keep documenting for the next 120 years.”