A Century of Excellence

Jubilant members of Mission Marlins Swim Club whoop it up after winning the Upper Fraser Valley championship in a two-day meet held in Mission City on Saturday and Sunday. Fraser Valley Record, August 11, 1965

1965 by Carlisle Kent

January 25 • Burnaby councillor Emmett Cafferty tells Mission District that there is “great potential as a tourist centre” in the coming years as workers gain more leisure time. He suggests Mission City and the surrounding districts take a cue from other communities that have benefitted from natural recreational resources, and also learn from the mistakes of metropolitan areas. The following June, tourist signs begin to be installed directing sight-seers to such places as the Abbey.

February 15 • Canada’s new maple leaf flag is raised for the first time above the post office at 12 noon, replacing the red ensign.

March 24 • The Fraser Valley Record reports on Patsy Jackson, who accidentally gains more than 120 pen pals from the Phillipines when a newspaper in Manila reports on her correspondence with one resident. The story is run under the headline “Patsy willing to share fan mail letters.”

April 7 • Gerry Freeman becomes The Record’s newest advertising manager, replacing Ken Davis. One week later, Mike Rockwell and Ralph Grabinsky are selected for the B.C. all-star volleyball team. Rockwell is named top spiker in the province.

May 11 • It is announced that the Mission branch of the Fraser Valley Regional Library will be open 33 hours a week, an extension from the previous 24 hours. The facility is generally open from noon to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, with a few minor exceptions.

June 2 • The Record reports on the re-opening of Rex Cox Men’s Wear, established in 1926, after being completely remodeled. A week later, St. Mary’s Residential School is “selected as winner of a national award for excellence in architecture of federal buildings.”

July 14 • Mayor Ethel Ogle “wires protest of grotto demolition” as a community effort to save Mission City’s oldest landmark, built in 1892. The city had been promised by the Oblates in Ottawa that the grotto would be left as a “historical monument when the other buildings … were razed.” By the 28th it is evident that the mayor’s efforts have been unsuccessful when The Record runs the headline “Once famous shrine erected 1892 gone.” The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes has since been reconstructed.

August 8 • The Mission Marlins win the Upper Fraser Valley Championship and the Fraser Valley Milk Producers’ trophy.

September 15 • During Forest Conservation Week, The Record profiles Meeker Cedar Products, a pioneer in the shake industry, established in 1942. Meeker Cedar Products was one of only four shake producers in the Pacific Northwest when it was launched, and was the only one in Canada, the other three being in Washington. By 1950, Meeker products controlled 50 per cent of the U.S. shake market and had earned the right to their slogan “We Shake the Continent.”

October 16 • Trevor Edwards of Hatzic wins big in the Irish Sweepstakes: $150,000.  Edwards, a boom operator at a camp on Toba Inlet, had been a “regular purchaser of Irish sweepstake tickets since he was in his mid teens”, and it finally paid off for the father of three. On the 24th, the new Mission Memorial Hospital opens and is dubbed the “most modern hospital on the continent today.” An estimated 4,000 showed up to tour the new building. That same day, the artificial spawning channel at Weaver Creek opens, attended by 500 sight-seers who saw over 4,000 sockeye salmon.

November 3 • The Record reports on the taping of the popular quiz show, Reach for the Top at Mission Secondary School. Mission students were defeated by Chilliwack in the semi-finals.

December 29 • It is announced that the “District of Mission will take over complete control of the municipal water system January 1 and supply residents of the municipality with water purchased in bulk from the Mission City Water Board” for $80,000.

1966 by Carlisle Kent

January 5 • The first baby of the year, born in the new Mission Memorial Hospital, is Corrina Lynne Moore. Later in the month, the Hospital Board announces its intention to sell the old hospital building and grounds.

February 2 • Eight cases of scarlet fever at Deroche, Nicomen Island, Dewdney, and Hatzic Elementaries close the schools for a three-day incubation period. Mid-month, the president of the Mission City and District Chamber of Commerce, Vic Wallace, retires and hands the gavel to new president, William Walker, in the 73rd annual installation ceremonies.

March 2 • The Fraser Valley Record reports that repairs and improvements are being carried out on the giant screen at the Ruskin Drive-In Theatre which was wrecked in a wind storm the previous December. 

April 6 • The West Heights area in Mission City is declared as the fastest growing in the community, housing “the district’s impressive new hospital, its Golf and Country Club, its Rod and Gun Club and its home for the elderly known as “Pleasantview.”

May 12 • Fraser Valley Small Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association meets and decides that berry growers should begin paying the cost of transporting seasonal pickers from pick-up point to farm. 

June 26 • “Silverdale Community Centre officially open[s] its new play field Sunday.” Festivities included a “horseshoe tournament, children’s races and softball throw, ball games and a teen dance with music supplied by the ‘McConnell Creakers.’”

July 27 • The Mission Bowlerdome installs automatic pin-setters, solving the problem of the “shortage of speedy, efficient pin-setters.”

August 31 • The “first Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church to be established in the Fraser Valley is now under construction on Dewdney Trunk road east of Cedar Valley.” Since 1955 the congregation had “held services every six weeks in a hall on the Dewdney Trunk road property.”

September 14 • The “B.C. Centennial Committee’s historical royal train, Dunrobin, [begins] a three-day visit in Mission City… [The] locomotive and saloon coach were “once owned by Scottish Royalty before being bought by a Vancouver Island man and later given to the provincial government.”

October 26 • The Record runs an article about the need for street signs in Mission City. The highly-touted “street numbers on homes in Mission City are little help to tradesmen, deliverymen or visitors where there are no street signs.”

November 16 • The “Best of Barkerville” celebration comes to Mission to celebrate B.C.’s centennial. Under the sponsorship of the British Columbia Centennial committee and local Centennial committee, a Barkerville troupe will provide Mission with “historic histrionics and hifalutin’ hilarity” including: “songs, dances, patter and even a little drama straight out of the past…”

December 13 • The Town of Mission City buys Mission Memorial Hospital’s old building and 1.45 acre property on Fifth Street for $20,000. There are rumours of a possible municipal hall being built.

Looking back at Mission’s past 100 years