Pitch and Purge
When the future of the Pan Silver Headframe was suddenly threatened by the threat of demolition*, the Cobalt Historical Society had to move its materials out, immediately.
Nobody likes an emergency cleanout. But faced with a looming deadline, we had no choice. As you can imagine, there was some grumbling. (Maybe a lot!)
Surprisingly, though, in all the pitching and purging, we found a few things we didn’t know we had. And we learned (or re-learned) some of our own history.
For us, that was the silver lining.
Some “new to us” photos
Front Row: Annie (Taylor) Purdy, Marion Johnston, Dario Gabbani – Coach, Nora (Beeson) Bouchard, Lina McCrank, Kay (Rody) Riley, Phil Cain – Manager
Back Row:
Margaret Tucker, Rita (Beeson) Cook, Vern Montgomery, unidentified player,
Claire (Belanger) Brown, Ernestine (Gauthier) Gabbani, unidentified player, Cecile (St. Laurent) Despres.
The Cobalt Lode
Happily, we also found the early issues of our newsletter, the Cobalt Lode. Thanks to volunteer teamwork, these have been scanned and uploaded to our website and we now have a complete collection online.
A little perspective
Perhaps the best thing to come out of this exercise is a deeper understanding of OUR story. The story of the Cobalt Historical Society.
These old newsletters are a wonderful record of the people, projects, and stories that mattered to CHS and to people who care of Cobalt’s history. They also provide insight into the breathtaking volume of work that was undertaken by our passionate and dedicated volunteers.
The Cobalt Historical Society was founded in April 1999. Looking back at those early years has given us a renewed appreciation for the people who rolled up their sleeves and did the heavy lifting. Campaigning, defending, designing, building, and maintaining. All the while sharing the story of the Cobalt mining camp.
They built the foundation on which today’s CHS continues to work.
And for that, we are enormously grateful.
So, what began as an unwelcome scramble to empty the Pan Silver Headframe has given us a few new photographs, a complete collection of the Cobalt Lode—and, perhaps most importantly, a much greater appreciation for the people who came before us.
And now, with a rainy weekend ahead, make yourself comfortable, grab a beverage, and enjoy a little trip down the Cobalt Historical Society’s memory lane.
You never know what you might find.
Visit the Cobalt Lode collection
*For those who missed the news about the Pan Silver Headframe, its future was recently threatened. There is more to that story, and some very good news to report! Watch for the September issue of the CHS newsletter.
