True Patriot Love - Why Revelstoke Is More Than a Mountain Town ft. Doug Mayer & Lydia Sim

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00:00:34.560 All right, Revelstoke is the destination today, and for good reason, we are at the Revelstoke

00:00:41.820 Railway Museum, and Doug Mayer joining us. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk

00:00:46.120 about the museum.

00:00:47.340 Glad to help.

00:00:48.120 I should tell you, on the way in, we were stopped as a train passed by. It was very

00:00:52.700 authentic. It set the stage as a kilometer-long train full of potash.

00:00:59.000 cargo was going by. Tell me first of all, and we'll get to this wonderful structure beside us

00:01:05.060 in a minute, but tell me a little bit about the history of the museum and how that came about

00:01:11.040 because it's quite wonderful. It's a great stop for families. Okay, well in the late 80s there

00:01:18.660 was a group of people here in Revelstoke that were interested in railway history and 88 is the year

00:01:26.580 that I moved here and one of the first people I got to know was a fellow that

00:01:31.680 had a wonderful model railway in his basement and he was part of this group

00:01:35.700 that was working towards getting a museum and so he asked me if I'd be

00:01:40.460 interested in joining and so I said sure and one thing led to another and the

00:01:46.440 local local businesses got involved supporting it local businessmen the

00:01:51.100 mayor and a town council were all in support of it and we were able to come

00:01:57.100 up with the funding through to government grants and lottery grants

00:02:02.080 that type of thing and the museum was built under budget by a local contractor

00:02:07.900 oh my goodness so when you build local yeah this is what I have all this

00:02:12.700 wonderful wood that you see here was low milled locally and all the

00:02:17.740 construction workers were local people. So it's very much a community facility.

00:02:23.580 So now if you go back one layer before that, there was a reason to have this

00:02:28.780 museum. There was a reason to have this focus on railway here. Give us a

00:02:33.640 little bit of the history that makes it so important that we'd even have a

00:02:36.860 museum. Well when the railway was built in the 1880s, Revelstoke was a natural

00:02:43.260 location to have a major uh locomotive servicing facility and as you'll see later on when we go

00:02:50.460 down to the other end and take a look at our version of that roundhouse uh Revelstoke just

00:02:56.540 got bigger and bigger and bigger and as a former museum director said in the early 1900s the city

00:03:04.860 of Revelstoke was like a focus for the railway right. Generally a hub. Very much so and it was

00:03:14.780 it's was and still is the division point for 250 miles of railway the Revelstoke division

00:03:22.060 which goes from Field BC to Camelot BC. Okay. Okay and why was that so important at the time? I mean

00:03:29.580 I mean, that must have been shipping, lumber, timber, mining.

00:03:35.080 There was some local industry, but really this is a resource railway and pretty much

00:03:40.600 always has been, right?

00:03:43.220 And so Revelstoke was at the start of the worst of the mountain grades, right?

00:03:50.120 Between Revelstoke and Lake Louise, that's the worst grades on the railway.

00:03:55.340 are other locations that have steep grades but this is the toughest operating section on the railway.

00:04:02.940 A high-ranking Canadian Pacific manager once told me that if you can hire engineers and conductors

00:04:10.700 out of Revelstoke you're going to get good men because the operating conditions were so difficult

00:04:16.700 they knew how to be locomotive engineers and conductors. It was really hands-on really doing

00:04:22.620 the job yeah okay so now how far back does the railway system factor into Revelstoke and and and

00:04:31.580 does the railway bring the population to Revelstoke or was it already kind of here how how did that

00:04:38.540 work in Revelstoke was a location that the local indigenous people used they would come here for

00:04:46.300 fishing because prior to the hydroelectric dams being on the Columbia River salmon came all the

00:04:52.460 way up here to spawn and so the local indigenous people came here to fish during that part of the

00:05:00.300 year and then they would go somewhere else to gather their supplies okay and as well as the fish

00:05:06.220 there was a lot of berries and that sort of thing. So prior to Revelstoke being an important location

00:05:14.380 there was another location on the other side of the Rogers Pass and that location was called

00:05:21.180 Donald, named after Donald Smith, who was one of the founders of the railway.

00:05:27.660 And Donald was going to be the division point, but then as the manager started to analyze things,

00:05:35.820 they realized that Revelstoke was a better location because of the distances that a

00:05:41.820 train crew could travel with their train in one working day. Okay. And so the division point was

00:05:49.340 moved to Revelstoke, and so then the train crews would work from Field to Revelstoke

00:05:55.320 and from Revelstoke to Kamloops, okay?

00:05:59.700 And so that happened in 1898, and that's when the locomotive facilities here really

00:06:05.580 expanded in 1898.

00:06:10.520 And because of the difficulty in climbing over Rogers Pass, Revelstoke was the location

00:06:18.160 where the dining cars were set off, and rather than pull a heavy dining car over the grades,

00:06:25.280 they dropped them here, and the train would stop at Glacier House near Rogers Pass, so

00:06:33.380 the passengers could get a meal, and then they would continue on their way. But then

00:06:39.820 in 1913, they decided to build a tunnel under Rogers Pass. The model of it is right behind

00:06:47.100 you, and that Connaught Tunnel was completed in 1916. It was originally called the Selkirk

00:06:55.200 Tunnel for the Selkirk Mountains, but then it was named after the, named the Connaught

00:07:00.560 Tunnel after a British financier to help the railway.

00:07:08.200 Oh my goodness. You can, if you want to put your name on something, you just have

00:07:11.580 to have money that's all it was that fascinating so now what eras are of

00:07:19.320 train what eras of rail travel do you cover here at the museum basically from

00:07:26.280 the beginning until today okay there what happens today is to yesterday's

00:07:34.020 history yeah right but I say that right what happened today yes yes you got it

00:07:39.420 yeah yeah oh right sorry tomorrow's history we got it okay yeah so anyway so history is

00:07:46.540 constantly happening every day right it just you just keep adding to it so we don't stop at any

00:07:53.100 particular point but the focus on the on museum when it was built was the big steam era of the

00:08:00.220 railway and that's the steam locomotive we have downstairs which i'm sure you'll feature it tells

00:08:05.500 that story. But that's actually not the largest steam locomotives that worked

00:08:09.820 here. The largest ones were called Selkirk locomotives after the Selkirk

00:08:14.020 Mountains and they were the heaviest most powerful steam locomotives that

00:08:18.100 operated anywhere in the British Empire. And so that was a specially built train

00:08:24.700 just to make the Rogers Pass, just to make these trains. They worked between

00:08:29.260 Revelstoke and Calgary. Fantastic. What is the, some of the things that I

00:08:35.260 I think people don't know about trains that you think would be important for them to know

00:08:41.500 about the history of the rail in the West.

00:08:44.500 Well, you know, one of the things that's great about the museum is it features the technology

00:08:51.600 so people can look at the technology that got us from then to here, right?

00:08:57.820 From the past to today.

00:08:59.980 really the more important story that we tell here is about the people right the trains didn't run

00:09:06.220 by themselves there's people that ran the trains people that maintained the track

00:09:11.420 couldn't dispatch the trains in an orderly fashion so they wouldn't run into each other

00:09:18.140 it's all about the people some incredible engineering went into creating the railway

00:09:24.460 system across Canada, but certainly through the Rockies. It was a feat of magic, I think,

00:09:32.880 almost at the time. Does this really kind of, the museum I've noticed, actually positions

00:09:40.660 railway as a major elevator of what we did in Canada, how our resources were used, how we got

00:09:48.520 people around how we saw more of canada than ever um speak to that for a little bit if you would

00:09:54.840 okay well i'm just at this particular time i'm reading uh p.r burton's book the last spike yeah

00:10:01.800 and uh i wish i'd read it sooner this is the first time i've read it um in the the section

00:10:09.080 i'm reading right now he's talking about what happened when the railway was first getting going

00:10:14.760 in the in the early 1880s and you know if if the canadian pacific railway had not been completed

00:10:21.480 across canada it's quite possible that british columbia and manitoba would have been american

00:10:28.280 states all right could easily have happened because the railway not been completed because

00:10:35.880 it was too much division in the country to actually so really well that's part of it

00:10:40.680 So they've just sewed us together as a nation that could operate.

00:10:44.180 Absolutely.

00:10:45.600 The section of the book that I'm reading right now is talking about how the Northern Pacific Railway in the United States was trying to gain access to Canada.

00:10:55.980 And that's why the Northern Pacific was actually trying to buy a railway that ran from Montreal to Quebec.

00:11:03.740 Okay.

00:11:04.880 Right?

00:11:05.380 So, and they were trying to gain access into Manitoba.

00:11:08.720 And this would have been their access point, really.

00:11:11.440 Yeah, yeah.

00:11:12.260 So the completion of the railway made Canada what it is today.

00:11:16.780 By the way, that book is remarkable.

00:11:18.780 It's one of the best history books, I think, on Canadian history.

00:11:22.400 Pierre Burton knew what he was doing, and I'll recommend it.

00:11:26.000 Tell me a little bit about what people will find in the museum.

00:11:28.960 What are some of the features of the museum itself?

00:11:31.740 Well, we have the steam locomotive, the 5468,

00:11:35.960 which was built to work between Revelstoke and Kamloops and it did also work sometimes from

00:11:42.760 Revelstoke to Glacier in Rogers Path and then outside we have a diesel locomotive number 5500

00:11:50.600 which was the first of its type in in Canada and we have a selection of rolling stock out in the

00:11:57.880 backyard but I think the more important things are the things that you can read inside the museum

00:12:05.720 in this upper gallery here behind your your videographer here there's a section we call

00:12:12.120 Revelstoke is a railway town and it tells the history of Revelstoke as related to the railway.

00:12:18.920 It is obviously very tightly knitted. Yeah. Let me ask you this then what do you think the most

00:12:26.520 dangerous or harrowing or most interesting job in the history of railway has been?

00:12:32.840 Locomotive engineer, conductors, firemen. Yeah, absolutely. I've written a series of books

00:12:41.640 called Canadian Pacific Railway on the Revelstoke Division. They're for sale in the museum and all

00:12:48.440 proceeds from the books go to the museum. Oh, fantastic. And in those books, I've featured

00:12:57.880 several stories of accidents that happened. The collapse of the Surprise Creek Bridge on the

00:13:04.760 other side of Rogers Pass killed an engineer and fireman. There's been many other wrecks where the

00:13:12.360 engine crews have died, right? So that's probably the most dangerous job.

00:13:18.360 And there's a there's a thing that happened in the very early days of the railway

00:13:22.920 which you do not see anymore today and that is that to go down the grades

00:13:30.600 the brakes had to be set up in such a way on the on the freight cars to control the speed

00:13:36.040 of the train going down the grades and brakeman had to walk on the roofs of the cars

00:13:43.880 to operate the brakes oh my god okay now that going down a mountain a very dangerous job

00:13:52.040 But of course, like any job, if you do it properly, it's safe enough.

00:13:57.040 I don't know, I think that that one might have...

00:13:59.040 Yeah, that's one of the jobs. Are you kidding me? I ain't doing that.

00:14:03.040 Before we go, tell me about the model behind us that is so beautifully appointed.

00:14:08.040 Well, the display is meant to represent Revelstoke to Rogers Pass.

00:14:13.040 Well, actually, the Connaught Tunnel under Rogers Pass.

00:14:16.040 And a group of modelers got together in 1989 or 90 and decided that we should

00:14:25.640 build a layout that we could take to model railway shows. And that's what this

00:14:30.440 is. It's built to transport, but once we got invited to come up here we said, no

00:14:37.160 we're not going anywhere. It's staying right here. I think this is where it

00:14:40.220 belongs. Yeah. Doug, I really agree. And we got a wonderful relationship with the

00:14:43.880 museum they do not charge us rent we make donations of volunteer help and we

00:14:51.600 come here for special events like when they have events for the children that

00:14:55.340 sort of thing and run the layout. I really think Doug this is an

00:14:59.880 excellent addition because it actually brings to life that history it gives

00:15:04.840 context in three dimension what it was like and yeah and I think it really is

00:15:09.500 wonderful and I commend your group. People are fascinated by operating

00:15:13.280 miniatures oh absolutely yeah it is the thing that we love the most i think that our toy brains tune

00:15:18.620 into thanks for your time i appreciate this you're happy to help i'll recommend people come and check

00:15:24.100 out the display and we'll give you a quick look around here but it's a great stop uh to to learn

00:15:28.860 more about the basis of railway here in the west and what it meant to society really uh and so

00:15:36.760 So, here's a look around the museum.

00:15:57.820 Well, from the wonderful museum that we just visited

00:16:02.060 to a whole other world of what's happening in Revelstoke,

00:16:06.560 Lydia Seim joins us from the Visitor Center right here in Revelstoke.

00:16:09.880 Thanks for taking the time.

00:16:10.880 By the way, this publication available at the Visitor Center, and I flipped through it,

00:16:15.840 I love the way that it's laid out.

00:16:17.920 Yeah, it's great.

00:16:18.440 Into the town, sustainable tourism, which is such a big deal.

00:16:24.040 Tell me what mainly people come to Revelstoke for.

00:16:28.660 Revelstoke's definitely known for our world-class outdoor recreation.

00:16:32.300 You're probably familiar with all the skiing and the heli skiing that happens here,

00:16:36.140 Revelstoke Mountain Resort, just over there.

00:16:38.540 We're also a massive spot for snowmobiling.

00:16:42.100 People come from all across America to come snowmobiling here.

00:16:45.740 I did not know that.

00:16:46.820 Yeah, world-class.

00:16:47.860 Most people think it's just the skiing part, but snowmobiling is huge as well.

00:16:52.200 And in the summer, it's like the diversity opens up.

00:16:54.860 So we start going into whitewater rafting, world-class mountain biking,

00:16:58.280 world-class alpine hiking.

00:16:59.480 we've got two national parks in our backyard and there's just all kinds of fun things to do in the

00:17:06.140 summer but I was going to say moving on from outdoor recreation people come here and then

00:17:11.520 they discover our wonderful community and our thriving arts and culture scene and they start

00:17:15.600 to see oh this isn't just an outdoor recreation mecca it's it's a real working town that has

00:17:21.240 incredible culture and fun things to find. You know it's interesting we were going to wait till

00:17:25.580 the train passed to do this, but it was so important for me that people understand,

00:17:30.740 and I don't know if you're picking it up in the background, but this is daily life.

00:17:34.760 In Revelstoke, the trains run through here consistently, and that's why we went to the

00:17:39.840 museum to start with. Great place to start, yes. Because there's Revelstoke. In a nutshell,

00:17:44.360 this is where it began. Where is it today? What should people do if they come to Revelstoke

00:17:49.460 during the summer? Let's plan a day or two for people. Well, I think you started off

00:17:54.780 perfect by going to check out some of our history because it gives you context to this whole town

00:17:59.140 because it was founded, you know, in the late 1800s, and it was a forestry and a rail town.

00:18:05.200 So I think getting that context going to the Railway Museum is always really good.

00:18:09.520 But from there, I would check out some of our, like, wonderful restaurants. We have three

00:18:15.060 coffee roasters here in Revelstoke. So you can get, we, I always say we have the best coffee in

00:18:20.400 Canada. Okay. Some people have backed that up, but you know. I promise you I'm going to put it to the test. Please do. That's my thing. Yeah. Head to spilt milk or home coffee. Okay. They have cafes here in town that you can go and test it out at. So once you're all caffeinated, I would then go for one of our amazing hikes. You know, in the spring, it takes a while for our snow to melt. So we have beautiful ones down here walking along the river, like on the green belt. But in peak summer, like we kind of just getting towards the end of our wildflower season and people come

00:18:50.380 from all over to hike into the alpine and see these this phenomenal like you know blushing

00:18:55.900 mountainside you really think that you are in uh the sound of music oh absolutely we get that

00:19:01.220 feedback quite often actually it's really incredible uh and of course the wildlife in the

00:19:05.860 area is uh always prominent there's a lot of wildlife experts that i think that you can engage

00:19:11.520 what kind of uh ecotourism and we talk about sustainable tourism yes what does that mean

00:19:17.980 Oh that's a big question and I feel like every year there's a new sort of

00:19:22.600 definition for sustainable tourism. For us at Tourism Revelstoke we always try

00:19:27.820 to look for like the value aligned visitor so that's like we want to invite

00:19:31.240 people to our community that want to treat our community with the same

00:19:33.860 respect they would treat their home. So that's pretty simple straight off the

00:19:37.120 bat. And then also it's about sustainability is obviously about

00:19:41.740 protecting and maintaining the environment but it's also a

00:19:44.220 multifaceted approach. So how is your community going to thrive? Is our economy

00:19:48.540 going to thrive? Can businesses thrive? And at Tourism Revelstoke we have a

00:19:53.640 destination management plan that kind of addresses all of these key areas so that

00:19:57.780 we can make tourism work for our community. And we invest a lot of our

00:20:00.660 money back in through community event funds, nonprofit marketing support funds,

00:20:05.820 and we just really try to give back to our community. I met your

00:20:10.080 incredible staff here on on the ground but let's say that I'm planning a trip

00:20:15.540 through the West and I want to make Revelstoke part of my plan is it best to

00:20:19.440 kind of get in touch with with you first about this and work outward from there

00:20:24.480 yeah if you go to see Revelstoke.com that's our destination website and

00:20:29.340 there's itineraries on there there's sustainability information there's all

00:20:33.180 the accommodator information things to do and that's just an amazing resource

00:20:36.420 to really, like, build your snapshot of what you can sort of plan.

00:20:40.620 And then, of course, the guys here at the visitor center,

00:20:42.940 if you give them a call, they'll walk you through anything,

00:20:44.780 and they even post these out to people.

00:20:46.740 Like, I think we're posting some out to Ontario next week to a family

00:20:49.540 who's putting together a pack for her parents

00:20:51.720 that want to plan a cross-country trip.

00:20:53.580 I do recommend this because as you go through it,

00:20:55.780 you can find out where to eat, what time of year,

00:20:57.920 what's going on at what time of year.

00:20:59.620 Yeah.

00:21:00.100 You know, golfing was one of the ones that caught my attention,

00:21:03.460 and I never would have thought Revelstoke and golf.

00:21:05.840 Oh yeah. Yet you have some incredible golfing experiences here. Yes golfing is becoming one of

00:21:12.260 our main attractors here. So the Revelstoke Golf Club it turned 100 years old in 2024 which is

00:21:17.780 really cool. That's pretty cool. It's a really beautiful it's probably the most scenic course

00:21:20.880 I've ever been to because it's surrounded by the Columbia River. Beautiful old cedar trees

00:21:25.420 and then of course the Cabot is coming online hopefully like next year. I think they're opening

00:21:29.900 up for pre-course inspections this fall. So that's just up the road towards Revelstoke Mountain

00:21:34.300 resort and that's obviously more of a luxury product it's going to be new for us here

00:21:37.920 um that puts us definitely on the golf map moving forward i don't want to brag but i'm kind of an

00:21:42.760 influencer so this is an offer this is for this thing from an influence uh this is an opportunity

00:21:50.660 for us to give people the secret place that you're not going to find out unless you tune in

00:21:58.020 to this podcast what do you think that would be yeah i can give you two give me two okay um i'll

00:22:05.520 direct you here after this so there's lots of secret hidden artwork littered throughout rebel

00:22:11.200 stoke and even up at the ski resort um there's not when the one of the ski resort was launched

00:22:16.420 we don't even publish a map because it's meant to be a stumble upon or if you're in the know you can

00:22:21.060 find it so i can give you some locations about art ellery's downtown where you can go and find

00:22:25.440 secret art fantastic yeah and then my other one that i feel like a lot of people don't visit maybe

00:22:30.880 because the water is really cold but lake revelstoke is beautiful if you head up above the

00:22:34.480 dam and you should go check out the dam there's a great visitor center there as well

00:22:38.400 um massive dam and like the lake is beautiful it's you go up there there's no phone service

00:22:43.360 great place to switch off there's some provincial parks for camping um but yeah glacial capped

00:22:48.160 mountains like beautiful turquoise waters okay so you got me at the artwork i gotta be honest with

00:22:54.320 That is something that I always love in the West.

00:22:56.560 There's a love in Western Canada for the artist.

00:23:01.340 It's an inspiring place to live.

00:23:02.400 I think it makes people make art, you know?

00:23:04.160 It's true.

00:23:05.200 I do appreciate this.

00:23:07.020 And a website, if people wanted to reach out?

00:23:09.400 Yeah, cerebelstoke.com.

00:23:11.060 That's S-E-E, revelstoke.com.

00:23:13.520 It should be right on the phone somewhere.

00:23:15.240 And get yourself one of these as you can.

00:23:17.120 It can be mailed out to you.

00:23:18.620 I really appreciate your time today.

00:23:20.080 Thanks so much.

00:23:20.820 Hey, you're welcome.

00:23:21.660 Thanks for coming to Revelstoke.

00:23:22.860 We're coming back in the winter.

00:23:24.320 all right you gotta okay we'll see you then all right we're making our way up the second portion

00:23:29.280 of the gondola ride to the top of mckenzie mountain we are at rebel stoke mountain resort

00:23:35.040 recommended to us by the visitor center i think this is an excellent i mean in the winter it's a

00:23:40.720 necessity in the summer it really is a luxury as you make your way to the top watching the mountain

00:23:46.160 bikers make their way down the trails which by the way look somewhat challenging really exhilarating

00:23:52.160 and uh just below us at the halfway point is the pipe mountain coaster which allows you to take a

00:23:58.160 coaster all the way down like a little roller coaster that you control all the way to the

00:24:03.040 bottom of the hill from the halfway point at the top we'll give you a look at what's going on

00:24:07.280 although the view due to wildfires is not ideal right now we can share some of this footage with

00:24:12.880 you and i'll recommend that you take a look at the website for revelstoke mountain resort because

00:24:18.240 they have all kinds of great imagery on there and i will also say to you that this is an amazing

00:24:25.280 ride on the gondola to the top the surroundings you're very close you don't feel unsafe at any

00:24:31.040 time and you're very close to nature at a speed that you're not doing normally in the car

00:24:37.120 through the west coast i'll recommend it here at revelstoke mountain resort whether you're

00:24:44.480 mountain biking skiing snowboarding actually they have a lot to do here i saw a spa i might do the

00:24:51.120 spa we're over 1700 meters above sea level at the top of mckenzie mountain at revelstoke at

00:24:58.320 revelstoke mountain resort and we're making the hike to the end of the point to the lookout

00:25:03.920 i will tell you this it is absolutely stunning at the top and the sky view is meant to be even

00:25:10.480 more special let's go have a look at that okay well smoke is actually going to take us off the

00:25:15.600 mountain we've just been informed but i want to share some facts with you that i looked up

00:25:19.520 uh we currently have 1713 meters below us and that's how far we came up on the gondola

00:25:28.880 uh there are 3 121 acres of skiable terrain four alpine bowls 75 runs and it's the longest run

00:25:38.720 the last spike it stretches 15.2 kilometers there's about 35 feet of snow on any given day

00:25:45.680 on a good ski day here in Revelstoke and that's what brings people here the skiing however

00:25:51.200 as I pointed out the views on a normal day when the smoke isn't here and the mountain bike riding

00:25:57.600 the terrain and the natural surroundings make summer perfect for Revelstoke in fact and in fact

00:26:05.200 we've had a really really good time here. I hope you will enjoy some of the footage that we'll

00:26:09.520 share with you here and I'll recommend that you reach out to the folks in Revelstoke when

00:26:13.360 you're planning your next western vacation.

True Patriot Love - August 14, 2026

Why Revelstoke Is More Than a Mountain Town ft. Doug Mayer & Lydia Sim

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