True Patriot Love - August 14, 2026


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

Topics
golfing experiences
Hosted by
Shara Micucci Mike Wixson
Guests
Doug Mayer
Mentioned
Donald Smith Doug Mayer Pierre Burton Rogers Path Lydia Seim Cabot
Atlas Mine： A Canadian Historic Treasure ⛏️ 🇨🇦 TPLMedia West Coast Tour! 🚙 #shorts Can Newfoundland Turn Hydro Wealth Into Prosperity？ ft. Dr. Wade Locke

Episode Stats


Length

26 minutes

Words per minute

166.62

Word count

4,375

Sentence count

183


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:00:34 All right, Revelstoke is the destination today, and for good reason, we are at the Revelstoke
00:00:41 Railway Museum, and Doug Mayer joining us. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk
00:00:46 about the museum.
00:00:47 Glad to help.
00:00:48 I should tell you, on the way in, we were stopped as a train passed by. It was very
00:00:52 authentic. It set the stage as a kilometer-long train full of potash.
00:00:59 cargo was going by. Tell me first of all, and we'll get to this wonderful structure beside us
00:01:05 in a minute, but tell me a little bit about the history of the museum and how that came about
00:01:11 because it's quite wonderful. It's a great stop for families. Okay, well in the late 80s there
00:01:18 was a group of people here in Revelstoke that were interested in railway history and 88 is the year
00:01:26 that I moved here and one of the first people I got to know was a fellow that
00:01:31 had a wonderful model railway in his basement and he was part of this group
00:01:35 that was working towards getting a museum and so he asked me if I'd be
00:01:40 interested in joining and so I said sure and one thing led to another and the
00:01:46 local local businesses got involved supporting it local businessmen the
00:01:51 mayor and a town council were all in support of it and we were able to come
00:01:57 up with the funding through to government grants and lottery grants
00:02:02 that type of thing and the museum was built under budget by a local contractor
00:02:07 oh my goodness so when you build local yeah this is what I have all this
00:02:12 wonderful wood that you see here was low milled locally and all the
00:02:17 construction workers were local people. So it's very much a community facility.
00:02:23 So now if you go back one layer before that, there was a reason to have this
00:02:28 museum. There was a reason to have this focus on railway here. Give us a
00:02:33 little bit of the history that makes it so important that we'd even have a
00:02:36 museum. Well when the railway was built in the 1880s, Revelstoke was a natural
00:02:43 location to have a major uh locomotive servicing facility and as you'll see later on when we go
00:02:50 down to the other end and take a look at our version of that roundhouse uh Revelstoke just
00:02:56 got bigger and bigger and bigger and as a former museum director said in the early 1900s the city
00:03:04 of Revelstoke was like a focus for the railway right. Generally a hub. Very much so and it was
00:03:14 it's was and still is the division point for 250 miles of railway the Revelstoke division
00:03:22 which goes from Field BC to Camelot BC. Okay. Okay and why was that so important at the time? I mean
00:03:29 I mean, that must have been shipping, lumber, timber, mining.
00:03:35 There was some local industry, but really this is a resource railway and pretty much
00:03:40 always has been, right?
00:03:43 And so Revelstoke was at the start of the worst of the mountain grades, right?
00:03:50 Between Revelstoke and Lake Louise, that's the worst grades on the railway.
00:03:55 are other locations that have steep grades but this is the toughest operating section on the railway.
00:04:02 A high-ranking Canadian Pacific manager once told me that if you can hire engineers and conductors
00:04:10 out of Revelstoke you're going to get good men because the operating conditions were so difficult
00:04:16 they knew how to be locomotive engineers and conductors. It was really hands-on really doing
00:04:22 the job yeah okay so now how far back does the railway system factor into Revelstoke and and and
00:04:31 does the railway bring the population to Revelstoke or was it already kind of here how how did that
00:04:38 work in Revelstoke was a location that the local indigenous people used they would come here for
00:04:46 fishing because prior to the hydroelectric dams being on the Columbia River salmon came all the
00:04:52 way up here to spawn and so the local indigenous people came here to fish during that part of the
00:05:00 year and then they would go somewhere else to gather their supplies okay and as well as the fish
00:05:06 there was a lot of berries and that sort of thing. So prior to Revelstoke being an important location
00:05:14 there was another location on the other side of the Rogers Pass and that location was called
00:05:21 Donald, named after Donald Smith, who was one of the founders of the railway.
00:05:27 And Donald was going to be the division point, but then as the manager started to analyze things,
00:05:35 they realized that Revelstoke was a better location because of the distances that a
00:05:41 train crew could travel with their train in one working day. Okay. And so the division point was
00:05:49 moved to Revelstoke, and so then the train crews would work from Field to Revelstoke
00:05:55 and from Revelstoke to Kamloops, okay?
00:05:59 And so that happened in 1898, and that's when the locomotive facilities here really
00:06:05 expanded in 1898.
00:06:10 And because of the difficulty in climbing over Rogers Pass, Revelstoke was the location
00:06:18 where the dining cars were set off, and rather than pull a heavy dining car over the grades,
00:06:25 they dropped them here, and the train would stop at Glacier House near Rogers Pass, so
00:06:33 the passengers could get a meal, and then they would continue on their way. But then
00:06:39 in 1913, they decided to build a tunnel under Rogers Pass. The model of it is right behind
00:06:47 you, and that Connaught Tunnel was completed in 1916. It was originally called the Selkirk
00:06:55 Tunnel for the Selkirk Mountains, but then it was named after the, named the Connaught
00:07:00 Tunnel after a British financier to help the railway.
00:07:08 Oh my goodness. You can, if you want to put your name on something, you just have
00:07:11 to have money that's all it was that fascinating so now what eras are of
00:07:19 train what eras of rail travel do you cover here at the museum basically from
00:07:26 the beginning until today okay there what happens today is to yesterday's
00:07:34 history yeah right but I say that right what happened today yes yes you got it
00:07:39 yeah yeah oh right sorry tomorrow's history we got it okay yeah so anyway so history is
00:07:46 constantly happening every day right it just you just keep adding to it so we don't stop at any
00:07:53 particular point but the focus on the on museum when it was built was the big steam era of the
00:08:00 railway and that's the steam locomotive we have downstairs which i'm sure you'll feature it tells
00:08:05 that story. But that's actually not the largest steam locomotives that worked
00:08:09 here. The largest ones were called Selkirk locomotives after the Selkirk
00:08:14 Mountains and they were the heaviest most powerful steam locomotives that
00:08:18 operated anywhere in the British Empire. And so that was a specially built train
00:08:24 just to make the Rogers Pass, just to make these trains. They worked between
00:08:29 Revelstoke and Calgary. Fantastic. What is the, some of the things that I
00:08:35 I think people don't know about trains that you think would be important for them to know
00:08:41 about the history of the rail in the West.
00:08:44 Well, you know, one of the things that's great about the museum is it features the technology
00:08:51 so people can look at the technology that got us from then to here, right?
00:08:57 From the past to today.
00:08:59 really the more important story that we tell here is about the people right the trains didn't run
00:09:06 by themselves there's people that ran the trains people that maintained the track
00:09:11 couldn't dispatch the trains in an orderly fashion so they wouldn't run into each other
00:09:18 it's all about the people some incredible engineering went into creating the railway
00:09:24 system across Canada, but certainly through the Rockies. It was a feat of magic, I think,
00:09:32 almost at the time. Does this really kind of, the museum I've noticed, actually positions
00:09:40 railway as a major elevator of what we did in Canada, how our resources were used, how we got
00:09:48 people around how we saw more of canada than ever um speak to that for a little bit if you would
00:09:54 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 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 i'm reading right now he's talking about what happened when the railway was first getting going
00:10:14 in the in the early 1880s and you know if if the canadian pacific railway had not been completed
00:10:21 across canada it's quite possible that british columbia and manitoba would have been american
00:10:28 states all right could easily have happened because the railway not been completed because
00:10:35 it was too much division in the country to actually so really well that's part of it
00:10:40 So they've just sewed us together as a nation that could operate.
00:10:44 Absolutely.
00:10:45 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 And that's why the Northern Pacific was actually trying to buy a railway that ran from Montreal to Quebec.
00:11:03 Okay.
00:11:04 Right?
00:11:05 So, and they were trying to gain access into Manitoba.
00:11:08 And this would have been their access point, really.
00:11:11 Yeah, yeah.
00:11:12 So the completion of the railway made Canada what it is today.
00:11:16 By the way, that book is remarkable.
00:11:18 It's one of the best history books, I think, on Canadian history.
00:11:22 Pierre Burton knew what he was doing, and I'll recommend it.
00:11:26 Tell me a little bit about what people will find in the museum.
00:11:28 What are some of the features of the museum itself?
00:11:31 Well, we have the steam locomotive, the 5468,
00:11:35 which was built to work between Revelstoke and Kamloops and it did also work sometimes from
00:11:42 Revelstoke to Glacier in Rogers Path and then outside we have a diesel locomotive number 5500
00:11:50 which was the first of its type in in Canada and we have a selection of rolling stock out in the
00:11:57 backyard but I think the more important things are the things that you can read inside the museum
00:12:05 in this upper gallery here behind your your videographer here there's a section we call
00:12:12 Revelstoke is a railway town and it tells the history of Revelstoke as related to the railway.
00:12:18 It is obviously very tightly knitted. Yeah. Let me ask you this then what do you think the most
00:12:26 dangerous or harrowing or most interesting job in the history of railway has been?
00:12:32 Locomotive engineer, conductors, firemen. Yeah, absolutely. I've written a series of books
00:12:41 called Canadian Pacific Railway on the Revelstoke Division. They're for sale in the museum and all
00:12:48 proceeds from the books go to the museum. Oh, fantastic. And in those books, I've featured
00:12:57 several stories of accidents that happened. The collapse of the Surprise Creek Bridge on the
00:13:04 other side of Rogers Pass killed an engineer and fireman. There's been many other wrecks where the
00:13:12 engine crews have died, right? So that's probably the most dangerous job.
00:13:18 And there's a there's a thing that happened in the very early days of the railway
00:13:22 which you do not see anymore today and that is that to go down the grades
00:13:30 the brakes had to be set up in such a way on the on the freight cars to control the speed
00:13:36 of the train going down the grades and brakeman had to walk on the roofs of the cars
00:13:43 to operate the brakes oh my god okay now that going down a mountain a very dangerous job
00:13:52 But of course, like any job, if you do it properly, it's safe enough.
00:13:57 I don't know, I think that that one might have...
00:13:59 Yeah, that's one of the jobs. Are you kidding me? I ain't doing that.
00:14:03 Before we go, tell me about the model behind us that is so beautifully appointed.
00:14:08 Well, the display is meant to represent Revelstoke to Rogers Pass.
00:14:13 Well, actually, the Connaught Tunnel under Rogers Pass.
00:14:16 And a group of modelers got together in 1989 or 90 and decided that we should
00:14:25 build a layout that we could take to model railway shows. And that's what this
00:14:30 is. It's built to transport, but once we got invited to come up here we said, no
00:14:37 we're not going anywhere. It's staying right here. I think this is where it
00:14:40 belongs. Yeah. Doug, I really agree. And we got a wonderful relationship with the
00:14:43 museum they do not charge us rent we make donations of volunteer help and we
00:14:51 come here for special events like when they have events for the children that
00:14:55 sort of thing and run the layout. I really think Doug this is an
00:14:59 excellent addition because it actually brings to life that history it gives
00:15:04 context in three dimension what it was like and yeah and I think it really is
00:15:09 wonderful and I commend your group. People are fascinated by operating
00:15:13 miniatures oh absolutely yeah it is the thing that we love the most i think that our toy brains tune
00:15:18 into thanks for your time i appreciate this you're happy to help i'll recommend people come and check
00:15:24 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 more about the basis of railway here in the west and what it meant to society really uh and so
00:15:36 So, here's a look around the museum.
00:15:57 Well, from the wonderful museum that we just visited
00:16:02 to a whole other world of what's happening in Revelstoke,
00:16:06 Lydia Seim joins us from the Visitor Center right here in Revelstoke.
00:16:09 Thanks for taking the time.
00:16:10 By the way, this publication available at the Visitor Center, and I flipped through it,
00:16:15 I love the way that it's laid out.
00:16:17 Yeah, it's great.
00:16:18 Into the town, sustainable tourism, which is such a big deal.
00:16:24 Tell me what mainly people come to Revelstoke for.
00:16:28 Revelstoke's definitely known for our world-class outdoor recreation.
00:16:32 You're probably familiar with all the skiing and the heli skiing that happens here,
00:16:36 Revelstoke Mountain Resort, just over there.
00:16:38 We're also a massive spot for snowmobiling.
00:16:42 People come from all across America to come snowmobiling here.
00:16:45 I did not know that.
00:16:46 Yeah, world-class.
00:16:47 Most people think it's just the skiing part, but snowmobiling is huge as well.
00:16:52 And in the summer, it's like the diversity opens up.
00:16:54 So we start going into whitewater rafting, world-class mountain biking,
00:16:58 world-class alpine hiking.
00:16:59 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 summer but I was going to say moving on from outdoor recreation people come here and then
00:17:11 they discover our wonderful community and our thriving arts and culture scene and they start
00:17:15 to see oh this isn't just an outdoor recreation mecca it's it's a real working town that has
00:17:21 incredible culture and fun things to find. You know it's interesting we were going to wait till
00:17:25 the train passed to do this, but it was so important for me that people understand,
00:17:30 and I don't know if you're picking it up in the background, but this is daily life.
00:17:34 In Revelstoke, the trains run through here consistently, and that's why we went to the
00:17:39 museum to start with. Great place to start, yes. Because there's Revelstoke. In a nutshell,
00:17:44 this is where it began. Where is it today? What should people do if they come to Revelstoke
00:17:49 during the summer? Let's plan a day or two for people. Well, I think you started off
00:17:54 perfect by going to check out some of our history because it gives you context to this whole town
00:17:59 because it was founded, you know, in the late 1800s, and it was a forestry and a rail town.
00:18:05 So I think getting that context going to the Railway Museum is always really good.
00:18:09 But from there, I would check out some of our, like, wonderful restaurants. We have three
00:18:15 coffee roasters here in Revelstoke. So you can get, we, I always say we have the best coffee in
00:18:20 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 from all over to hike into the alpine and see these this phenomenal like you know blushing
00:18:55 mountainside you really think that you are in uh the sound of music oh absolutely we get that
00:19:01 feedback quite often actually it's really incredible uh and of course the wildlife in the
00:19:05 area is uh always prominent there's a lot of wildlife experts that i think that you can engage
00:19:11 what kind of uh ecotourism and we talk about sustainable tourism yes what does that mean
00:19:17 Oh that's a big question and I feel like every year there's a new sort of
00:19:22 definition for sustainable tourism. For us at Tourism Revelstoke we always try
00:19:27 to look for like the value aligned visitor so that's like we want to invite
00:19:31 people to our community that want to treat our community with the same
00:19:33 respect they would treat their home. So that's pretty simple straight off the
00:19:37 bat. And then also it's about sustainability is obviously about
00:19:41 protecting and maintaining the environment but it's also a
00:19:44 multifaceted approach. So how is your community going to thrive? Is our economy
00:19:48 going to thrive? Can businesses thrive? And at Tourism Revelstoke we have a
00:19:53 destination management plan that kind of addresses all of these key areas so that
00:19:57 we can make tourism work for our community. And we invest a lot of our
00:20:00 money back in through community event funds, nonprofit marketing support funds,
00:20:05 and we just really try to give back to our community. I met your
00:20:10 incredible staff here on on the ground but let's say that I'm planning a trip
00:20:15 through the West and I want to make Revelstoke part of my plan is it best to
00:20:19 kind of get in touch with with you first about this and work outward from there
00:20:24 yeah if you go to see Revelstoke.com that's our destination website and
00:20:29 there's itineraries on there there's sustainability information there's all
00:20:33 the accommodator information things to do and that's just an amazing resource
00:20:36 to really, like, build your snapshot of what you can sort of plan.
00:20:40 And then, of course, the guys here at the visitor center,
00:20:42 if you give them a call, they'll walk you through anything,
00:20:44 and they even post these out to people.
00:20:46 Like, I think we're posting some out to Ontario next week to a family
00:20:49 who's putting together a pack for her parents
00:20:51 that want to plan a cross-country trip.
00:20:53 I do recommend this because as you go through it,
00:20:55 you can find out where to eat, what time of year,
00:20:57 what's going on at what time of year.
00:20:59 Yeah.
00:21:00 You know, golfing was one of the ones that caught my attention,
00:21:03 and I never would have thought Revelstoke and golf.
00:21:05 Oh yeah. Yet you have some incredible golfing experiences here. Yes golfing is becoming one of
00:21:12 our main attractors here. So the Revelstoke Golf Club it turned 100 years old in 2024 which is
00:21:17 really cool. That's pretty cool. It's a really beautiful it's probably the most scenic course
00:21:20 I've ever been to because it's surrounded by the Columbia River. Beautiful old cedar trees
00:21:25 and then of course the Cabot is coming online hopefully like next year. I think they're opening
00:21:29 up for pre-course inspections this fall. So that's just up the road towards Revelstoke Mountain
00:21:34 resort and that's obviously more of a luxury product it's going to be new for us here
00:21:37 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 influencer so this is an offer this is for this thing from an influence uh this is an opportunity
00:21:50 for us to give people the secret place that you're not going to find out unless you tune in
00:21:58 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 direct you here after this so there's lots of secret hidden artwork littered throughout rebel
00:22:11 stoke and even up at the ski resort um there's not when the one of the ski resort was launched
00:22:16 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 find it so i can give you some locations about art ellery's downtown where you can go and find
00:22:25 secret art fantastic yeah and then my other one that i feel like a lot of people don't visit maybe
00:22:30 because the water is really cold but lake revelstoke is beautiful if you head up above the
00:22:34 dam and you should go check out the dam there's a great visitor center there as well
00:22:38 um massive dam and like the lake is beautiful it's you go up there there's no phone service
00:22:43 great place to switch off there's some provincial parks for camping um but yeah glacial capped
00:22:48 mountains like beautiful turquoise waters okay so you got me at the artwork i gotta be honest with
00:22:54 That is something that I always love in the West.
00:22:56 There's a love in Western Canada for the artist.
00:23:01 It's an inspiring place to live.
00:23:02 I think it makes people make art, you know?
00:23:04 It's true.
00:23:05 I do appreciate this.
00:23:07 And a website, if people wanted to reach out?
00:23:09 Yeah, cerebelstoke.com.
00:23:11 That's S-E-E, revelstoke.com.
00:23:13 It should be right on the phone somewhere.
00:23:15 And get yourself one of these as you can.
00:23:17 It can be mailed out to you.
00:23:18 I really appreciate your time today.
00:23:20 Thanks so much.
00:23:20 Hey, you're welcome.
00:23:21 Thanks for coming to Revelstoke.
00:23:22 We're coming back in the winter.
00:23:24 all right you gotta okay we'll see you then all right we're making our way up the second portion
00:23:29 of the gondola ride to the top of mckenzie mountain we are at rebel stoke mountain resort
00:23:35 recommended to us by the visitor center i think this is an excellent i mean in the winter it's a
00:23:40 necessity in the summer it really is a luxury as you make your way to the top watching the mountain
00:23:46 bikers make their way down the trails which by the way look somewhat challenging really exhilarating
00:23:52 and uh just below us at the halfway point is the pipe mountain coaster which allows you to take a
00:23:58 coaster all the way down like a little roller coaster that you control all the way to the
00:24:03 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 although the view due to wildfires is not ideal right now we can share some of this footage with
00:24:12 you and i'll recommend that you take a look at the website for revelstoke mountain resort because
00:24:18 they have all kinds of great imagery on there and i will also say to you that this is an amazing
00:24:25 ride on the gondola to the top the surroundings you're very close you don't feel unsafe at any
00:24:31 time and you're very close to nature at a speed that you're not doing normally in the car
00:24:37 through the west coast i'll recommend it here at revelstoke mountain resort whether you're
00:24:44 mountain biking skiing snowboarding actually they have a lot to do here i saw a spa i might do the
00:24:51 spa we're over 1700 meters above sea level at the top of mckenzie mountain at revelstoke at
00:24:58 revelstoke mountain resort and we're making the hike to the end of the point to the lookout
00:25:03 i will tell you this it is absolutely stunning at the top and the sky view is meant to be even
00:25:10 more special let's go have a look at that okay well smoke is actually going to take us off the
00:25:15 mountain we've just been informed but i want to share some facts with you that i looked up
00:25:19 uh we currently have 1713 meters below us and that's how far we came up on the gondola
00:25:28 uh there are 3 121 acres of skiable terrain four alpine bowls 75 runs and it's the longest run
00:25:38 the last spike it stretches 15.2 kilometers there's about 35 feet of snow on any given day
00:25:45 on a good ski day here in Revelstoke and that's what brings people here the skiing however
00:25:51 as I pointed out the views on a normal day when the smoke isn't here and the mountain bike riding
00:25:57 the terrain and the natural surroundings make summer perfect for Revelstoke in fact and in fact
00:26:05 we've had a really really good time here. I hope you will enjoy some of the footage that we'll
00:26:09 share with you here and I'll recommend that you reach out to the folks in Revelstoke when
00:26:13 you're planning your next western vacation.