3 VALLEY GAP HERITAGE GHOST TOWN
- The Ghost Town opened in 1962. One-half of the buildings are original, historic buildings that were torn down and moved here from anywhere up to 150 miles (240 km) away. The others are replicas of buildings that were in the area.
ST. STEPHEN’S CHURCH
- This church was originally built in 1886 in Donald – approximately 90 miles, 145 km East of 3 Valley.
- In 1902 Rev. Thomas Murray and the Presbyterian congregation tore the church down piece by piece and moved it to Field, BC.
- A new building was required by the church’s congregation in 1962 so the Bells bought the church, tore it down, and rebuilt it in the Ghost Town.
C.B. HUME GENERAL STORE
- This store is a replica of the original C.B. Hume General Store built in Revelstoke in 1892.
- In 1904 the original store was torn down by Mr. Hume and he built a new general store. The lights and fixtures are originals from the second store.
DUPLEX LOG BARN
- This barn was built in Malakwa, BC by Finnish immigrants. Originally it provided shelter for farm animals on one side and the family lived in the other.
- The Bells purchased the barn in the early 1960s and used it for their own farm animals including donkeys, chickens, pigs and geese.
HALF-WAY HOUSE
- Built in 1862, the Half-Way House is the oldest building in 3 Valley Gap.
- The building’s name came from its location – half-way between Revelstoke and French Creek – a common route for gold seekers during the 1860s.
- The house provided an overnight stop for travelers along this route.
- Today the Half-Way House is used as a dining room for groups having dinner in the Ghost Town.
GOLDEN WHEEL SALOON
- This saloon is a replica of a saloon that was in French Creek, a short-lived boom town north of Revelstoke.
- Gold was discovered in French Creek in 1862 at which point the population soared to 5000 people – soon after the gold ran out, the town died.
- The hand carved mirror above the bar was originally in a saloon in Swift Current, Saskatchewan until 1912, it was then used in the Paris Café until it was brought to 3 Valley Gap in 1963.
- The gambling wheel was made from the 1898 Revelstoke street sweeper.
- Over the years, children and grandchildren of Gordon and Ethel Bell have danced, performed and sang on the saloon stage.
HOTEL BELLEVUE
- The Hotel Bellevue was built in 1898 on the shores of Mara Lake in Sicamous.
- There were a total of 50 rooms after a north and south wing were added in the early 1900s.
- The hotel had only three bathrooms and only one of those had a bathtub.
- The Bells purchased the Hotel Bellevue in 1964 and immediately began moving the furnishings to 3 Valley Gap. The building was torn down board by board and reconstructed in its original state, the hotel now stands as it was originally built over 100 years ago.
- Today most of the first floor has been restored, with the original tables, chairs, dishes, menus and bar.
ANTIQUE AUTO MUSUEM
- Our collection of antique automobiles date from 1902 to 1929, representing the development of the early years of the auto industry. Included in the collection are:
- 1902 Curved Dash Olds – this car, produced by Oldsmobile, is the oldest car in the collection and one of historical significance. It was the first massed produced car in North America. Designed like a buggy, its engine is under the seat. Also at this time the steering device for vehicles was a tiller instead of a steering wheel.
- 1912 Overland Touring Car – Built by the Overland Company of Indiana, Overland cars were right-hand drive until 1915.The Overland Company almost went out of business in 1907 until John North Willys took over the company. Willys-Overland became very successful making jeeps during World War II and still makes jeeps today under the American Motors name.
- 1929 Studebaker – Studebaker was the largest wagon manufacturer in the world in the late 1800s. They were the only wagon maker to successfully change from building wagons to producing automobiles. They introduced an electric car in 1902 then switched to gasoline powered vehicles in 1904.
ARLINGTON COURT
- The Arlington Court was originally built in 1912 in Revelstoke as a hotel and offices for the Mundy Lumber Co. of 3 Valley.
- After the Mundy Lumber Co. sawmill burned down in 1913, the building was converted to a high-class apartment building, and became known as Arlington Court.
- In 1976 the building experienced a devastating fire. The four pillars and a few windows were the only items salvaged from the original Arlington Court. The owners of the building, the Beruschi family of Revelstoke, donated them to 3 Valley Gap.
RAILWAY ROUNDHOUSE
A roundhouse is the building where the day-to-day maintenance of steam locomotives would take place. Naturally, the locomotives would be very large and difficult to move around, and the amount of equipment required to maintain them was tremendous. As well, unlike the model diesel locomotives of today, a steam locomotive was designed to go forward and seldom backed up. To solve this, a turntable mechanism was utilized to rotate the locomotives to various specialized workshops within the roundhouse. Most of the steam engines were designed for specific services – freight or passenger, mountain or prairie, and as such steam locomotives seldom ventured more than a few divisional points from home. Therefore, a turntable and roundhouse were built approximately every one hundred miles (to a maximum of two hundred miles).
THE 0-4-0 LOCOMOTIVE
- This single reduction coal-fired standard gauge steam engine was built in 1922 for a chemical plant in New York.
- The 0-4-0 is a close mechanical relative of the locomotive Andrew Onderdonk used on the C.P.R. construction in the 1880s. Onderdonk completed the C.P.R. rails from Port Moody to Craigellachie in September 1885.
- 3 Valley Gap purchased the car in 1993 from the Rail City Museum in New York.
THE CANADIAN GOVERNOR GENERAL – PRIVATE CAR 1
- The Canadian Governor General Car was built in 1967 by Hawker Siddley Co. in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
- In 1967, Roland Michener was the Governor General of Canada. This car would have been his main source of transportation.
- This particular car was also ridden in by Queen Elizabeth II in 1978 as she travelled across Canada with her royal family.
- This is the car that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau rode in while giving the famous Salmon Arm salute in 1982.
- 3 Valley Gap purchased this car in August 2005.
THE CARIBOU BUSINESS CAR
- This railway coach was built in 1929 by American Car and Foundry for the Missouri Pacific Railroad as a dining car.
- It became MPPR’s Business Car No. 7 after conversion in the railroad’s Secalia, Missouri shops and is reputed to have once belonged to P.T. Barnum, of Barnum and Bailey Circus fame.
- Pacific Great Eastern Railway, the predecessor to BC Rail bought the car in 1964 and continued to employ it as a Business Car under the name Caribou.
CPR CABOOSE
- Revelstoke was a major divisional point on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Revelstoke’s repair and maintenance shops took care of all the steam engines from Vancouver to Calgary.
- All running trades engineers, conductors, etc. worked both East and West out of Revelstoke. Engineers could be called to run most any engine but conductors were assigned to their own caboose. The caboose was the conductor’s home away from home, complete with cooking and sleeping facilities.
- This caboose was assigned to the late Ernie Graham from 1940 to the mid 1950s when he retired. It was then assigned to Jack White until he became a superintendent.
