Gabriel (Gabor) Nyeste was one of the leaders of the Scouts of the First Kitimat Troop (Boy Scouts). He moved to Kitimat to work on the Alcan project and left in the early 60s. He passed away in Kamloops in July 2020.
Custodial History
Donated by Gabriel Nyeste, Aug 6 1983.
Scope and Content
Pictures, clippings, letters of early Girl Guide and Boy Scout Movement in Kitimat, B.C. 1955-1961.
Text documents from McLure Collection.
988.3.36a-g - Some Tales of the Kitlope People, related by Chief John Paul, and told to us by Mike Shaw of Kitamaat Mission.
988.3.37 - The history of the progress of christianity in the village of Kitimat until the present. As recorded by eye witnesses of the scenes for telling at the diamond jubilee of the coming of christinity.
988.3.38 - clipping - Tribesmen to Send Blanket Dugout as Wedding Presents. (original & copy)
Text documents from McLure Collection.
988.3.36a-g - Some Tales of the Kitlope People, related by Chief John Paul, and told to us by Mike Shaw of Kitamaat Mission.
988.3.37 - The history of the progress of christianity in the village of Kitimat until the present. As recorded by eye witnesses of the scenes for telling at the diamond jubilee of the coming of christinity.
988.3.38 - clipping - Tribesmen to Send Blanket Dugout as Wedding Presents. (original & copy)
Kendall Ludwick arrived in Kitimat in 1952. He worked for The Aluminum Company of Canada Ltd. first as an expeditor then as Assistant Building Superintendent. His family arrived in October 1952 and his children attended the Smeltersite School (Kitimat School).
Custodial History
Items brought in by Kendall Ludwick's daughter, Dianne Mayes
Scope and Content
Memorabilia of the family's time in Kitimat.
Notes
Kitimat School memorabilia
Al Beaton cartoon book
The Alpha: Kitimat School Yearbook
Five b&w photographs
The pictures were taken on a two day trip by a local Northwest group, representitives from Northwest Handwritten listing by John Pousette (Secretary) of the people in attendance for the Totem Pole restoration society expedition. Photos taken to inventory totem poles.
Custodial History
Max Patzelt
Scope and Content
Collection of 58 totem pole photographs from the Hazelton region.
Fonds contains documents, photographs, photocopies, and maps collected by Arvid Hardin throughout his ten years in Kitimat. Areas of focus include high school life, the Kitimat Army Cadets, and the creation of Hirsch Creek Park, the Kitimat Community Centre, and the Kitimat trail system.
Arvid Hardin (born c. 1941) lived in Kitimat from 1953 to 1963. He graduated from Mount Elizabeth Secondary School in 1959, served as an active member of the Kitimat Army Cadet Corps, and was involved with the creation of Hirsch Creek Provincial Park. Around 2008, he collaborated with E.E. 'Bill' Duyvewaardt and other former Kitimat Cadets to write a 'historical profile' of the Cadets and their activities.
Custodial History
Materials from accession 2009.15 were donated by Arvid Hardin to the Museum on June 10th, 2009.
Materials from accession 2022.18 were donated by Arvid Hardin on May 10th, 2022.
Scope and Content
Fonds contains documents, photographs, photocopies, and maps collected by Arvid Hardin throughout his ten years in Kitimat. Areas of focus include high school life, the Kitimat Army Cadets, and the creation of Hirsch Creek Park, the Kitimat Community Centre, and the Kitimat trail system.
Conservation
Many pages old and yellowing. Staples, paper clips, and other metal fasteners removed from all papers in March & May 2022.
Storage Location
Box 39
Photo storage
Related Material
Artifacts donated by Arvid Hardin include a proclamation (2009.15.6), gazette (2009.15.7), and high school certificate (2009.15.11).
Fonds contains 18 black-and-white photographs taken by Jozef Dziuba in the early 1950s. Subjects include views of the channel and the Alcan project, planes and helicopters landing, ships and boats including the Delta King, sports & games (races, high jump, baseball), industrial tanks, the Hudson's Bay Company building steps, and an overhead view of the community including employee housing.
Jozef Dziuba came to Kitimat in the early 1950s to work as a construction worker, and remained here to work at the smelter and raise a family.
Custodial History
Donated to the Kitimat Museum & Archives on March 13th 2023.
Scope and Content
Fonds contains 18 black-and-white photographs taken by Jozef Dziuba in the early 1950s. Subjects include views of the channel and the Alcan project, planes and helicopters landing, ships and boats including the Delta King, sports & games (races, high jump, baseball), industrial tanks, the Hudson's Bay Company building steps, and an overhead view of the community including employee housing.
Conservation
Photos removed from black backing on June 12th/13th 2023. Pages have been scanned to remove original order and are stored under Y:\Holly Peterson.
Collection of photos from Kemano (originals and copies). Very early & interesting photos of Morrison-Knudsen Construction in Kemano showing camps, harbour, powerhouse, tunnel, transmission line, skid, camps at Horestky, camps throughout the transmission line.
Collection of photos from Kemano (originals and copies). Very early & interesting photos of Morrison-Knudsen Construction in Kemano showing camps, harbour, powerhouse, tunnel, transmission line, skid, camps at Horestky, camps throughout the transmission line.
Comprehensive collection of dried plants with names and info collected from Kitimat and surrounding area. Includes black binder with lists of the collected plants, as well as some additional samples.
The Kitimat Flora Collection was assembled by Gisela Mendel during her tenure as the Museum's first curator (1969-1981). Gisela had a lifelong interest in nature and the outdoors and knew the medicinal properties of many plants from working as a pharmacist in Germany. During her early years in Kitimat, she collected botanical specimens to send to the Royal BC Museum in Victoria and documented a new species of fern. As Curator, she identified natural history as a key area of focus for the new Kitimat Centennial Museum. The Northern Sentinel reported in 1972 that she gathered new floral specimens each weekend to replenish displays at the Museum. One of her largest projects was the creation of an ethno-botanical dictionary with the help of Haisla elders from Kitamaat Village, identifying the Haisla names and traditional uses for various local plants.
Custodial History
Collected by Gisela Mendel.
Scope and Content
Comprehensive collection of dried plants with names and info collected from Kitimat and surrounding area. Includes black binder with lists of the collected plants, as well as some additional samples.
Electrician Bill Frahler wired approximately 2000 houses in Kitimat camps and townsite between 1954 and 1958, working first for Johnson-Crooks then Straits Construction, both U.S.contractors.
Alice Dicker's father, Benard, came to Canada to work in 1955. He was a forman D-shift for Alcan. He married Anna in 1959. Alice and her sister Claudia were born in Kitimat and the family lived here until 1969, at which time they returned to Germany.
Custodial History
Alice Dicker Sent this Collection of 41 photographs from Hechingen, Germany.
Scope and Content
41 photographs of Kitimat construction and life, for example: The garbage gobbler, snow days, parades, signs, hospital beach, Nechako candy store
Folder containing research material.
Photographs of early Kitimat. People at snowy home, Christ the King Catholic Parish construction, man with rolled out document, men in suits with shovel, Kitimat homes, Baptist Church and interior, licing quarters, homes being floated, snowy building with coffee bar and commisary sign, Kitimat The Aluminum Centre of British Columbia Welcomes You sign, man in front of church and trailer, and redeemer Lutheran Church sign with cleared lot.
Collection of materials that Patricia Robertson used for her PhD.
Custodial History
Donated to the museum by Patricia Robertson.
Scope and Content
Folder containing research material.
Photographs of early Kitimat. People at snowy home, Christ the King Catholic Parish construction, man with rolled out document, men in suits with shovel, Kitimat homes, Baptist Church and interior, licing quarters, homes being floated, snowy building with coffee bar and commisary sign, Kitimat The Aluminum Centre of British Columbia Welcomes You sign, man in front of church and trailer, and redeemer Lutheran Church sign with cleared lot.
Notes
Note inside reading: Dear Pat. Though these do not look too good a lot can be done to and with them if you choose to use them in the book - the negs we have. Cheers Gisela.
Fonds consists of two files of materials collected and produced by the Kitimat Valley Naturalists:
F1) Contents of the secretary-treasurer's duotang, 1996-1998. Includes meeting minutes, correspondence, receipts, financial documents, mailing lists, 1997 annual report, photocopied map, events schedule, Federation of BC Naturalists membership info, sign-up sheet for Douglas Channel boat trip, correspondence from Creston Valley Wildlife Area, materials re: Gisela Mendel Native Plant Garden, draft write-up for Iron Oxbow Wildlife Viewing Area along the Kitimat River, and ephemera from the inside front cover of the duotang (receipt from Fed. of BC Naturalists, business cards for Aurora Charters and Reid Crowther Consulting Engineers).
F2) Materials related to Pine Creek Protective Covenant, 2003-2014. This covenant was established by Rio Tinto Alcan, the Haisla Nation, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, to protect the Pine Creek hiking trail and its watercourse near Minette Bay. Folder includes correspondence, signage text, Land Title Act forms, maps, and a Master Watercourse Crossing List from Coastal GasLink.
The Kitimat Valley Naturalists are a non-profit organization with the goal of learning about and enjoying the natural history of the Kitimat Valley. They were founded in 1996 and are still active as of 2023. Their projects include an annual Christmas bird count, construction of bat condos, monitoring amphibian numbers, and mapping eelgrass beds in the Douglas Channel.
Custodial History
Items were donated by Susan and Walter Thorne, longtime members of the Kitimat Valley Naturalists, on February 16th 2023. The fonds was arranged and described by Museum staff in April 2023.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of two files of materials collected and produced by the Kitimat Valley Naturalists:
F1) Contents of the secretary-treasurer's duotang, 1996-1998. Includes meeting minutes, correspondence, receipts, financial documents, mailing lists, 1997 annual report, photocopied map, events schedule, Federation of BC Naturalists membership info, sign-up sheet for Douglas Channel boat trip, correspondence from Creston Valley Wildlife Area, materials re: Gisela Mendel Native Plant Garden, draft write-up for Iron Oxbow Wildlife Viewing Area along the Kitimat River, and ephemera from the inside front cover of the duotang (receipt from Fed. of BC Naturalists, business cards for Aurora Charters and Reid Crowther Consulting Engineers).
F2) Materials related to Pine Creek Protective Covenant, 2003-2014. This covenant was established by Rio Tinto Alcan, the Haisla Nation, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, to protect the Pine Creek hiking trail and its watercourse near Minette Bay. Folder includes correspondence, signage text, Land Title Act forms, maps, and a Master Watercourse Crossing List from Coastal GasLink.
Notes
Three reports collected by the KVN - "An Assessment of the Kitimat Iron Oxbow Proposed Wildlife Viewing Area," "Blue Carbon - The Case for the Conservation and Enhancement of Estuarine Processes and Sediments in BC," and "Coastal Wetlands Habitat Assessment and Classification for Northwestern British Columbia" - have been added to the Museum's Reference Library.
Conservation
Removed from original duotang/folders. Staples removed.
Storage Location
Box 29
Arrangement
F1) has been left in original order, apart from ephemera which was removed from the inside cover of the duotang.
F2) has been arranged in roughly chronological order.
1 folder containing material from the Anglican Church
Envelope with letter to Elsie
Kiwanis Club Presents A Night at the Theatre program (not on top that is was attended with Norman and jean Tucker, Keith Young, and Dorothy and Roy Jones)
Ingot clipping, Regional Manager, J.S. MacKenzie, joined Anglican clergymen and wardens at breakfast in Nechako Lodge
Information compiled by Joan Smith for Anglican Church 50th Anniversary. Donated in April 2003.
Scope and Content
1 folder containing material from the Anglican Church
Envelope with letter to Elsie
Kiwanis Club Presents A Night at the Theatre program (not on top that is was attended with Norman and jean Tucker, Keith Young, and Dorothy and Roy Jones)
Ingot clipping, Regional Manager, J.S. MacKenzie, joined Anglican clergymen and wardens at breakfast in Nechako Lodge
Notes
Folder has a note saying from Keith Young Collection
Letter envelope contained negatives 2004.4.26-38
