Vancouver Voyager: 49 Ain't Done Yet!

On August 15, 1949, newspapers described the newly re-opened Kingsway highway as "strikingly handsome". It was now six lanes between Vancouver and New Westminster.

Also on August 15. Radio host, Jack Cullen, did his last show on CKMO and his first show on CKNW AT THE SAME TIME!!! How did he manage that? He taped his CKMO show beforehand and did the CKNW one live.

August 21, 1949. B.C.'s biggest earthquake, that we know of, occurred off the Queen Charlotte Islands. Fortunately, the major force of the quake occurred in uninhabited sections of the islands and there was minimal damage.

"While hardly anyone in Vancouver felt the tremors, reports of the quake poured in from throughout B.C. . . . Prince George residents ran into the streets shouting ‘earthquake, earthquake,’ as cafe signs swung and poles swayed." Centres 1,500 miles (2,400 km) apart felt the quake, and it was even detected in Jasper, Alberta. Seattle measured it at 7.2. The Province reported on Page One that a clock had stopped in the home of Mrs. Laurie Sanders, Imperial Street in Burnaby.

Gloria Cranmer was born on September 10, 1949 in Alert Bay, BC. Cranmer would go on to become a film maker and linguist. She was the first First Nations woman to attend the University of British Columbia - graduating in 1956 with a degree in anthropology. In 1996, Cranmer was awarded the Heritage Society of British Columbia's Heritage Award and her contributions to British Columbia native live are remarkable.

October 22, the first "official" tree was planted at Queen Elizabeth Park, then known as Little Mountain Park. The park was carved out of a stone quarry and chosen as the site for Canada's first civic arboretum.

“The tree looked lonely and a trifle battered,” the Province wrote. “Fittingly enough, it was a Pacific dogwood, the only tree emblematic of B.C. It stood in a grassy spot overlooking the smoke and skyscrapers of downtown Vancouver.” The original idea for the arboretum, the paper reported, “was suggested by Leander Manley, secretary-manager of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, western branch.”

November 2. The Hope-Princeton highway officially opened for traffic. The highway closely follows the old Dewdney Trail, which was a trail used to move provisions north and gold and furs south.

“When the Hope-Princeton highway opened,” says the Manning Park website, “it not only provided a major transportation link between the coast and interior, it also made accessible to people everywhere the premier provincial park in British Columbia.”

A civic banquet was held at the Hotel Vancouver on November 2, 1949 for the visiting Prime Minister Nehru of India.