Preserving History in the South Cariboo 1 vote at a time

The 108 Heritage Site is a finalist in a National competition.

They are 1 of 12 heritage places from across the country competing in the National Trust for Canada’s Next Great Save contest.

“I belong to the National Trust website and it was on there,” Kelly Carnochan, President of the 100 Mile and District Historical Society said, “so I thought let’s throw our hat in and see what happens.”

$65,000 in prizes are available to support winning projects including a $50,000 grand prize and two runner-up prizes.

Carnochan said the Society’s goal is to keep preserving the history of the 108 Mile Heritage Site and explained what they would do with the money if they finished first.

“Our log barn, the Watson Barn that was built in 1908, it needs some work. So we keep saving money so that we can get some work done on it. It is still considered Canada’s largest standing log barn and we, the Cariboo own it.”

The other thing they would like to do with the money is to put it towards interpretative signs, one in each of the buildings for people who may have a disability that they can’t go into the buildings.

“We would take pictures of the inside of the buildings and put the history on the signage as well so everyone can be a part of each building,” Carnochan said.

We asked how busy the 108 Mile Heritage Site is.

“We’re open for 4 months of the year, from the May long weekend until the end of September. During our opening season we have whoever is working the Heritage Site try and count the visitors three times a day. In our counting in those 4 months we have over 13,000 visitors walk through here. We have a world map on our wall and we get people to put pins in where they’re from. Almost half come from Europe. We’ve had them all the way from New Zealand, Australia, even from Russia.”

She noted the site dates back to 1860 and a lot of the buildings are original to the site.

“The museum itself came from the the 105, it was part of the MacNeal ranch, the Watson barn was built by captain Watson who owned 35,000 acres at the time when he owned this property and he built it for his hundred Clydesdale’s. The Post House is part of the notorious Agnus McVee who apparently murdered 56 people and stole the gold from miners,” Carnochan said.

You can vote once per day for the 108 Mile Heritage Site starting April 7 at 10 am by going online nextgreatsave.ca and the winner and two runner-ups will be announced April 24 at 2 pm.