The Daily Columbian refers to the newspaper published in New Westminster, BC. The city had been the capital of BC for a decade before government officials decided they preferred living in Victoria, especially in the winter. I would too but New West is also a great place to live, then or now.

While at the local, one hundred and fifty year old library (not the building), I asked about any newspapers from 1896 that might cover the robbery and outcome. Searching the film proved to be quick and easy. In less than half an hour I’d found a report of the robbery and months later a report of Roderick’s death. I simply added a few days to each occurrence and searched the appropriate pages. We, the consumer, are not so different today from 1896. The pages are filled with advertisements with all manner of claims. And like now, the greater part of ink is wasted on the ads instead of the news. But 1896 had fewer ways to check the facts and many errors abounded. The telephone had only recently replaced the telegraph in the larger centers as the means of rapid communication. Typesetting must have been a painfully slow process.

At some point I will check for more sources reporting on the robbery (or anniversary of). The mine owners were from Spokane at the time of the heist, so I believe there was a story in a Washington state newspaper around 1912 or so. And who doesn’t enjoy a good story about stolen gold bars?