50     years ago (1966):

The Wilmer Mercantile store closed its doors after 66 years in business. Wilmer resident Mrs. Edward Rauch told The Echo she remembered going into the store in 1901, a year after it opened, when she first moved to the Upper Columbia Valley.

 

40     years ago (1976):

The Canadian national downhill alpine ski championships were held at Panorama Mountain Resort. The women’s Canadian downhill champion was Karen Cloutier and the men’s downhill champion was Ken Read.

 

25    years ago (1991):

Panorama Mountain Resort was chosen over Lake Louise and Sunshine to be the filming location of a Canadiian Olympics commercial. Calgary actors portrayed a Canadian family cheering on their alpine racing son/brother.

 

15     years ago (2001):

Invermere resident Andy Stuart-Hill acheived a long-held goal by visiting his 100th country. But Mr. Stuart Hill said that despite the milestone he had no plans to stop and would continue travelling to new countries.

 

10     years ago (2006):

The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) was bracing for what many people were expecting to be an explosive meeting, during which the RDEK board of directors was scheduled to vote on a motion to turn over jurisdiction of the planned Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort to the provincial goverment, to be managed as a mountain resort municipality. The motion was to be introduced by David Wilks. Then-Invermere mayor Mark Shmigelsky told The Echo the motion was a bit of a surprise to him and added he expected the meeting to be interesting.