23 June 2010

Memorial Garden to Honour History
of Rogers Pass

Rob Buchanan sketches the design on one of the steel plates.

Revelstoke British Columbia - Local artist, photographer, and Times Review cartoonist Rob Buchanan and welder Rob Maraun are hard at work on an installation that will commemorate the victims of the 1910 Rogers Pass avalanche and the history of the pass.
 
"It's a continuation of what we did so far to commemorate the 1910 avalanche disaster," said Buchanan, who works for Parks Canada and designed the installation.
 
Called the Rogers Pass Memory Garden, the work will feature three 160-kilogram steel reliefs surrounding an old train bell. It will be unveiled on 15 Aug 2010 at a ceremony at Rogers Pass to commemorate the victims of the 1910 avalanche.
 
Each relief tells a different story. One is about the building of the railway through the pass. Another is about the highway, and the last is a memorial to the victims of the 1910 Rogers Pass avalanche that killed 58 people, the deadliest avalanche in Canadian history.
 
The reliefs are being made out of 4 foot x 8 foot, 1/4 inch thick steel plates. A cut-out will emerge from each plate representing the different stories.
 
At the centre of the garden is a large granite block with a 1907 brass steam engine bell perched on top. Visitors will be able to ring the bell.
 
The memorial was designed by Buchanan and the cut-outs are being done by Maraun, of Mount Begbie Machine Works.
 
"I draw the design onto the steel with soapstone then Robert takes a plasma cutter and cuts out the shape," said Buchanan at his studio.
 
The designs will be folded out of the metal, smoothed out and then sent to be sandblasted and powder coated so they take on a bronze look, Buchanan said.
 
The garden is influenced by Japanese dry gardens, in honour of the 32 Japanese who died in the 1910 avalanche.
 
Alex Cooper.