The Discovery

Cover of Flapjacks & Photographs

This book is available in the Vancouver Public Library:
Special Collections Dept. 971.144 G97r Ref.

In the summer of 1961, Ron D'Altroy, former historical photograph curator at the Vancouver Public Library, drove into the Lardeau River Valley with two associates to conduct research into the ghost towns of British Columbia. Ron took a side trip to the deserted town of Camborne then drove on to a local bar at the Beaton Hotel. Following is a quote from Ron:

"I think I heard about Henry Gunterman the first time in the beer parlour, having a couple glasses of beer at Beaton, and somebody in there said, "Ahhhhh-boy, you guys should talk to old Henry Gunterman... his mother took a lot of old pictures on glass"...Well boy, my heart stopped beating right there. So we started to look for them... I went up a ladder, it was about sixty percent broken, up into a hole, into a loft, in the back, in the shed, and found this box of glass plates...refuse from the packrats had fallen and put a dome on it...great many of the plates were stuck together...And OHBOY! I took one look and I knew exactly what I had."

From: Flapjacks & Photographs: a History of Mattie Gunterman, Camp Cook and Photographer by Henri Robideau, p. 194

Ron found what was left of Mattie's photograph collection buried under a rat's nest. With his mother gone, and the world of modernity closing in around him, Henry Gunterman felt that her photographs would be safer in the Vancouver Public Library than in his loft where they could become the booty of thieves. So he gave the entire collection of plates to Ron to bring back to safety in Vancouver to describe and eventually make available to the public.

The Library was extremely fortunate to acquire Mattie Gunterman's remaining glass plate negatives, a true diary of pioneering existence during the early days of the province, as well as a gift and legacy to the people of British Columbia.

To read the full story of Ron D'Altroy's discovery, read Flapjacks & Photographs...

Navigation Bar: VPL 2348; 1900c; Lux's Ranch, BC; Photographer: Mattie Gunterman; Beach at Lux's Ranch, Upper Arrow Lake, BC