Remembering Slumach

Brian Antonson writes:
At 8:00 a.m., 118 years ago today, January 16 1891, a man recently named "Peter" Slumach died "at the wrong end of a 5-strand rope", hanged in New Westminster's Provincial Gaol (jail), as a capital punishment for the murder of Louis Bee the previous September. He had been known variously as "Slummock", "Slumah", and "Slumach". An hour before he died, he was baptized in the Roman Catholic faith, and given the Christian name "Peter".

118 years later, his name lives on, forever entwined with legends of lost gold somewhere in the vastness surrounding Pitt Lake, "Slumach's Gold".

He's been a huge part of MY life over the past half-century...and OUR lives, as a result of our various connections.

This morning, Fred and Helmi Braches and I visited his unmarked grave in New Westminster's St. Peter's Cemetery, laid cedar sprigs atop the white blanket of snow that covers it just now, and recognized in our own way his passing. The mists of a foggy January morning hung about the place, the frigid air enveloped us, and we had "a moment" with the spirit of a man with whom OUR lives have become entwined.

Tomorrow, Fred and Helmi will return to the site with members of the Katzie Nation, of whom Slumach was one.

I'm sharing a picture of the site as it was earlier today.