Greta Thunberg inspired 1898 connections

   The news of Greta Thunberg's 1898 doppelgänger from from the Yukon Klondike Gold Rush prompted me to look for 1898 Montreal Bicycle Club events that might somehow be associated.

   I started looking in the 1898 MBC Annual Report.

    Hmmm, what was Knapp's Hotel, Blue Bonnets?  I knew that Blue Bonnets was a former horse racing track originally located near the present day Montreal West Train station.  Also what was the M. P. and I. Railway????

Mr. Knapp's hotel, near Montreal, QC, 1899
Wm. Notman & Son

   Fortunately Mr Notman photographed many things, McCord keeps them and Google allows us to find them.

View of the Montreal Park and Island Railway, circa 1895

   Wikipedia  also deserves some of the credit for their article on Montreal Streetcars.  The discovery of these two photos meant I could add a page to the MBC Historic Scrap Book.


   This wiki article mentions the Pay As You Enter system (P.A.Y.E.) system of fare collection started by the Montreal Street Railway in 1905.  That has a MBC connection we know of.

WILLIAM GILLIES ROSS

   Going back to the MBC 1898 Annual Report, I looked for a Strathcona Hotel in Lachine.  There is a Strathcona House in Montreal, the former home of Donald Smith 1st Baron of Strathcona and Mont Royal and a Strathcona Hotel in Edmonton, but I could not find anything about a Lachine hotel of that name.

  As for Klondike connections, I can claim a personal one to the Gold Rush by being related to Sam Steele.

Miners climb Chilkoot pass en route to Klondike

Sam Steele Memorial, Fair Valley, near Orillia Ontario

A while after making this post I noticed this photograph connecting cycling and the Klondike.

Rev. Wright touring the Klondike on bicycle, at 85 Road House, Klondike, YT, about 1898

   Who was this Rev Wright?  There is a A.Wright listed as one of the ticket sellers for the 1891 bicycle races at the MAAA grounds.  Hmmm I wonder if it might be him?  If so, he might even be in the 1892 Club photo.