(by the editorial board, The Interior News, October 29, 2020)
“Prominent Masons To Be In Smithers,” proclaimed the October 13, 1920 issue of the Interior News. Freemasons would come from as far as Prince Rupert and Prince George and would be arriving for the first meeting of Omineca Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
Many young men had left in the fall of 1914 with the beginning of the First World War, but by 1919 many of them would return and the population of Smithers grew to nearly six hundred. Twenty-five to thirty known Freemasons in the area would come together, and a petition was sent to the Grand Lodge of British Columbia in July of 1920 requesting permission to form a new Masonic Lodge.
The petition received written support from both Masonic lodges in Prince Rupert; Tsimpsean Lodge No. 58 and Tyee Lodge No. 66. With the…
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