I've always been curious about the inner workings of a draft beer tap system so last week when Real Simard, owner of the Royal Hotel in Fernie invited me down to the basement to see a new one installed I jumped at the chance. Of course the opportunity to roam around the basement of one of Fernie's oldest hotels came with it.
As I stood leaning against a brick wall down there watching the installation of the new system I was distracted by a cool flow of air against the back of my neck. It was coming from a crack in the brick mortar and it occurred to me that it is unusual for a building's inner foundation wall to be brick faced. The mortar around the bricks where the air was flowing from was rotten and with only a little pressure I was able to push one of the bricks inward whereupon it disappeared, much to my astonishment, dropping down with a echoey clunk to a hidden floor behind the wall.
With a whoop of excitement I called Real to where I was standing and when he realized we were looking at a false wall, out came a flashlight, a hammer and a crowbar. In short order we created an opening in that false wall. His flashlight's first pass around the room revealed an assortment of boxes, barrels and an old steamer trunk in a space about 15 feet square.
It's hard to describe the excitement we felt as that flashlight played across item after item piled in all corners of that long hidden room. To step through that hole in that fake brick wall was to step back in time. As we explored through that marvellous collection it was revealed to us that the time we had stepped back into was that of "Prohibition Days" in Fernie. The barrels contained dozens of empty whisky and rum bottles but there were no labels on any of them. Some of the boxes were full of old quart size beer bottles and a few still held the Fernie Pilsner label on them which revealed that the beer once contained in them was 10% by volume!!
But these relics of an era long since past were small potatoes compared to what that coal dust coated steamer trunk in one far corner eventually revealed to us. Within its confines lay a veritable treasure of memorabilia. At the top of the trunks contents lay a beautiful satin dress trimmed in lace and soft blue ribbons. If it wasn't a wedding dress it sure should have been. Beneath the dress lay a small oval framed picture of a young woman wearing the very same dress with a large, moustached, dark eyed man standing besides her holding her hand.
Next to the picture lay a gold trimmed, key lock type diary. The diary was locked but the key to it we found mounted to the back of the picture. It was with some hesitation that we unlocked that diary as we both felt like we were intruding into this young woman's private thoughts. The title page of her diary revealed her name to be "Aprile Pazzo" but the reason that the contents of her trunk were so carefully hidden in that long forgotten room are not to be found in what few pages she managed to fill in.
Her writing indicates she came from Italy in 1921, full of expectation and promise only to be caught up in a man's world of wheeling and dealing in the Rum Running Era.
She mentions a man by the name of Loof Von Lipra often in her writing but it appears from her comments that he is a busy man with a complicated and dangerous life style, one she both admired and desired to be a part of.
The diary's last entry mentions a contemplated move to the Alberta side of the "Pass", one she regarded with some trepidation. Beneath the diary and the picture we found a collection of simple pastel frocks, a hand knit sweater with a gold broach of a lamb pinned to it, a lace table cloth of incredible detail and a rosary of black onyx trimmed in silver.
The last item in the bottom of the trunk was a faded, crumbling sketch of what appears to be a map depicting a network of tunnels. At one corner of the drawing is a rectangular outline labelled "Home Base" from which a series of narrow walkways or tunnels head north and east of this base! There is no apparent scale but at the far end of the tunnel sketch is another rectangle with the name "Mr Big's Place" written in it.
A further inspection of this room has revealed yet another brick faced wall with believe it or not yet another drafty leak emanating from it Real and I are reluctant at this point to explore further until those of more qualification and authority, such as the building inspector, become involved.
I guess the legacy of "Aprile Pazzo" is more than enough for either of us to handle for now, but rest assured we will not stop until the whole story of this room, that trunk and that young woman's life are revealed.
Someone once asked me why it is that certain parts of downtown sidewalks seem to bare themselves in winter sooner than others. Methinks I now know the reason why. If you or anyone you know has any idea who "Aprile Pazzo" or "Loof Von Lipra" were or if you have any more information on these supposed tunnels please drop me a line at the local paper. It's high time this mystery was solved once and for all.
Author’s Note: I decided to pass on doing an April Fool’s piece for the paper this year but instead thought I might share this 1997 story that ran in the local paper on that unpredictable April day in Fernie. The story took off big time with dozens of phone calls telling me they knew of Aprile Pazzo and there was even a request from the local Arts Council to use the dress and trunk to do a locally produced play. Wow, did I get in trouble for this one. When the truth was revealed I even lost some readers as they felt I had betrayed their trust in me as a historian. Aprile Pazzo is of course April Fools in Italian and Loof Von Lirpa is April Fool spelled backwards with Von thrown in for laughs. The story was merely the fictional ramblings of a kokanee affected writer on a warm Sunday afternoon. No tunnels, no map, no dress and no prohibition romance. Interestingly enough April 1st lands on a Tuesday, the Pass Herald’s publishing day next year. Hmmm!
