Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

PLEASANT STREET CEMETERY COMMEMORATION

Kamloops residents dive into local history for 125th anniversary of Pleasant Street Cemetery

May 23, 2025 | 4:37 PM

KAMLOOPS — One of the oldest cemeteries in Kamloops, along Pleasant Street, will be 125 years old this weekend (May 25). A commemoration will include a new flower garden display, educational presentations and biographies of the people who are buried there — all contributed by local community organizations.

The headstones are firstly a memorial for the more than 7,000 people buried there, but they also tell a story of historic events taking place around the world and how people in Kamloops were impacted.

Catrina Crowe is a member of the Sagebrush Neighbourhood Association and is also on the Pleasant Street Cemetery 125th Anniversary Committee. Speaking to CFJC Friday (May 23) from the cemetery, Crowe says her curiosity about people in the area drew her into what became a months long history project.

“When you walk by every time you see the dates, you know, birth and death, but what were all the stories in between?”

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Crowe put a notice out back in January of 2025 asking people who had information about their family members buried in Pleasant Street if they wanted to share any of it. Shortly after, she was compiling information from around a dozen families.

“I have three main interests. I have history, horses, stories of love are always nice to throw in there, too. We’re standing in front of the Shaw family which combined many of those interests,” she explained while showing CFJC crews some of the headstones. “The Shaws were up near where Whitecroft is now, it was the Shaw Ranch, and the White family lived closer to Chase. And one of their sons would ride over the hills, and at that time it was about a 17-mile horse ride, to woo one of the girls up there who obviously did say ‘yes’. And that’s actually why Whitecroft is named Whitecroft because the Shaw ranch became the Whitecroft Ranch after the Whites.”

Since the first person was interred in 1900, the Pleasant Street Cemetery has been a final resting place for thousands of Kamloops residents and their families.

“From a history point of view, just the fact that this is so much history in this region. And although this is only 125 years of that history, it does tie in very closely to the City of Kamloops history itself. So many of the people in the area who were settlers, and all the historical reasons why they were moving west at the time.”

Over the past year, Crowe and dozens of other history buffs have been working behind the scenes, uncovering a host of historical information about the people interred in Pleasant Street and stories of human resilience, love and hardship.

“When one starts studying about the people, the pioneers, it’s just such a wonderful thing to see what they have done. They have helped to build the City of Kamloops,” notes Gail Ovington, one of the committee members and a member of the Sagebrush Neighbourhood Association (SNA).

The SNA played a huge role in organizing the 125th anniversary event, alongside the City of Kamloops, the Kamloops Family History Society, the Kamloops Heritage Society, Kamloops Museum and Archives, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 52 and others.

“We want to honour the veterans who are here. We have more than 100 veterans. We have 39 soldiers who were killed in action, and they’re in the Commonwealth graves just behind me,” adds Ovington, who says they will also have poppies displayed amongst the military graves made by students at Lloyd George Elementary and Kamloops School of the Arts.

Alongside the reality of war’s impact on people over the years, the graves also paint a picture of what mortality looked like in previous generations.

“If you do look around here, there are so many little children’s graves and it’s quite sad that way and you realize, again, before modern medicines and vaccines, there were so many ways you could not make it,” notes Crowe.

Teresa Lomax is also on the neighbourhood association and frequents Pleasant Street to tidy headstones. Lomax is among the living Kamloops residents who has grandparents in the cemetery.

“They (Eva and Jacob Befurt) came over from the former Yugoslavia in the 1930s and lived in Kamloops for quite a few years, started a farm in Kamloops on Fortune Drive,” explains Lomax.

Jacob Sr., Eva Jr. (Mayrhofer), Jacob Jr., Christine (Erlandson), and Eva Sr. Befurt. (Courtesy of Teresa Lomax)

She says seeing the history laid out, paired with recent beautification work and the addition of a new bench, has enhanced the community feel to the space.

“The more you come up here and see the graves, the more interesting it becomes because sometimes you recognize family names,” adds Lomax. “There’s just lots of history here. Kamloops history.”

Sunday’s anniversary event is open to the public, beginning at 2:00 p.m., featuring a ceremony by the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 52, a skit performance by the Kamloops Players and the Old Time Fiddlers about Emily Beattie, for whom Beattie School is named.

And those who can’t make it out for the commemoration are reminded that cemetery itself is open year-round for people to explore.