With High Hopes for an Official BC Fossil Repository in Cranbrook

Article by Dan Hicks

Op-Ed Commentary

More depressing than the omnipresent sound of canned Christmas mall music in November, is my finally donning a damned mask because, well – kindly B.C. Provincial Health Officer Doctor Bonnie Henry said I must, so I do. But I welcome the early Christmas lighting displays adorning my neighborhood, and have myself contributed, these pretty coloured lights aglow assuring me that I am perhaps not trapped in a frightful nightmare wherein my fellow citizens have been supplanted by the mysterious unfamiliar masked denizens of an eternal Halloween.

Aspiring to a better world in 2021, I have gone beyond what I committed to do in my September 26 column – “Returning a Living Fossil to Cranbrook.”

Rather than awaiting Premier Horgan’s princely benevolence in arranging for our Cranbrook History Centre (CHC) to be designated as an official British Columbia fossil repository, and thereupon donating three “celebratory” Ginkgo biloba trees to a single distinguished Cranbrook entity, instead – quite independently of anything our premier might do (or neglect to do), I have offered seven ginkgos to seven distinguished entities both within and beyond Cranbrook.

Ginkgos are living fossils which, as evidenced in our East Kootenay fossil record – lived the good life here once before (see cited article); accordingly, they serve as an excellent promotional paleontological symbol for those of us aspiring to see Cranbrook’s museum (CHC) enhanced with an official fossil status designation.

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