For the past 86 years, the Kelowna Capital News has served the Central Okanagan – and in the past 86 years they have printed a slew of papers.
A conservative estimate assumes around 8,000 issues.
The new digital team at Black Press Okanagan, based here in Kelowna, wanted to capitalize on and share with you this amazing treasure trove of pieces from our history.
Every Thursday we present Cap News Throwback Thursday for a fun little glimpse into the past and a chance for the digital team to climb through the record room.
Today we present the Kelowna Capital News Edition – Sunday April 5, 1992.
Spring has arrived, the NHL is locked out and Charles Horvath’s mother Denise Allan is in Kelowna looking for her son.
The top story in this issue is about Charles Horvath. He went missing in May 1989 and in 1992 it seemed for a few moments that his mother might finally have some answers about what happened to her son when a body was discovered in the lake near the bridge.
“A British mother’s three-year search for her only son could have come to a tragic end,” says the Lede.
Police conducted the sea search after Allan received an anonymous letter that police were looking under the wrong side of the bridge. The second such letter she had received on this trip to Canada. The first said Horvath was killed and thrown into the lake.
After the body was found, Allan was disturbed and taken to the hospital. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the closure that she needed.
Forensic investigators eventually identified the remains as those of John Edgar Dickson, 64. RCMP reported that Dickson’s death was not suspected of fouling. Dickson disappeared in 1985 and his remains were not discovered until 1992.
Allan told the Cap News at the time that she was “sick and tired” when her search resumed.
“My stomach is sick,” she said on April 7, 1992. “It’s a relief it’s not Charles, but a blow, the nightmare is not over.”
To date, Charles Horvath’s disappearance is an open RCMP file as a missing person.
Also in the paper, sports editor John Harding covers the 1992 NHL strike.
Four days after the strike, Kelowna bars began to worry that this would affect business.
“Vancouver Canucks and New York Rangers fans aren’t the only ones experiencing the empty feeling that comes with the broken dreams of a Stanley Cup. Local companies are also feeling the crisis, ”says the Lede.
“We’ll definitely feel it,” said Riley’s then pub manager Len Bergquist. “I would say it will cost us thousands.”
The strike was the first strike action launched by the National Hockey League Players’ Association against the owners of the National Hockey League. It was called on April 1, 1992 and lasted ten days.
In April 1992 on the big screen: Basic Instinct with Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, Fried Green Tomatoes with the stars Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker and White Men Can’t Jump with Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson .
Fun fact: Capital News made its own throwback Thursday in 1992. The cover of Kelowna Real Estate in Cap News featured a 1950s Sun Rype ad – see below.
“Note the label” Opalescent Vitaminized “on the middle jar.”
You can also check out our previous setbacks here: 1936, 1960, 1941, 1985, 1962, 1983, 1994, 1971, 1940, and 1968.
The Cap News is now owned by Black Press Community Media. BlackPress was founded in 1975 and today publishes more than 170 titles in British Columbia, Alberta, Washington state, Hawaii, Ohio and California.
Do you have an important date or piece of history that you hope we can find in our historical editions ?! Let us know at okanagan@bpdigital.ca.
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