Fire Claims Lytton Chinese History Museum

The Lytton Chinese History Museum, prior to its destruction. | Image: Lytton Chinese History Museum.

After recording the hottest temperature in Canadian history, the village of Lytton was overtaken by a fire late last week. The fire, which destroyed the majority of the village and claimed at least two lives, also destroyed the Lytton Chinese History Museum.

The museum was opened in 2017, and housed 1,600 irreplaceable artefacts from the community, documenting Chinese-Canadians’ lives during the gold rush, the construction of the railway, as community members and business owners in local villages, and more. The collection contained items from Lytton, Quesnel, Ashcroft and Williams Lake.

“It’s easy enough to build a new building, but the artifacts, those can’t be replaced because they’re actually from this community,” says museum owner Lorna Fandrich, who posted an image of what remained of the museum on social media on Friday. The collection has been digitized, but the server on which it lives is currently without power due to the fire.

To learn more about the museum and the fire, click here.

If you’d like to donate to help the people of Lytton rebuild, you can find a list of fundraisers here, including ones established by Savage Society and 2 Rivers Remix, as well as the Okanagan Indigenous Music and Arts Society.