Kamloops residents and visitors to the City will be able to take a 45-minute long heritage walking tour of the downtown core during the ten days of the Memorial Cup.

The City’s Culture Manager, Barbara Berger, says the idea is to give out-of-town visitors an opportunity to learn more about Kamloops’ history.

“Just really highlighting what we believe are some of the points of interest downtown,” Berger said, during the May 16 Committee of the Whole meeting.

“We’ve also got brochures that are going into all of the hotels that will allow people when they come in to the downtown core, if they’ve come a few hours before a game, how they might do a self-guided tour if that is their preference.”

The City’s Heritage Engagement Group and the Kamloops Museum and Archives are partnering to run these walking tours, which will be limited to 10 people each. All of the guided tours will leave from St. Andrews on the Square at the intersection of 2nd Avenue and Seymour Street downtown.

Museum Supervisor, Julia Cyr, tells RadioNL there is one scheduled volunteer-led guided tour each day from May 26 to June 4, with the exception of Saturday, May 27, which has five.

“It is being led by people who have a passion and a keen interest in history and heritage and just sharing things like ‘why are these buildings of significance?’ or ‘when were they built?’ to things like ‘where did the bricks come from?’ and ‘what are the characteristics?’ and how these buildings have just become these cornerstones in our community.”

Speaking during the Committee of the Whole meeting, Councillor Kelly Hall commended the two groups for their work to organize and run the walking tours.

“We’ve got a lot to be proud of and to have those available to visitors to our community, I think it speaks well for the city because there are a lot of things that people can do during the ten days of Memorial Cup,” Hall said.

“I just wanted to thank you guys for putting that together. I think it’s outstanding.”

For more on heritage buildings in Kamloops, go here. For more on the self-guided heritage walking tour of downtown Kamloops, go here.

Guided Tour Start Times:

May 26 – 2 p.m.
May 27 – 1 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3 p.m.
May 28 – 3 p.m.
May 29 to June 4 – 2 p.m.