The Nicola Valley Museum and Archives have newly welcomed Cameron Bridge to the position of Manager, a role he took on in April of this year. 

Bridge was born and raised in Kelowna, where he attended a French immersion school before making his way to Alberta, where he received a Degree in History from the University of Calgary. Shortly after he returned home to the Okanagan and looked to expand his knowledge of history with a museum position. 

But what inspired Bridge’s passion for the past? 

“I was fortunate enough when I was in high school to go on a trip to Europe through my school where we got to tour the First and Second World War battle sites,” explained Bridge. 

“I’d always enjoyed history, there’s just something about learning about the ways of the past and how people lived that always intrigued me, but going out there and seeing that led me to wanting to work in history as a full-time career.” 

The opportunity to put his history degree to work in his preferred field came by way of the Manager position at Nicola Valley Museum and Archives becoming available. Despite not knowing much about the community, Bridge accepted the position and made himself a Merrittonian. 

“It’s quite a nice community,” said Bridge. 

In his role as Manager, Bridge is something of a jack of all trades, being responsible for the day-to-day operations of the museum, including greeting people and answering questions, as well as putting together and maintaining displays, working on museum projects and liaising with the Board. 

Although he has been impressed by the displays, with the General Store possibly ranking as his favourite amongst the permanent exhibits, Bridge recognizes that museums can sometimes become stagnant. In some cases, people may visit and not find that much has changed, something Bridge wants to combat by changing things up now and then. 

“One of the things that I wanted to do when I came here was work on a rotating display, just as a way to not only talk about the some of the smaller aspects of Merritt’s history that are interesting but maybe don’t warrant a full display like the General Store or the hospital would, but also to entice people to come back here more often,” explained Bridge. 

Upon his arrival, Bridge put together an exhibit on the Spanish Flu, which ravaged the Nicola Valley more than a century ago. Bridge felt this was a timely topic due to the fact that it was BC’s last major pandemic before we were abruptly thrust into the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020. 

“One of the other things that I’ve been working on that’s new, besides the rotating display, is doing a write up on our Facebook page on an aspect of Merritt’s history.

“So, for example, recently I did a write up on the life of Jesus Garcia, the namesake of Garcia Ave., the history of the City Brass Band formed in 1910, the history of swimming pools in Merritt, the history of Chrissie Aitken who was a Merrittonian who survived the sinking of the Lusitania, etc.”  

Bridge also made an exploratory visit to Princeton to view a travelling exhibit they have onsite, ‘Gold Mountain Dream!’ By The Royal BC Museum, and while the Merritt museum doesn’t currently have the space for travelling exhibits, it is something that could possibly be considered in the future. 

 “It could be in the cards in terms of a long-term plan, but definitely not short term.” 

Following a prolonged closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bridge said the most difficult aspect of running the Museum is getting the word out that it has now reopened, and that along with this reopening comes new hours of Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Not being centrally located, Bridge also hopes to widely share the Museum’s address of 1675 Tutill Ct. to tourists and visitors.

Bridge hopes to see Museum visits continue to increase, and is looking forward to interacting with more visiting Merrittonians as time goes by.