2366.0120 Rossland, c. 1896; Columbia Avenue looking west from Queens Street intersection.

Women in Rossland

at the turn of the 20th Century

In the 1890s, Red Mountain’s gold mines drew thousands of miners from all over the world.

Although the rough, remote mining camp was no place for women and children, many enterprising women did set up homes and businesses here.

By the turn of the 20th century, the recently incorporated City of Rossland was a thriving, cosmopolitan community made up of miners, labourers, business people, and their families.

Check out our new brochure on early Women’s History!

2282.0068_Allan Hotel (2).png — Mrs. Margaret E. Allan

Mrs. Allan built Rossland’s premiere hotel, the Hotel Allan, in 1895. While little is known about her, she was clearly a savvy business woman of some means. Her hotel continued to be a well-regarded establishment until it burnt down in a fire in 1978.

“The Hotel Allan is the pride of Rossland and par excellence the best hotel of the British Columbia gold fields. It is the tourists’ resort, the commercial travelers’ choice and a first favourite of the traveling public.

The Hotel Allan embraces two fine modern buildings, one of brick. It was designed and built with especial reference to its fitness for a first-class hotel suited to this climate. The house occupies one of the best business corners in Rossland and is a popular place of resort for capitalists, mining men, financiers and businessmen of the city. The house has eighty-five guest rooms, is lighted by electricity and has all modern improvements and conveniences. The halls are wide, the guest rooms large and well furnished, all outside rooms and well lighted. The office, reading room and magnificent dining room, with ample capacity for seating over one hundred people, are on the ground floor. The bar and card rooms are the finest in the city.
The hotel was built by Mrs. M. E. Allan. The property is one of the best, both as to improvements and location in Rossland. The building has modern plumbing and the most complete sanitary arrangements throughout. Mrs. Allan has personal charge in conducting her hotel, assisted by experienced clerks, steward and efficient help in every department. Being herself an experienced public hostess, Mrs. Allan is enabled to choose her assistants wisely.
In assuming and conducting successfully so important enterprises in addition to the management of her hotel, Mrs. Allan has manifested a grasp of business affairs both gratifying and surprising to her many friends. She is a lady of education and culture, of graceful manners, with the ready and tender sympathies of a mother and a tact and judgment in business affairs unusual in her sex.”

— Harold Kingsmill “First History of Rossland, B.C.” 1897.

“A Girl Who Dons Male Attire”

2366.0088 Rossland, War Eagle Mine, date unknown; shaft house; group of men & women on hillside.

2366.0055 Rossland, Le Roi Mine, date unknown; L: ore loading bins; two women; taken from trestle on railway line to White Bear Mine.

-Rossland Miner, September 23, 1897.

“On May 10 th of the present year I arrived in Rossland from Toronto looking for work as a house servant. [...] After seeking employment for a week I became disheartened and learned that it would be some time before I could secure a situation. Then I learned that there was a big demand for men. I conceived the idea that I should don male attire and masquerade as a man. I weigh 165 pounds, am tall and have been used to hard work all my life. With the exercise of a little caution I secured a suit of men’s clothes and then I had my long hair cut off by pretending that I was afflicted with headache. In three days after I had donned male attire I had secured a job at $2.50 per day and have a steady engagement. I have my own clothes locked up in my trunk and will resume the wearing of them when I return to Toronto with a stake. I have saved near $200.00 since I assumed men’s attire in the beginning of June. I have had one glass of beer in a saloon since I donned coat and vest. I went in just for the sake of seeing what a saloon is like. I feel quite happy. My advice to other young girls, who are strong, hearty and young, is to do as I have done if they wish to get on in life. No one suspects that I am a woman.

”

— From A Working Girl

Sports

The Rossland Ladies’ Hockey Team originally formed to play in the 1900 Rossland Winter Carnival - as a “novelty” for the attendees. To join Rossland’s club, each player had to pay the then-not-insignificant fee of 50 cents. Enough for two full teams eagerly paid up and a powerhouse was born.

The Rossland’s ladies hockey team lost 2-1 to Grand Forks at the 1917 provincial championships – “the first loss for our women’s team in fifteen years,” lamented the local paper.

The 1900-18 Ladies’ Ice Hockey Team was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame under the Pioneer category in 2018.

Rossland's Early Women's Hockey