Myrtle Hotel Before the Flood, ca.1921

“Whatever critics say of this town, it can not be held that life here is dull.” This excerpt from a Port Coquitlam newspaper was written following a night of burglary in the wake of the flood that destroyed the Myrtle Hotel. A few local businesses including the drug store and butcher shop had managed to survive the floodwaters, but now faced “a pair of ‘Raffles’ who came with large sacks, which they filled and then lost under the pressing impetus of Chief McKinley’s commanding Irish tones, and the more compelling voice of his automatic”.