The Revelstoke Outhouse Race is returning to where it belongs for this year’s Spirit Fest – Mackenzie Avenue downtown.
“I’m calling it the Historic Downtown Outhouse Race because there is quite a history of outhouse races in Revelstoke,” said organizer Michelle Cole. “The first one we were able to find documentation about was in the newspapers from 1976.”
That year, the RCMP won the race and brought the Margaret McMahon Trophy with them back to the detachment. The race was organized by the Kinsmen Club as part of Snowfest.
The trophy was named after a city councillor who donated some money for the trophy.
“She was really a who’s who of Revelstoke from that time,” said Cole.
The trophy was handed out each year but the last known recording of the trophy dates to a 1986 picture in the Revelstoke Review, where it was being held by Susie Cameron. Organizers have been searching for the trophy to hand it out this Saturday.
“We got a hot tip yesterday to check the basement of the Regent,” Cole said on Friday. The tip proved to be a dead end and Cole said she is making a new trophy.
Cole is hoping to restore the race to its former glory, when hundreds of people would line Mackenzie Avenue to watch the festivities. However, when we spoke, she said only the fire department had registered.
“At this point I’m needing last-minute Revelstoke to come up with a few registrations,” she said. “It really would be great to see a great show of community support, both in the audience and the participants.”
The deadline to register is Friday, Feb. 8, at the Chamber of Commerce office on Campbell Avenue. The Kootenay Car Share Co-op is the official organizing team for the event.
“We’re doing it because it has a transportation theme,” said Cole, who runs the car-share program in Revelstoke. “A loose transportation theme.”