Quarantine and Isolation in Early Rossland
Quarantine and Isolation in Early Rossland
By: Ronald A. Shearer
Caught up in the restrictions imposed in the attempt to control the covid-19 pandemic, some readers may find it interesting to look back at Rossland’s first attempt to contain an epidemic imported from abroad. The parallels with today are striking.
Over the winter of 1899-1900, an outbreak of smallpox was spreading through the Pacific Northwest states. Although the disease was present elsewhere, from Rossland’s perspective, Spokane was the danger point because of the regular interchange of people and goods between the two cities. Spokane was our commercial, financial and communication hub, connected to the Golden City by rail. On January 18, 1900, it was estimated that there were 32 cases of smallpox in Spokane and a few days later 65. In a transparent attempt to avoid panic, the authorities asserted that it was a relatively mild form of the disease, that the outbreak was “of almost harmless character.” Nonetheless, when hints of a smallpox epidemic filtered through the region, there was widespread alarm.
At a January 16, 1900, Rossland city council meeting, John Dean, an alderman with many business and personal contacts in Spokane, alerted city councillors and, through the press, the general public, to the Spokane outbreak. The council was alarmed. Guided by the city’s medical officer, it took action. A large quantity of vaccine was ordered and, as a precaution, it was decided to build an isolation hospital (commonly called the “pest house”) on land that the city had recently acquired for a municipal park, adjacent to the Columbia Cemetery (the old Rossland cemetery just north of the present cemetery). Compulsory vaccinations were ordered for school children and unvaccinated children were not permitted to attend school. Free vaccine was made available for adults, but physicians charged $1 to administer a vaccination, a significant sum when almost everyone was earning less than $3 per day, many considerably less. Given the palpable anxiety in the city, however, physicians offered free vaccination to the poorest people in the city. At the beginning of February, the local Board of Health decreed compulsory vaccination of all inhabitants of the city, but it is clear that the order could not be enforced rigorously.
The provincial authorities also sprang into action, attempting to stop the disease from entering the province. An official was placed at Northport to inspect all passengers on trains coming to Rossland and at the border to similarly intercept people walking along the wagon road. Those who showed signs of illness were not permitted to continue. Symptomless passengers could not continue unless they produced a certificate from the medical officer where they last lived that they had not been “in any place infected with smallpox” or “lived in any place or building dangerously near an infected building or district.” Those who could not also produce certification of recent vaccination were required to be vaccinated on the spot. If they refused vaccination, they were not permitted to continue north. Railway cars, baggage and freight were fumigated and fumigation was required of all items received for transmission by Canada Post. People coming from Trail on the railway were not subjected to the same inspection until late February.
Despite these precautions, a case slipped through to Rossland on the train from Northport in early February, 1900. On February 9, the eight-year old son of a miner’s family, newcomers to the city who had been vaccinated in Colville en route, was diagnosed with smallpox. In the opinion of Rossland’s medical officer, the boy had contracted the disease prior to his vaccination and the symptoms just began to appear when he reached Rossland. The family was quarantined in their home.
A contract had been let on January 25 for clearing a plot of land in the municipal park and construction of a building capable of holding up to 12 smallpox patients. The building was dried out and furniture was moved in on February 9, two weeks after the contract was let. Given the speed with which it was constructed, the hospital could not have been much more than a shack -- and it was mid-winter. I wonder about the comfort level! The eight-year old boy, with his father as his nurse-companion, was admitted on February 10. A few days later a nurse was hired to care for the inmates.
The first case of smallpox apparently contracted in Rossland itself was discovered on February 11. The victim was a resident of the Cardiff Hotel who had been confined to his room for a fortnight with rheumatism. The patient was transferred to the isolation hospital and the hotel was put under quarantine, with a guard at the entrance. However, some residents of the hotel were seen out on the street, causing some consternation. A few days later, this man’s roommate (and bed-mate) was also discovered to have the pox and was confined to the isolation hospital. The fourth and final case was a man who was living alone in what was described as “a shack near the Red Mountain Railway depot.” He was also confined to the pest house in mid-March, 1900. If the source of these infections was found, it was not reported.
That was the end of the mini-epidemic of smallpox in Rossland in early 1900. Decisive action was taken by provincial and municipal authorities and it appears to have been effective in containing the spread of the disease -- or, perhaps, as the season changed, it had simply run its natural course. The last patient was released from the isolation hospital in mid-April, the hospital was decommissioned and the building was fumigated. The building was used for a couple more years as an isolation hospital during outbreaks of smallpox, but I have discovered nothing about its longer-term use. It was supposed to become the caretaker’s cottage, but I don’t know if it was ever so used or how long it stood in the park.
©Ronald A Shearer