This photo and article were published in the Peak in July 1997.
Before Sea Fair, Powell River residents celebrated Sulphur Gulch Days in Townsite.
Al Mantoani, who owned the Rodmay Hotel, remembers the staff who used to dress up to celebrate the festival.
"We had 35 girls working then," Mantoani recalls. "The mill was putting in No. 09 paper machine and had about 100 men working on it. We had loggers, too, and our regular customers. We operated 24 hours a day."
Mantoani also remembers having to feed a shift of workers at two in the morning.
"It was part of the union contract that they had to have a hot meal served to them in the mill," he said. "I used to go down there with two girls and serve the meal to them."
Mantoani bought the Rodmay in 1957 and ran it for about 20 years.
Editor's note: The first Sea Fair was held in 1963 and continued annually until for more than 50 years.
