By Duane Thomson
Harry B. Thomson returned from his sales job in Calgary during the Second World War to operate the H. B. Thomson Garage at the junction of Oyama Road and Highway 97 for a few years. After the war, when his sons Ira and Harold had returned to Oyama, they built a garage and service station farther east on the isthmus. Ira, a machinist by trade, operated the garage for some years before accepting a civilian position at the Vernon Army Camp. Two buildings were constructed at the site—the garage and another building that later housed Appleton’s Store.
I have several memories of the garage. The first is of its construction. Harry and his sons made the cement blocks on site, using sand from the rear of the lot. What fascinated me as a six-year-old observer was the production of the hollow blocks. They were constructed on what I remember as a six-by-six-foot sheet of plywood mounted on a mechanism that vibrated the platform quite vigorously. A jig, placed on the vibrating surface, was filled with concrete and the vibration settled the mixture into shape. As soon as the blocks had solidified the jig was broken apart, the blocks were lifted off and stacked nearby to dry, and the procedure was repeated. It still amazes me that the blocks retained their shape with virtually no drying time.
I also remember after-school visits to Uncle Ira while he carried on his work. One lesson I learned quickly was never to look directly at the electric arc while he was welding. The gasoline pumps were standard in the 1950s. To raise the desired quantity of gasoline up to the glass cylinder, one pumped a lever, after which the fuel flowed by gravity into the vehicle. I tried pumping those levers myself, but they proved more than a match for a seven-year-old.
The garage was used extensively by the family. In the early 1950s, Harry and Harold began a sawmill business, and Harry used the garage to build a portable sawmill on a truck chassis. As the business progressed, he also built his own forklift, using a one-ton truck as the foundation and turning the cab to face the rear. Harry was nothing but inventive.
The Thomson Motors building as it exists today.
The garage was also the scene of an unfortunate accident. One morning Harold threw open the overhead garage door with such force that it came off its track and fell on him, seriously injuring his neck.
No photographs of the Thomson Motors building seem to have survived, so I decided to recreate one from memory with the assistance of AI. Attached are a photograph of the building as it appears today and a reconstruction of the building as it looked about 1950. Added details are a likeness of Harry and a 1950s Fargo truck backed into the large door.
The 1950 Thomson Motors garage as recollected by Duane Thomson (AI assisted).
If anyone has an actual photograph of either this building or the H. B. Thomson Garage at the “Oyama Corner” location, please contact me.
Note: The Lake Country Museum & Archives does not use AI or LLMs to create visual or textual content.