The Midway Hotel was built in 1900 and is located at 605 Fifth Avenue in Midway, BC.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Dale Schulz

The two-storey Midway Hotel was built in 1900 and has served as a main hub for the surrounding community over the decades, but in its beginning years it was the site of a murder.

Pioneer Charles L. Thomet bought the hotel in the early 1900s but shortly after was shot down by bandits, according to an article sent to iNFOnews.ca by curator at the Kettle Valley Museum, Wendy Higashi.

According to the article, Thomet, who was born in Switzerland in 1860 and moved to Portland, Oregon in 1883, was drawn to the boundary country in 1893 by the mining activities happening there. He made large land claims in Rock Creek, Midway and Greenwood before visiting Portland again where he met his wife Bertha Zimmerly.

Thomet bought the Midway Hotel in 1908 after serving on the Provincial Police Force training bloodhounds and tracking horse and cattle thieves.

Thomet’s untimely death was covered by the Boundary Creek Times which ran from September 1896 to March 1911, in an article titled “Charles L Thomet meets his death at the hands of brigands – His Brave Death.” 

“On Tuesday night, 9:30 p.m. two men wearing dark masks, which have so often been described lately, appeared at the side door of Thomet’s hotel in Midway and shooting Charles L. Thomet dead stepped back into the night carrying with them one bullet from the gun of the dead man,” the article reads. “While dying, Thomet somehow managed to shoot off one bullet, which seemed to have found its mark.”

“No words passed between the gunmen and the man they claimed as their victim. It is generally believed that they knew the indomitable spirit of the man and that he would never put up his hands at the word of a thug.”

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According the article, the thugs had been trying to reach “Salter’s Hotel” but people in the streets were deterring them. The article doesn’t give details on Salter’s Hotel. It says the proprietors of the Spokane, a railroad running through town, “were armed and waiting for them (the thugs) to return” with one on the verandah and one in the bar when they heard the shots fired.

W.B. Bower of the E.T. Bank, Grand Forks was standing at the north end of the bar looking at the door, while Thomet was standing at the other end of the bar, 28 feet away.

“I turned and saw two masked men with blue masks with gun pointing toward the deceased,” Mr Bower is quoted in the article. “I saw a motion of deceased to pick up a pistol, which was near his hand. Deceased picked it up and fired in the direction of the masked men who returned the fire instantaneously with two shots. I cannot say which shot or whether there was a shot from each. The masked man nearest me covered me for just a moment, dropped his gun to his side, and both went out the door as quickly as they came in. Deceased did not speak to the men, nor did they speak.”

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Mrs. Thomet and their five children continued operating the hotel and a reward of $1,000 was posted for the capture of the murderers but they were never found. 

“Thus ends the brave story of one of Midway’s earliest pioneers, which so well describes the wild early days of the boundary area,” said The Boundary Times.

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The two-storey historical hotel is currently for sale for $250,000, according to a listing by Colliers International.

Located at 607 Fifth Avenue, it was last owned by Midway resident Monica Philip Shalay who purchased it in 2010 and ran it as a bar and restaurant until 2018.

The hotel was the first hotel built in Midway and today is known by some locals as the Midway Hot-L because the “e” on its sign fell off.

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