Belle Mitchell

In the early morning of September 20, 1898, fire destroyed the “Welcome,” a richly furnished cabin on Third Street, east of the Pavilion Theatre. The occupants, Belle Mitchell and another girl known as Tony, escaped from the cabin in their night clothes and lost everything. Others in the cabin included a man who received an injury to his hand. This gave rise to a rumour that there had been a lantern throwing contest, but it was determined that a lamp was over-turned, and the fire spread to some heavy curtains. Nothing was saved except the outside sign. The women’s clothes, jewellery, and the cabin furnishings were worth over $2,000 and the cabin was worth about $700. A cabin next door, the “Hobby”, was burned with a total loss of over $4,000. There was fire department in town, and there was no organized effort to extinguish the blaze. As soon as the fire burned down, a man was seen panning the ashes, and working his way towards the gold scales, until he was deterred by Belle who slapped him on the side of the head.¹⁾